Birkdale's past in focus in photographic display at railway station

Posted by Digital Editor on September 26, 2008 9:00 AM

By Robert Alcock

A PHOTOGRAPHIC display adorning the waiting areas of Birkdale railway station provides a fitting tribute to the importance of train travel for the district's development.
Installed in the run-up to The Open at Royal Birkdale, the collection of images has been "very well received" by station users, according to Birkdale Civic Society chairman, Ralph Gregson.

Featured among the shots are a Birkdale station staff line-up from the early 20th century and a series of pictures of the village centre, which developed around the station in the late 19th century.
Birkdale Civic Society helped rail officials source the photographs that are on display, a number of which were previously reproduced in historian Harry Foster's book, published in 1995, entitled New Birkdale: The Growth Of A Lancashire Seaside Suburb, 1850-1912.

The importance of the burgeoning rail network for the far-reaching changes that took place within Birkdale in this period - which ended with the district's amalgamation with Southport - is explored in depth in Dr Foster's book.
He told LookBack: "The commuter line from Liverpool to Southport was responsible for the growth of the affluent suburbs and the golf courses between Crosby and Southport."
Work on the first Liverpool- Southport railway began at Waterloo early in 1848 and the line opened that July.
Seven years earlier, the National Census had shown the agricultural township of Birkdale to have a population of just 556.
Change was signalled by an advertisement in the Southport Visiter in September 1848, which announced how Birkdale's new landlord, Thomas Weld-Blundell, sought to grant "long leases for building purposes on very liberal terms".
It continued: "There is no doubt that this healthy locality will ultimately be covered with elegant and beautiful residences, suitable for the habitation of the most respectable parties."
Weld-Blundell's plan for a new estate on the 'shoreside' of Birkdale, called 'Birkdale Park', saw development on roads such as Lancaster Road, Waterloo Road and Trafalgar Road.

He also donated land for railway use, to ensure the residential development would succeed.
By 1888, the Liverpool Porcupine was reporting how the growth of the commuter line had led to a number of "Liverpool merchant princes" living in Birkdale.
Later, the same newspaper wrote how the district was a residential hot-spot for members of the legal profession in the city.
Birkdale Station became so well used that a bookstore was opened there, while in 1904 the link to Liverpool was electrified at a cost of £400,000.
Not all of the development within 'New Birkdale' catered for the upper and middle classes.
The Ecclsefield district of Southport sprung up on the inland side of the railway, running alongside what existed then as a boundary between Southport and Birkdale.

Dr Foster describes this as a "densely crowded working- class enclave".
In July 1871, the Southport Visiter was moved to report how it was "no secret that Birkdale, practically, may be divided into two sections" - with the railway line as the point of division.
We wrote: "On one side of the line are wealthy ratepayers and on the other ratepayers not wealthy."
Much has developed in Birkdale since then, of course, both in residential and transport terms.
The Liverpool, Crosby & Southport Railway became part of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1904, and was eventually grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923.
British Rail took over in 1948 and in 1978 the Birkdale station became part of the Merseyrail Network's Northern Line, where it remains a popular commuter stop to this day.

DO you have a story, memories or old photos you would like to share with LookBack readers? E-mail them to: visiternews@southportvisiter.co.uk or write to: LookBack, Southport Visiter, 26-32 Tulketh Street, Southport, Merseyside PR8 1BT, or why not call into our office.

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Looking back over history of Southport's Marshside Brass Band

Posted by Digital Editor on September 19, 2008 9:01 AM

By LAURA JONES

AS MARSHSIDE Brass Band prepares to open Hesketh Park's 140-year anniversary celebrations tomorrow, we look back at the history of Southport's oldest surviving brass band.
Marshside Brass Band's exact age is the subject of much debate, but one of the earliest references can be found in an 1892 edition of the Visiter.
The article reports that the band led a procession of local traders to the opening of Southport's northern Marine Lake.
But other theories suggest the band may have formed almost 30 years earlier when its home, Temperance Hall, was first opened in 1864.
For many years the band was closely tied to the movement, playing Rechabite processions and picnics, and this connection with temperance is further evident in the band's various names which date from around that time, including, "Teetotal", "Total Abstinence", and "Temperance".
One thing that is for certain is the band's strong link to the Marshside fishing community.
The close-knit community of the Marshside fishing folk during the 19th century gave birth to the band, with most of its members hailing from the village.

