When town emptied to see football heroes at Wembley

Posted by Robert Alcock on April 25, 2008 8:36 AM

FROM winning promotions to the old Third Division to appearing in an FA Cup quarter final, there have been some notable times in the history of Southport Football Club.

But for many the Haig Avenue outfit’s greatest day was a famous trip to Wembley Stadium in 1998, when more than 10,000 Sandgrounders descended on North London for the final of the FA Trophy.

With a 10-year anniversary of that 1-0 defeat to Cheltenham looming on May 17 and a player reunion approaching this Sunday, LookBack recalls memories of fans, players and officials of that glorious day in the Wembley sunshine.

Despite dominating proceedings, Paul Futcher’s ‘Port were felled by a Jason Eaton goal 11 minutes from time.

But for club chief executive Haydn Preece, the Southport Visiter’s Southport FC correspondent at the time, the loss far from overshadowed the grandeur of the day.

He said: “We travelled down on the Friday morning and visited Wembley early in the afternoon. The grass was being cut in preparation for the FA Cup Final on the Saturday.

“To see the Twin Towers and to touch the grass where so many heroes had played was awe-inspiring. It was a privilege for Southport to play in the same arena as the 1966 World Cup winning side – the whole place had an aura of history about it.

“To see so many Southport fans as we drove the coach into Wembley tunnel was an amazing experience, and one that shows what potential there is in the town to activate.”

Lesley Senior holds up Molly the dog in Southport FC colours ahead of the trip to Wembley

Southport met high-flying Cheltenham Town in the Trophy final after defeating Slough Town in the semi-final. More than 4,800 packed into Haig Avenue knowing that Kevin Formby’s second-half goal was to send them to the most prestigious stadium in the world.

Port fan Martyn O’Hara: “I was only 18 years old at the time and I don’t think I could really take it all in. There was pure excitement in the air, it was a fantastic day.

“When we beat Slough there was a buzz about the town that I don’t think has been recreated since. Everywhere you went you’d see people wearing Southport shirts with pride.”

Southport’s Kevin Formby fights for possession of the ball at Wembley

Fleets of coaches made the trip to Wembley, and the club’s temporary shop on the corner of Lord Street and Kingsway took more than £7,000 in the last hour of opening.

And despite the loss in the final, the squad, led by captain Brian Butler, were treated like heroes on their return to the town.

Hundreds of fans turned out for open-top bus tour and civic reception at the Floral Hall.

Former Southport FC marketing manager Derek Hitchcock, outside the Sandgrounders’ shop on Lord Street, with some of the merchandise for Wembley

Haydn Preece added: “The players and the town celebrated as if they had won – we played well enough to have won. For some reason, the ball just didn’t want to go in the net.”

SOUTHPORT FC celebrate their 1998 Wembley appearance with a reunion match at Haig Avenue this Sunday.

Kick off is at 1.30pm with admission £4 adults and £2 concessions with all funds raised going towards the club’s youth development programme.

The Wembley squad will be led by the then player-manager Paul Futcher and inspirational skipper Brian Butler. Also returning are Billy Stewart, Andy Farley, Phil Bolland, Tim Ryan, Ged Kielty, Dave Thompson, David Gamble, Andy Whittaker and physio Max Thompson.

Dave Thompson and John Bagnall leave for Wembley ahead of the 1998 FA Trophy final against Cheltenham Town

The Wembley heroes will play against a mainly 1992/93 and ‘94 squad led by Kevin Mooney with Paul Comstive, Mark Brennan, Paul Moore and Martin Clark appearing.

Chief executive Haydn Preece said: “It is important to celebrate our Wembley appearance and the best way is to bring the squad together again.

“We are looking forward to a fun afternoon and sharing memories of a wonderful Wembley weekend.”

Southport FC kitman Wes Hall and his wife Sylvie who washed the team’s kit ready for their FA Trophy Final match

Supporters who wish to feature in the match can pledge a £100 to play against or for the Wembley side. Contact Haydn Preece on 07976 555782.

VITAL STATS:

Cheltenham Town (0) 1 (Eaton 79)
Southport (0) 0

Cheltenham Town: Book, Duff, Victory, Banks, Freeman, Knight (Smith 78), Howells, Bloomer, Eaton, Watkins, Walker (Milton 78).

Southport: Stewart, Horner, Futcher, Ryan, Farley, Kielty, Butler, Gamble, Formby (Whittaker 80), Thompson (Bolland 86), Ross.

Attendance: 26, 837

Referee: Mr G. Willard (Worthing).

DID you make the trip to Wembley? Do you have any memories of Southport FC’s big day?
Send your photos and memories to: visiternews@southportvisiter.co.uk or write to: LookBack, Southport Visiter, 26- 32 Tulketh St, Southport PR8 1BT or leave a message below.

