Many thanks to Ian Powers who has sent in two great photos related to the Sandhey slipway, which is the slipway just past the Meols end of the Parade Gardens. The above photo shows a fresh fish seller and Ian says:
…a photo of Sandhey Slipway with a fish seller selling whatever the local fishing boats brought in. When the Nobbies came in there were a number of fish sellers selling fish to local residents. Usually bottom feeding fish, plaice, garvin as I remember, and of course shrimps. I certainly remember that in the 50s one seller, May Hughes filled an old pram with fish and would walk round the streets shouting at the top of her voice.
I am not sure when the photo was taken, but guess at late 40s early 50s as I think my Uncle Harry is in the background.
The second photo below (credit to J E Marsh & Sons, The Studio, Market Street.) shows workmen repairing the retaining sea wall.
Ian writes:
Does anyone remember the day the Promenade collapsed?
In the late 50s the word went round that the Promenade had collapsed between Firshaw Road and Roman Road. Everyone raced down to the Prom to see the council workmen laying sandbags in what was an almost semi circular hole which almost reached the roadway. I guess high tides were the main cause. A Dutch company, Land and Marine were contracted to fix the breach. Their first action was to create a dam of interlocked steal piling to keep out the tide. The crane driver was certainly Dutch and he was very grateful for the gift of some Eels which a rod and line fisherman caught during one of the tides.
Steel shuttering was erected and the sandstone blocks of the original wall were replaced with a smooth concrete section (probably still visible!). I used to go down regularly after school at The Parade, and got to know the guys quite well. They all clubbed together and bought me a photo of the works.
I didn’t become a civil engineer, but my interest in holes in the ground eventually led to me helping fix the Leaning Tower of Pisa! (Honest!)
How about you – did you buy fresh fish at the Sandhey slipway? What do you remember of these wall repairs? As always it’d be great to hear from you in the comments below!
Yes I remember fish being sold both at Sandhey and Dovepoint slipways. May Hughes was a great lady who sold fish around the town.
Certainly plaice was caught- I also remember sea bass being caught- I think by line off the sandbank. These were big fish not like the small sea bass we get these days. My Mum and Dad had a small hotel and the fishermen would bring the sea bass direct to her- and she cooked them as a whole fish- like a big salmon.
I can remember a lady who used to sell fish from a small barrow which was “parked” on the pavement by what used to be the YMCA in Hoylake (Evangelical Church now?) . My mother used to buy shrimps from her and to this day I have never tasted shrimps so tasty!. I always thought her name was Mrs Kiffin though.
… and Sue, my Mum and Dad enjoyed many good suppers at your parent’s hotel, The Sandtoft. When he was much, much older and I was spending time trying to persuade him to move to a residential home , The Sandtoft was one of the homes he consented to visit. After a very brief visit (they were always brief visits) he came out saying that it wouldn’t be suitable as “there were too many people with sticks.” Oh dear!
What a blast from the past to see you name Mason – I was a pal of your sister Sue. Your dog Brindle used to wait for me coming of the school bus – he was a lovely dog. My abiding memory of your house in Beechcroft Road was a crowd of us watching the Queen’s coronation, with plates of sandwichs to sustain us!!
Ann Gillies (nee Fenney)
Ann, I remember you very well – and your Mum and Dad and Karen. Your Mum made us very welcome when I used to pop round to go roller-skating with Karen on the Prom. She used to offer me breakfast!
Every Sunday we used to see your Dad on his way down the road to sing in the choir at St John’s Church . You could set your watch by him.
The Coronation was just after we bought our first television set, a Ferguson. I can remember setting out the chairs in a cinema format in our living room and I think I created some sort of tickets to be handed out. We were all at Meols Primary School then and I remember Mr Corkhill spending hours and hours painting banners, and Irwins the grocers at Station Approach handing out paper crowns to wear.
Brindy was a wonderful dog and if I think I can find a picture of him to email you. Do you remember Mrs Goldrei’s dog who used to wait for Harold, the postman, at the big house on the corner of Forest Road and then accompany him on the rest of his round!
I married Gladys Aynsley who lived at number 3 Beachcroft – 41 years ago – and we now live in Milton Keynes and our two daughters live in London. Some years ago I saw Karen in Olney and she told me about your Mum still going swimming every day! We also met Geoff Fletcher at a 60th party at Chicheley Hall earlier in the year. Your Mum and Dad were of course stalwarts of the Hoylake Swimming Club, and there must be hundreds of children who were taught to swim by them. Not me unfortunately, I have still failed to learn. I spent my visits to the Hoylake Swimming pool as a “spectator”.
Have forwarded your comments to Susie who lives in Reepham, Norfolk. Not sure how she can get in touch with you direct though.
hi Mason
I remember your family well. Susan was a friend at school. Your Dad- Les- had been in the army with an uncle of mine and uncle made the introduction when as a family we moved to Hoylake. Interesting that you showed Les Sandtoft in its Nursing/Residential home mode.
I’ve not been to Hoylake for around 8 years when my Mum was ill – we sold her house in Melrose Avenue and moved her – on discharge from hospital- to a Nursing home in Swansea where I was living at the time. (Am now near Southampton)
Remember me to Susan and Carole.