The band marched into controversy when in 1913 they stood side by side the shrimpers who went on strike to protest at the sale of imported Dutch shrimps which were being sold as "Southport Superior Potted Shrimps".
The strike was led into Southport town centre by Marshside Brass Band.
In more recent years the band has continued to maintain its old traditions and regularly plays on at marches, concerts, church services, fetes and parades, in Southport - despite the decline of the shrimping industry.
True to its roots, Marshside Brass Band still holds practice sessions at Temperance Hall, which is where they will be putting the finishing touches to tomorrow's performance.
Leading the celebrations tomorrow the band will be returning to Hesketh Park for the second time this year, after playing an open air concert in the park this summer.
Nowadays the Marshside Brass Band plays fundraising events for Queenscourt Hospice and in recent years has led Southport FC onto the pitch for third round FA Cup matches at Haig Avenue.

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Southport ex-nurse fondly recalls her 39 years of service in the NHS

Posted by Digital Editor on September 19, 2008 9:00 AM

By Robert Alcock

LOOKBACK'S special reports marking the 60th anniversary of the NHS have continued to generate responses from local people who worked for the service.
Mrs H M Bleackley of Threlfalls Lane wrote in to tell us about her 39 years' nursing experience - a great tally, although she commented she "could not top" the 48-and-a- half years spent in the NHS by fellow Churchtown resident Geoff White, who we profiled at the time of the anniversary.
Mrs Bleackley wrote: "I started my training at Clatterbridge Hospital [in Wirral] in 1945, when I was 16- and-a-half years old.
"I left there in 1948 (when the NHS was born) to start nursing at the Promenade Hospital and left there in 1951, when as Nurse Mary Yates I was married to RAF Sgt Harry Bleackley.
"I then worked at several hospitals in Southport - ie New Hall, Hawkshead Street Children's Hospital, as well as spending three years at Weston-super-Mare Hospital before returning to Southport and nursing at the Southport Infirmary.
"After serving three years as a district nurse, which I enjoyed very much, I continued to nurse at the Southport Infirmary until I had my first heart attack in 1984, after I had spent 39 years in nursing.
"I really loved my chosen career and was disappointed when I had to retire."

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Southport veteran Philip Walsh recalls life at West Kirby base during the Second World War

Posted by Robert Alcock on September 12, 2008 8:49 AM

LAST August, Philip Walsh wrote in LookBack of his wartime employment at the Brockhouse Factory in Crossens, as a metric driller. Mr Walsh, of Wavell Avenue, has now continued his story, recounting some of his experiences after he joined the Royal Air Force in February 1941, with his work pal Ken Leeming...

By PHILIP WALSH
I VOLUNTEERED to join the RAF in February 1941 - which was to produce for me a dramatic personal conclusion during the Blitz on Merseyside.
I initially trained at RAF recruitment camp at Bridgnorth in Shropshire, at the end of which I had an educational examination.
I failed this, owing to a contagious skin complaint, which had barred me from Holy Trinity School for six months, meaning I had missed basic subjects. However, I was delighted when I was posted to West Kirby PDC (Personnel Dispatch Centre) in Wirral, which was handy for home visits to Southport.
The base accommodated 800 personnel bound for overseas, most of whom were taken prisoner by the Japanese in February 1942, at Singapore.
They were sent to slave on the 'death railway' running from Bangkok, Thailand to Burma - a very sad experience, which ended in many deaths.
At West Kirby PDC, I was given the grand title of AC General Duties Class II, the bottom of the heap.
Within a week I decided to volunteer as a ground gunner. We had four anti-aircraft gun posts on the camp, manned by two gunners, 24 hours a day.