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Healthy stay at Sanatorium

Posted by Robert Alcock on April 18, 2008 9:01 AM

A YORKSHIREMAN treasures vivid memories of the unusual first holiday he spent in Southport more than 60 years ago.
For three weeks in late 1945, 11-year- old Sheffield lad Jack Hoyle was a patient at the North of England Children’s Sanatorium in Hawkshead Street. And despite its imposing exterior and warnings of an “awful” reputation, Jack describes his stay as “a great experience and adventure”.
Now 73 and living in Grimsby, Jack told LookBack that he owed his first stay beside the sea to a nasty bout of wartime malnourishment.
He said: “A few weeks before I went my mum had said to me, ‘you’re so thin I could easily play a tune on your ribs’. Years of wartime rations and food shortages had left us without a great choice of food variety.”
Taken to a doctor for examination, Jack was referred to the Children’s Sanatorium on the grounds he “needed feeding up”.
Initially, his reaction was one of excitement. But this turned to trepidation when, on arrival at Chapel Street station, his father asked a passing woman directions to the Sanatorium.
“She gaped at Dad and said ‘You are surely not taking that nice boy to such an awful place,’” remembered Jack.
The old Victorian building itself on Hawkshead Street was far from welcoming.
Jack said it looked “cold and sombre”, with bars on its upstairs windows and surrounded by a high wall.
Inside, while it was “rather cold and draughty”, Jack saw “a play area full of lovely brand new toys of many kinds.”
He continued: “However I was told that we could only play with them on rainy days, the reason for this was that it was important for us to get fresh air and exercise – usually while kicking a ball in the park.”
Once, while out with other patients, Jack saw a prominent local businessman being pushed in a wheelchair.
The elderly man was Bob Martin, the entrepreneur behind the range of pet products that were produced in the town.
Also among Jack’s vivid memories of his stay were a visit by the then Mayor of Southport, Mr S. Ernest Charlton, and a journey by horse and dray – the only transport the Sanatorium had.
After a Catholic Mass held to celebrate harvest festival, Jack and another boy were given a ride back to Hawkshead Street on a horse and dray, “driven by an old man with a waxed moustache”.
Jack said: “Our job was to carry and load all the produce from the service onto the dray and bring it back to the home – some treat!”
After three weeks at the Sanatorium, Jack had put on 3lbs and was judged able to return to his parents.
“It had been a great experience and adventure, which I have never forgotten,” he said

Picture courtesy of Merseyside Record Office, Liverpool Libraries

Patients at the North of England Children’s Sanatorium in Hawkshead Street, around 1908

Patients and nurses outside the Sanatorium, with its horse and dray, as remembered by Jack Hoyle

Children playing with a range of toys, including a rocking chair, inside the Sanatorium

A line drawing of the Sanatorium by Mellor & Sutton Architects of London Street

THE exact origins of the Sanatorium on Hawkshead Street remain unclear, although a Mary Smith is known to have been instrumental in its foundation.

Records indicate Miss Smith first rented a house in School Street, Southport, in the 1850s for use as a treatment centre for children. That facility closed around 1858, but she went on to rent another house in Hawkshead Street for the same purpose – with a Hungarian homeopathic doctor, Dr John D'Arnin Blumberg, as the new Sanatorium’s medical officer.

It transferred to larger, purpose-built accommodation on Hawkshead Street in 1878.

Further extensions in 1938 allowed for the treatment of about 150 children at the same time, who came from across the UK but mainly from Northern England.

The Sanatorium was funded on a voluntary basis until it was taken over by the NHS in 1948, and renamed the Children's Convalescent Hospital. Numerous changes ensued, and by the time of the establishment’s closure in 1971 it was caring for the elderly rather than children.

Do you remember the old Children’s Sanatorium on Hawkshead Street? Share your memories below

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Heroes who died in Titanic disaster

Posted by Robert Alcock on April 18, 2008 8:59 AM

FOUR men with strong ties to Southport are known to have been among the 1,522 people who perished when the RMS Titanic sunk, 96 years ago this week.

All were members of the crew of the ill-fated liner that set off on its maiden voyage to New York on April 10, 1912, and struck an iceberg four days later.

A decade ago – at the time of the release of director James Cameron’s smash hit film, Titanic – a TA Molly corr of Sandon Road, Birkdale, uncovered the backgrounds of three of the Southport men who died aboard the vessel.

