Sarah Jane, such a lovely name yet when she was born I called her my little Sissy and my sister was called Sissy by the family for evermore.When she went to live with dad Emily (our stepmother) called her Betty – I don’t know if that was better or worse.
I don’t remember much from the early days only Sissy crying outside the parlour door for her mummy (who had just died). The nurse who had attended our mother brought a doll for Sissy and a ball for me.I dimly remember the funeral.
When Sis was a baby, I suppose mother was unable to feed her so she was called GlaxoBaby by the family as she was given Glaxo powdered milk. One bonfire night we had fireworks. Someone threw a spent sparkler on the step and Sissy went to crawl up the step and burnt her hand on it. A few years later when she would not stop crying Uncle Tom put a lampshade on his head, went outside and looked in at the window. All went quiet and Sarah said ‘Ohh, the Queen’.

After our mother died dad used to take me on the cross-bar of his bike to see his mother. On the way he would call on his best friends mother and sister, Mrs Ashley and Doris. Dick Ashley married about the same time as Dad, had two daughters and then his wife died.
Sissy and I were quite friendly with Doris and Annie, his daughters. Sometimes we went to school together as when Dick married for the second time they were living at 6 Wood Lane.
Anyway back to the bike-ride to 'Blue Grannys' house which stood on its own in Suttons Lane – a long pathway off Church Road, Halewood. Someone said it had been a pub.
I do not remember much about it. I never went upstairs. Downstairs I went into the living room which was L shaped then through to the back kitchen which had Palmolive soap at the sink.
When we all went on Sundays for tea we always had salmon.Grace, dads youngest sister, would take us for walks. It’s a pity I never took in the conversation as I’d have loved to have known what was said when dad started going out with Emily.
One day I was talking to an old Wooltonian and he said ‘I knew your dads mother. She was always spotless’. I always think that was a lovely compliment.

Two years later dad remarried. He was a gardener at Turners Nursery, Halewood Road, Gateacre and Emily worked as a maid at a large house opposite, HighBerks. When they took us to live with them I cried all night for Granny.
So next day back I went but Sissy stayed on until she was eleven. Meanwhile she always stayed with Granny week-ends and holidays.
Our house was in a row of four. It was rented from Lord Rutherford who lived at The Woodlands (later a nursing home – Sis and Ronnie lived in the coach house when Pat was born).
Lord Rutherford used to drive around in an open top car and hold a garden party in the summer. We would be very interested in the comings and goings. It was very grand. On the other side of the road was the wood which lead onto a footpath called the Nook which went to Halewood Road. I think part of it is still used.
Number four Wood Lane had a large garden. When my sister and I were children our favourite game was ‘house’. We always had a doll for Christmas so were well supplied with babies one side of the garden had a laurel bush which we climbed into the branches of for our house.
We also had a hads love bush which we used as a cradle for dolls. We lived two miles from Gateacre village (two miles to walk to Little Woolton and Childwall C of E School). We were surrounded by fields with cows, horses and big wild ponds.
One pond had water lilies and another a crab apple tree and bulrushes. Yet another had an island with bushes. Granny warned us not to go near this pond as a big bird lived on the island! , Frightening!. In winter these ponds would freeze over and we could slide on them. We lived close to nature and always looked for tadpoles, frogs, birds, wild flowers, blackberries and, at Christmas, holly. Grandad worked at a farm close by and drove two shire horses – Captain and Kitty.

In summer he would be busy haymaking, harvesting the corn, peas and potatoes. If he worked overtime we would always take him a bottle of tea and butties. In winter he would be ploughing with seagulls flying around him and Bonnie, our dog, following up and down the fields. We had potatoes growing in our back garden. I remember Granny digging them up, putting them in a bucket of water and stirring them around with a stick for instant scraped potatoes.
I must tell you about Grandads gander. We called him Billy. He loved Grandad but chased everyone else and sometimes granny would have to rescue us with a sweeping brush. He lived to be about twenty years old. He out-lived about four wives who used to hatch out goslings every spring to be eaten at Christmas.
We always had animals.At one time I had a white cat called Tiddles and Sis had a big grey blue Persian called Marina (after the princess married to the Duke of York). We used to take them to bed at night for a cuddle.
I really liked having my sis and imagined how nice it would be for Jane to have one. I was so disappointed when Peter was born – but not for long! Sissy and I had our fights and squabbles when we were small but when we were teenagers it was all giggles and trips to the pictures. Woolton, Huyton ‘Mayfair’, Allerton ‘Plaza’ and the ‘Abbey’ Wavertree.
We got about! When we were small number two Wood Lane was a general store so we were lucky.Clay gave us a penny every weekend to buy sweets – great! The shop was a lean-to built on to the house – the counter went right down the middle so Mr and Mrs Salter who ran it had no way of reaching the customers door.
Mr Salter had a walking stick which he kept on his side of the counter to take the bolt off and on the door.He called this his leather-me-out stick. We gave him some trouble, I remember our friend, Hilda carrying jars of sweets outside and helping herself before returning them. Mr Salter was stuck behind the counter and could not do anything.
Grandad used to buy his thick twist tobacco there. It was kept in an earthenware jar and Mrs Salter would cut off a one ounce piece. On Saturday lunch we would run round for a tin of corned beef and a bottle of tomato sauce.
Grandad had been paid his wages! In summer they did well with passing trade. A cycling club went every week and would sit in the garden drinking pop. When our cousin Henry was about four or five puffs of smoke could be seen coming out of the long grass and he was happy smoking his Woodbines.