Philip Walsh (right) with Ken Leeming at the former Brockhouse Factory in Crossens, where they both worked before joining the RAF in 1941

I was immediately dispatched to Douglas, Isle of Man where I trained as an AR Gunner and on returning I was given leave to celebrate my 20th birthday in Southport.
My RAF gunpoint at West Kirby consisted of a 15ft tower erected on cross-pattern railway sleepers, with a platform surrounded by sandbags.
In the middle of the platform was a Lewis air-cooled machine gun of 1914 vintage, with .303 ammunition bullets - a 'museum piece'.
Myself and the number two on the gun, Victor White, were on duty on June 7, 1941.
At 14.30 the siren sounded, I stepped up to the gun and placed my finger on the trigger.
There was a large engine noise and to my dismay, a German bomber - a Heinkel III, with a gun poking through its perspex nose - appeared through the rays of the sun.
Immediately, a voice on the public address system shouted 'stand down!'.
I obeyed, and thankfully the plane swooped over the camp, with no bombs and no one hurt, and disappeared through a cloud. Ten minutes later I felt scared - perhaps the German air gunner felt the same.
The Heinkel, the last bomber in Merseyside skies, was presumed to be on reconnaissance, searching for Allied ships in the Irish Sea before the launch of Operation Barbarossa.
Within a week, the Operation, Hitler's fatal step into Russia, had begun.
The sun came back into our lives.

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Burma heroes remembered at special service in Southport

Posted by Robert Alcock on September 12, 2008 9:00 AM

VETERANS' associations and the Mayor of Sefton gathered in Southport to remember those who fought in Burma during the Second World War.
Despite wet weather, the annual August service of the Burma Star Association at the Memorial Gardens on Lord Street was well attended.
It has been held every year since 1974, around the anniversary of VJ (Victory over Japan) Day - August 15, 1945.
That was when the rulers of Japan finally surrendered after years of bloody war in the Pacific, including fighting in Burma from January 1942 to July 1945.
Huge numbers of British troops served in the Commonwealth's Fourteenth Army, which eventually managed to re-take Burma - then part of the British Empire - from Japan. The latest service in Southport was conducted by Reverend David Marston, and attended by Councillor Paul Tweed, the Mayor Sefton, who laid a wreath.

Phil King, chairman of the Normandy Veteran Association's Southport & West Lancashire branch, said: "There was a good turnout, from all kinds of organisations, for a service lasting a quarter of an hour to remember those who did not return from the Far East campaign."
Colin Addey, secretary of the Southport branch of the Burma Star Association, said: "We don't have that many members anymore in the Southport area, maybe nine or 10, and the average age is around 84.
"But internationally, the Association is thriving. There must be around 11,000 members, and that includes in Australia and America."

The BSA was founded in 1951, to honour the comradeship experienced in the bitter fighting in the jungles of Burma and as a welfare organisation so members and widows can be helped at times of need.
Southport has had a BSA branch for more than 35 years, and every April its members hold an commemoration service for those who fought in Burma.
The BSA also a close affiliation with All Saints Church on Rawlinson Road.
A former canon there, Arthur Thompson, was a padre to the Second Battalion of the West Yorkshire regiment of the Fifth Indian Division.
The Fifth Division formed part of the Fourteenth Army in the final stages of the Occupation of Burma, before embarking for other destinations in the Far East including Malaya and Java.
In All Saints Church there is a lectern which has a roll of honour for the BSA, with members' names added to it when they pass away.
The BSA is open to holders of the Burma Star, which was awarded for one day or more of operational service during the Burma Campaign.