They were:
- Walter Ennis, of 141 Bedford Road, Birkdale.
Walter worked as the attendant in the ship’s Turkish bath and was a father-of-two.
He had previously worked at Smedley Hydro and his wife had tried to discourage him from pursuing a career at sea.
- James Walpole was the chief pantryman in first class.
He was born in Southport, and his brother, Horace, lived at 17 Lime Street.
Like many of the crew, James had previously served on her sister ship, the Olympic.
When White Star – the ship’s owners – were based in Liverpool, he lived with his brother in Southport between voyages and provided more than 30 years’ service to the line.
Violet Jessop, a stewardess, described James as a large man with a bushy beard and a “heart of gold”.
- William Theodore Brailey was one of the ship’s two pianists and, although he lived in London, had previously spent two years working at the Southport Pier Pavilion.
At the time of his death on the ship, he was engaged to a Miss Steinhilber of St Luke’s Road, Southport.
There were no survivors among the boat’s musicians or engineers.
Both groups of staff worked until the end, trying to keep passengers calm with their music or fighting to save the ship.
- It is also known that the liner’s chief steward, Andrew Latimer, hailed from Southport.
His wife Janet gave birth to a daughter, Jean, two months after the disaster.

- Do you have an ancestor who was aboard Titanic? If so, please call reporter Robert Alcock on 01704-398287 or email robert.alcock@southportvisiter.co.uk

A third-class breakfast menu which survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Southport-born James Walpole was the ship’s chief pantryman in first class

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Trumpet and Bell

Posted by Robert Alcock on April 17, 2008 8:58 AM

WITH his crisp white trousers, the boy on the right of this photo seems to have taken a leaf out of Martin Bell’s style book.

Mr Bell, the former BBC journalist who was injured during his reporting of the Bosnian War, visited Southport during his term as MP for Tatton from 1997 to 2001. Mr Bell famously defeated sitting Conservative MP Neil Hamilton in the 1997 General Election.

As for the girl in this curious gathering outside the Prince of Wales Hotel, she seems to be taking a trumpet lesson from a rather jovial guardsman.

Can you remember the story behind this picture? If so, call reporter Robert Alcock on 01704-398287, email robert.alcock@southportvisiter.co.uk or let us know below.

Do you know the inside story on this intriguing photo opportunity?

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Roll is small world thrill for Valerie

Posted by Robert Alcock on April 11, 2008 9:00 AM

MEMORIES of Southport came flooding back for a former resident – all thanks to an unusual decoration in a café on the other side of the world.
Valerie Robb told how she was intrigued and excited to walk into a café in New Zealand and discover a wall hanging that “listed so many places associated with my childhood and teenage years in Southport.”
She said: “I stopped in my tracks, thinking I was dreaming.”
Valerie, who now lives in Edinburgh, was with her husband visiting her step-daughter in Tauranga, on New Zealand’s North Island.
She said: “Top of the list was Hesketh Park, where when I was aged four the resident geese had chased me on my tricycle, and where our family had spent so many happy hours.
“Further down was Roe Lane, scene of the Rookery where I played tennis and hockey and my late husband Barry Morris played cricket for Holy Trinity cricket third team.
“The Monument, Lord Street, Chapel Street, Eastbank Street – the list of familiar places was endless. I read on with amazement right down to the bottom, Bispham Road. When we lived in Griffiths Drive, Bispham Road was the site of our nearest local shops.”
The café owner, Jane Thompson, told Valerie she had bought the wall hanging from an online auctioneer, which described it as just “a bus roll from the 1940s”.
She had been attracted to it purely because it included Chapel Street on the list, and her new café was at 65 Chapel Street in Tauranga.
Valerie said: “We are left wondering what happened to the roll in the sixty-odd years since it was in use on one of those smart Southport buses, and its appearance in New Zealand.”
l If you can shed any light on this, call reporter Robert Alcock on 01704 398287, email robert.alcock@southportvisiter.co.uk or leave a message below.

The 1940s Southport bus roll used as a wall hanging in a cafe in Tauranga, New Zealand

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Former classmates set to reunite

Posted by Robert Alcock on April 11, 2008 9:00 AM

ARE you featured on this old school photograph? Members of the final year class at Our Lady of Lourdes Junior School, as photographed here in 1959, are seeking to organise a reunion. If you were in the class and want to get back in touch, call Sandra Robinson (née Hardy) (seated, far right) on 01704-211799 or Susan Barton (née McQuhae) (cross-legged, left) on 01704-225811

Our Lady of Lourdes Junior School final year photo, from 1959

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Ex-Scout’s great honour to play role with organisation

Posted by Robert Alcock on April 11, 2008 8:49 AM

AT just 18 years of age, Ken Jecks corr became the Assistant Scoutmaster for the 56th Southport Troop.
Ken, who lives in Ainsdale, has happy memories of his time with the Scouts, a movement he joined as a teenager during the Second World War.
He looks back fondly on his time with the Southport 56th Scouts (attached to the romer Churchtown Congregational Church) remembering his joy at finding new friends after moving north from Coventry.
“It was nice to find new friends and we went to many camps,” said Ken.
“Once we went on our bikes to camp at Penny Bridge in Cumbria, which was a long way, carrying all our gear for the week!”