Sue
Sue
How nice to hear from you, and of course I do remember you from my Meols childhood. Your Mum and Dad were great pals with mine and i loved it when they came round to our house in Beachcroft Road. The Sandtoft was a great small hotel – the sort of place that might make it in to Alastair Sawday guidebooks in today’s market. You can imagine the irony of trying to place Dad in a residential home and turning up at what WAS the Sandtoft and which now is a very nice residential home.
I did go and visit your mum a some years back at Melrose Avenue. The first time I went by myself on a spur of the moment decision and it was lovely to see her. She seemed in good spirits, but being less mobile, life was not so easy for her. Later i took my Mum round in a wheelchair from her residential home in Birkenhead Road. They were of course delighted to see each other, for your Mum, who was more alert and “with it” at this time, it must have been sad and quite poignant to have seen my Mum as a shadow of her former vivacious self. Glad to hear that she moved nearer you .
I will pass on your message to Susie who has recently been widowed. She lives in Reepham, Norfolk and Carole who still lives in Hoylake. We go up to see her a few times a year, also over to to see Susie who is nearer us (we live in Milton Keynes).
Best wishes, mason
I too remember the fish being sold and the breach in the sea wall. I lived in Dovepoint Road. We used to spend ages splashing about in ‘Dead Man’s Poll’ leaving it until the last minute to leave as the tide came in!!
Does Ian Powers have a sister Nimba and did they live in Greasby at one time? If so I have a photograph of him taken by my dad, Geoff Fenney (of H.A.S.C)
Looking at the Hoylake Junction website brings back many memories such as ‘Hilbre Sundays’ and the Hoylake Sailing club day on the sandbank at the back of Hibre Island, and running wild as children on the sandhills by Meols slipway, now built on. I also recall the curate Rev Paget, who took the service with his sailing cloths on under his cassock and passed round the collection plate for the R.N.L.I. when the lifeboat was called out. I lived in Meols until 1975 when I moved to the west coast of Scotland.
Via email, Ruth writes:
My brother, Peter Rowlands, was crew on one of the last fishing boats out of Hoylake and they always landed their catch at the Sandhey slipway. Mick Ackroyd was the owner and skipper. Peter was also a member of the lifeboat crew.
Ann,
You are talking about my cousins, Robin and Nimbia. Robin is a bit older than me and also went to the Parade School. I shall ask John to let you have my email.
I remember Dead Man’s pool, all the groynes had a pool at the seaward end, lovely to bathe in as they got nice and warm! However you kept well away from the rocks, they were sharp!
No one responded on the sea wall collapse yet, and I should like to add that in the middle of the excavations they found a wrecked boat which had been covered over when the sea wall was made. It was a fairly large boat, similar in size to the Nobbies.
Has anyone leaned over the railings to see the flat section of wall? It was quite close to Roman Road, and on the Hoylake side.
I know exactly where you mean Ian – I walk past it a few times each week!
Hi
I remember the collapse of the wall – I was also at the Parade school at the time and we were told the area was out of bounds and NOT to go along and view it as it could be dangerous but as usual nobody took any notice – but Ian might not be aware that it collapsed again at the end of Firshaw Road a couple of years ago so the repair wasn’t “that good” was it?
Do I detect a bit of a challenge here!
I remember the sandbagging continued after dark with the help of floodlights. I can’t remember whether it was a big tide or not, but you can be certain there was another tide 12 hours and 25 minutes after the one that did the damage.
If the smooth bit of wall is still standing I give credit to Land and Marine, they cannot be responsible for collapses anywhere between Kings Gap and Egremont!. 50 years and over 34,000 tides have passed.
The Promenade is built on sand, and the tide will seep in through any crack it can find. On it’s way out take some sand with it. The result is would be a void under the pavement. Step softly! Except over “my” bit of course!
I HAD LEFT HOYLAKE BY THE TIME OF THE COLLAPSES IN THE 50’s, BUT I SEEM TO REMENBER
ONE IN THE 40’s BETWEEN THE END OF THE GARDENS AND THE SLIPWAY.
US KIDS THOUGHT IT HAD BEEN DONE BY A BOMB!!
THE HULL OF A BOAT FOUND IN THE SEA WALL WAS THE “EMBLEMATIC” SHE WAS LOST IN 1883. HER SKIPPER WAS JOHN ECCLES MY GREAT GRAND FATHER,SHE WAS OWEND BY HIS FATHER JAMES.
SHE WAS BUILT AT WHITEHAVEN IN 1874 AND COST THE GREAT SUM OF £750!
Hello Arthur, regarding your comments on the Skipper of the”EMBLEMATIC”; your relative, my Gt.Grandmother,Catherine Eccles Father was John Eccles. His parents Michael Eccles and Martha Ann Sherlock. I think there is a connection , not sure how, Lance
Hi Arthur
I have a copy of the Reg details of the Emblematic.
Jame’s Father Tom (switcher) Eccles was/is my 3x great grandfather.
I have a picture of them both on the Emblematic. With John Eccles.
Jame’s nick name was ‘Moonie’ any idea why??
I will see if i can pass the picture on here.
Barbara