It meets at The Zetland Hotel on Zetland Street on the first Monday of the month at 11am.
The Fourteenth Army is known as the 'Forgotten Army', after a quote attributed to General William Slim, who took command of all Allied troops in Burma in March 1942.
He said: "When you go home don't worry about what to tell your loved ones and friends about service in Asia.
"No one will know where you where, or where it is if you do. You are, and will remain 'The Forgotten Army'.

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Southport's Pets Factor - the originals

Posted by Robert Alcock on September 5, 2008 8:12 AM

SANDGROUNDERS are passionate about their animal friends, as the Visiter's recent 'Pets Factor' contest proved.
And these creatures were certainly the apple of their owners' eyes - but what was the special reason to put them on show?
If you have more details about this event, let us know below.

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Southport FC's 30 amazing seasons outside the Football League are featured in new book

Posted by Robert Alcock on September 5, 2008 8:52 AM

THIRTY years ago this week Southport Football Club scraped a 1-1 draw at Buxton in front of a crowd of just 490 people.
It was their fourth Northern Premier League game after demotion to the abyss of the minor football divisions, where rivals Wigan Athletic - now in the FA Premier League - secured election to the Football League.
Just over four months earlier, 'Port had played in front of 10,089 at Watford's Vicarage Road and, needless to the say, the harsh realities of amateur football were beginning to hit home.
Financial strife continued to engulf the club's very existence - had it not been for eleventh hour reprieves in February 1979 and December 1980, Southport FC would not exist today - and popular support from the town had dwindled.

The highs of promotion to the Nationwide Conference at Harrogate in 2005 and the lows of relegation to the Unibond in 2003 are all documented in The Complete Non-League History Of Southport FC

But 1,400 matches, 4,000 goals, 581 players and 22 managers later, Southport, thanks to the strong leadership of chairman of 24 years, Charlie Clapham, have acquired a fresh purpose as they today sit proudly on top of the Blue Square North table.
To commemorate all this, supporters' group Trust In Yellow has released in limited edition The Complete Non-League History Of Southport FC, which details the ups and downs since life in the Football League expired in 1978.
Southport Visiter correspondent Alan Jones is one of several contributors to the book, which documents the incredible highs of promotion and the despair of relegation as well the club's unforgettable 1998 trip to Wembley.
He said: "As every fan knows, following Southport involves its own mix of highs and lows, something which I feel the book conveys well.
"The chapter that seems to have attracted the most attention is the Charlie Clapham story, which I helped compile. We interviewed Charlie just after the end of last season and he gave a real insight into the events at the club since he became chairman nearly 25 years ago.

The Complete Non-League History of Southport FC

"His honesty and enthusiasm from the interview comes across really well and it has been a popular read.
"The book has been very well-received and the feedback from Southport fans and football fans in general around the country has been excellent."

Southport FC manager Liam Watson, chairman Charlie Clapham and chief executive Haydn Preece with copies of the book

Full match and player statistics are listed in the book, thanks to the dedicated work of self-confessed 'Statto', Rob Urwin.
Mr Urwin, who is also membership secretary of Trust In Yellow, is known amongst fans to get more excited about a record being broken than a goal being scored!
He said: "I never thought I would be contacting Gateshead Football Club at 9.20am on a Monday morning in April to check whether an attendance was 350 or 360 for a match in 1981!
"It has been fun, frustrating and rewarding pulling everything together.
"A lot of the information was out there in various places, getting it here was the aim and we got there in the end."
On the cover is an image of Liverpool South Parkway railway station, which now sits on the site of Southport's first- ever non-League fixture at the now-defunct South Liverpool FC. It is a poignant reminder of how fortunate Southport FC were to stave off extinction.
Just 90 copies of The Complete Non-League History Of Southport FC (Legends Publishing) remain and a sell-out is expected. To ensure you get a copy of the book contact Rob Urwin on 01704-570734 or visit the Southport FC Club Shop on matchdays.

May 17 1998 is a day forever remembered by Sandgrounders - Southport FC's appearance at Wembley in the FA Trophy Final

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