Ken Jecks today at his Ainsdale home

Once every month the scout group were involved in local church parades, including the annual St George's Day parade.
They used to socialise every Saturday in the back room of Bridges herbalist shop in Tulketh Street.
Bridges was to become Martin and Bury's pet shop, which later disappeared when The Marble Place was built.
The tiny room in the back of the shop was fitted with tables and chairs, and non-alcoholic drinks such as sarsaparilla and dandelion & burdock were served to the boys.
The group were involved in many local projects, providing their tent expertise when setting up camping equipment for church functions.
“The lads enjoyed these functions, we were usually provided with a cup of tea and enjoyed watching the Morris dancers,” he recalled.
Ken was made Assistant Scoutmaster at the age of 18, a role he retained until 1948 when he got married and moved to Ormskirk, beginning a new life with his family.
Yet his memories of Southport during a time of massive global upheaval have stayed with him to this day.
Working at Brockhouse Engineering in Crossens in 1943, Ken was called up for National Service.
After passing the medical it was mentioned he would be sent on a officer training course with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
Ken said: “It must have been decided I could do more good for the war effort by staying at Brockhouse Engineering and so that is what I did.”
He remained in Southport throughout the war, becoming a member of the First Aid Unit of the Civil Defence Services.

A wartime photograph of 56th Southport Scout Troop. Do you recognise any of the boys on it?

Recently he came across an old photo (pictured) of his time with the 56th Southport Troop, and had some success in naming the boys in it – despite it being almost 65 years ago on.
A few faces however, remain nameless and Ken is now appealing for help in filling in the blanks.
If you can help, call LookBack on 01704-398287, email robert.alcock@southportvisiter.co.uk or
leave a message below.

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All yesterday's parties

Posted by Robert Alcock on April 4, 2008 9:02 AM

THIS fancy dress party was a real blast from the past.

The theme seems to have been period costumes, with a Viking, French maid, dancer replete with a feather boa and an Edwardian gentleman all in attendance.

But then again, one reveller sports a Catwoman costume and another is looking decidedly gothic.

Did you pull on a fancy frock for this intriguing gathering? Where was the party held? If you can provide the answers, call LookBack on 01704-398287, robert.alcock@southportvisiter.co.uk or let us know below.

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Out in the 'Vic Dive' and other nightspots of old

Posted by Robert Alcock on April 4, 2008 9:00 AM

A LOOKBACK appeal for memories of former Southport nightspots yielded a fascinating response from one Mornington Road resident.
Proud Sandgrounder Mrs M Kenton wrote to tell readers about nights out she enjoyed in “lovely old Southport” and a clutch of long-gone venues.
Once in the 1950s, she visited the ‘Vic Dive’, the underground bar at The Victoria Hotel in Nevill Street.
Her mother had worked as a cleaner at The Victoria, which she remembers being part of a TB hospital during World War Two.
It has long since been demolished and replaced by flats.

The Victoria Hotel is on the right of this 1910 image of Nevill Street

Mrs Kenton, 79, remembers the hotel having a “lovely lounge”, with other features of 1950s Nevill Street including Rossi’s ice cream shop – which is still open today – the Coliseum Cinema and Thorpe’s bar.
Other venues popular with Mrs Kenton and her peers were ‘Diamond Lil’s’ bar at the side of the Carlton Hotel and the Top Hot Club on Duke Street, near Lord Street United Reform Church.
While these nightspots are now gone, Mrs Kenton remembers one Lord Street location before it became a public house.
As a 14-year-old during World War Two, she laboured in what she called the ‘War Factory’, a site more recently occupied by JD Wetherspoon.
“I packed haversacks for soldiers and my eldest sister did camouflage nets,” she said.
Another of Mrs Kenton’s war memories is of recovering US Army airmen at the Palace Hotel in Birkdale.

The bar at the long-demolished Palace Hotel in Birkdale

The hotel – which was opened in 1866 and finally demolished in 1969 – was taken over by the American Red Cross in 1942 and more than 15,000 personnel recuperated from active flying service there.
“The pilots sat on the low wall, which is still there,” she said.
Mrs Kenton also toasted her “luck” at once seeing silver-screen idol Clark Gable walk down Lord Street.
Gable, star of ‘Gone With the Wind’, is known to have once stayed at the Palace Hotel – as did Frank Sinatra – and spent most of the Second World War stationed as an airman in the UK.

Clark Gable, who was seen walking down Lord Street, as he appeared alongside Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind

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