Sunday 20 April 2008

Rocky Lane

 

This is a post card of Rocky Lane, Liverpool as it was in the time of my Mum’s youth. The view is looking downwards from Childwall Priory Road (later Queens Drive) towards Bowring Park Road. It really was rocky and it really was a lane – a typical country lane with hedgerows and sandstone banks. This farm was known to Mum as Pye’s farm and in the 1910s the Pye’s had been there for over seventy years but it’s ‘proper’ name was Rocky Lane Farm. The wall on the left is off Broad Green Hall and the entrance was just beyond Laburnum Cottage which was on the opposite side of the lane. Behind that cottage was Childwall Gas Works with a small gasometer. The manager, George Harding, lived in Laburnum Cottage and Harding laid cast-iron gas pipes behind the hedgerows, made the gas, installed the necessary fittings in the properties served (which included Nana’s house) and read the meters. By-products of the gas industry such as tar and refuse lime were sold to local residents and farmers.
Nowadays all this is houses and asphalt and even the social club which replaced Pye's Farm (CADWA) has itself been demolished.
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14 comments:

  1. jamese17 March 2009 at 21:02

    A very interesting piece of local history. Incredible
    transformation between then and now.

    Thank you.

    These later shots of L15 may interest you.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamese007uk

    Regards
    Jamese

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  2. Scriptor Senex18 March 2009 at 02:49

    Super - thanks Jamese. I especially love the one of 1924 with the virtually newly planted trees. Look forward to seeing more as you find them.

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  3. jamese18 March 2009 at 16:30

    Scriptor - Take a look at this, c1938 I'm led to believe.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheilsy/3357529087/

    jamese

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  4. Scriptor Senex19 March 2009 at 08:35

    Thanks jamese - looks like they were in the proces of putting the zebra crossing down - the belisha beacons were there but no road markings or access through the little railing.

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  5. jamese21 March 2009 at 20:12

    Hi, just another snippet from the past. Hope you don't mind me pointing these out to you? You may have seen these colour pictures anyway? Although not specifically
    of L15 (one or two are), there are some very interesting colour shots taken in the 1950s when the trams were running. The Rocket, and Bowring Park rd, Broadgreen junction are all here, although limited in numbers.

    Colour really does bring back the reality of it all!

    http://www.trolleybus.net/subhtml/liverpool.htm

    regards
    jamese

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  6. Scriptor Senex21 March 2009 at 21:35

    Thanks - Jamese, don't mind in the least. Links like these are always most welcome.

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  7. Scriptor Senex21 March 2009 at 21:57

    I've just visited jamese's link above and it is excellent. Some real memory joggers there - like seeing "The Triangle" at the corner of Broadgreen Road and Thomas Drive (formerly Edge Lane Drive) where I used to play on the waste ground for hours. (Ignore the 'Southdene' caption on the photo - it's wrong!)

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  8. jamese21 March 2009 at 22:25

    Glad you like them.

    One colour (slide?) in particular strikes me, is the one taken on that small section of Broadgreen Rd (effectively Edge Lane) looking across at the Semi's and to the right, the white (now) sweet shop on the corner of Renville Rd.

    No flats yet built to the extreme left, where Broadgreen Rd/Gardner's Arms is now. I recall these being erected just prior to me starting primary school in about 1963.

    Dad use to tell me that trams ran along Edge Lane. However, it's one thing to be informed, and quite another thing to see these old photos. Wow!

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  9. vinomother27 May 2010 at 09:49

    Hi Scriptor

    I have just seen this postcard of Rocky Lane; it is very interesting for me as George Harding was my Great Grandfather. He left the gas works in 1911 and died in 1927 in Gateacre aged 94. I have an almost identical post card but with horses and carts in the lane. Do you happen to know when the gas works was built? It would be after 1861 I think.

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  10. Scriptor Senex28 May 2010 at 20:14

    Hello Vinomother. Thanks for the information about your great grandfather. I regret I don't know when the gas works was built.
    Reagrds
    Scriptor

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  11. architect mom16 March 2011 at 21:03

    Hi,
    I was glad to find your blog. I am interested in Broad Green Hall as my grandmother was a servant there as a girl around 1911. I have a postcard from Boxing Day 1911 of the coachman and his family of Broad Green Hall. Does Broad Green Hall still exist?
    Thank you,
    Joan

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  12. Scriptor Senex18 March 2011 at 07:49

    Sorry, JR, I don't know if Broad Green Hall still exists. I'd never heard of it until you mentioned it so I suspect it probably disappeared years ago.

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  13. Christopher T. George19 June 2011 at 14:37

    I have never heard of Broad Green Hall so am not sure it still exists or not. I came to your blog to see the Rocky Lane postcard, referred to it by a poster at Yo Liverpool. The Liverpool Record office has a photograph of the lane and also a claim that there was an incident in the lane involving servants and "slaves". See http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/showthread.php?3203-Childwall-District&p=348620#post348620

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  14. Scriptor Senex14 August 2011 at 17:54

    JR - I regret I can't access your profile to contact you but if you read this again you may like to know that Broad Green Hall was behind the wall on the left of the photo - the wall is that of the hall grounds. The entrance to the hall itself was just higher up, opposite beyond where Laburnum Cottage stood on the right hand side of the road.

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