When we were small I remember Emily used to take us to Southport for a day out for a few summers. We did go once with a few people, dad and Walter included.
We children were playing around the edge of the water when a boy walked by and poor Sis who must have been about four was knocked off her feet. Walter had to rush in and rescue her. Clay and Lily also took us to Southport.On one occasion I had new sandals and walked around pigeon toed all day long – I enjoyed it though.

Christmas was a lovely time.Granny and Lily used to emulsion the living room walls, decorations would be hung and mistletoe and we would go and find some holly for behind the pictures. (We never had a tree).We’d hang our stockings up and Grandad would tease us saying Santa would not be calling.
We had goose for dinner and Christmas pud and Nellie made a cake with icing and dolly mixtures on top.We’d wait for dad to come with a carrier bag of presents – chocs from Aunty Peggy – a handbag from Louie and Walter and from Blue Granny a house or log made of cardboard with cotton wool snow covering and small presents inside.
On New Years Eve at twelve o clock Grandad would go out of the back door, pick a piece of coal from the coal shed come in the front door and say ‘A Happy New Year to thee all’ and we would all drink a toast in ginger wine. One Christmas we had a watch from dad. Granny said she’s seen them in Woolworths for four and six each! I always had a great love for Dad and thought there was no-one like him.
(In summer when Sis came after school I’d take her back home to Gerrards Lane on my bike and he always made sure the brakes were in order and pump the tyres so hard that I’d just glide back home. Sometimes I used to make a nuisance of myself crying. I wanted Sissy to come home with me and Emily used to say ‘This is her home’. Sis would be getting undressed and folding her clothes on a chair ready for school next day.
Now I’m not so sure my dad was so great – he never brought us any big presents or clothes and we never even got a birthday card. For a while he used to give me two and six a week which I always gave to Granny as she gave us so much and looked after us so well. Granny always said he was a good husband so I suppose he had his good points and two and six was quite a lot in the thirties – it paid the rent.Sis and I used to take the rent – ten shillings one Saturday every month to Mr Hayes the retired policeman who lived at Woodlands Lodge which had a lovely neat garden. I think he looked after the estate for the Rutherfords.

On Saturday tea was cheese on toast. Sundays egg and bacon for breakfast and a roast for dinner. Uncle John (Hayes) came on Sunday – he would walk from Woolton down the Nook path and call at Sal’s on the way. When the war started he moved in with Sal and lived with her for a while.
In summer when Sissy was eleven she came to stay. Dad asked Granny if she could stay longer as they were moving from Gerrards Lane to Lower Road. Sissy started Gateacre School and stayed with us.I hope she was happy.We were together again!

I often wonder what our lives would have been like if we had settled with dad. Maybe we liked the big family as Granny always had her family around her. Sal, Nellie and Lily always returned home to produce children – seven grandchildren between them.

I have not mentioned our cousins. We always had great times with them. When Sal lived in the Nook they had a big garden with fruit trees – apple, pear and damson. When their little dog had pups one survived and grandad said he would have this one. Sis and I could not wait to bring him home. He was such a lovely, fluffy black puppy. Everytime we went Johnnie made a fuss and we had to leave without him until we smuggled him out in a bag of damsons.
Bonny grew into a lovely dog and lived to a ripe old age. When Henry was at Grannys on Sundays she would have the church service on the radio. Henry, Sis and I would sit at the table and stand with the hymns and say the prayers as if we were in church. When Henry’s brother was born, another Thomas, everyone called him Tucker except Sis who called him Little Lord Jesus. I don’t know why as he was born in October.

One night we were going home from Woolton pictures with no lights on our bikes. I went first and Sissy, who was on the back of Hilda’s bike, came after me along Acrefield Road (This road has not altered in all that time). We passed a policeman on his beat. ‘No lights on a bike’ he shouted and then ‘Two on a bike and no lights’. It’s a good job he was on foot or we would have been fined. Two and six at least!
In summer gangs of lads would stroll down Wood Lane.We would always say they were those cheeky lads from Woolton. One hot sunny day granny had the washing out and one of these lads was heard to say ‘Let’s put a victory V sign on the old mans drawers’ (Granddads Long Johns!)It was wartime and everyone was copying Churchill.

Looking back to about 1936 or 37 things started to change.Childwall Valley Road was built on fields from Childwall five ways to the Bridge Inn which was a dark old pub.
This was knocked down and a smart new large pub which still stands was built. (Last time I saw it was about three years ago.I could see the stairs at the side where I ran up time and again to ring the bell three times for Hilda). The living quarters were massive as was the downstairs.At the back was a bowling green, a bowling pavilion and a pond with lillies and goldfish.
In summer we could sit out on a flat roof for hours and look out over Lea Park which at that time were grazing fields. The Millards, Mr and Mrs, Thelma and Hilda moved in from the Jolly Miller in West Derby. Hilda started Gateacre school and we became friends.
She always dressed nicely. She had three plaid skirts with different sized pleats and nice jumpers and shoes. She had a bike, a dog called Max and later a cat called Bomber.In her leisure time she sometimes wore jodhpurs which grandads gander Billy once caught hold of. Hilda also had a radiogram.When the war began we had no air raid shelter at school so until one was built we went under the subway at Gateacre Station for one hour a day where the headmaster would give us homework. Hilda and I would do this together in the lounge at the pub.The headmaster once said this was the blind leading the blind and got so angry he threw our exercise books at us!

When Hilda left school she went into hairdressing and would give Sis or I haircuts. She told us all about the facts of life, I used the phrase ‘I don’t believe it’ years before Victor Meldrew. We three had great discussions at her house with Bing Crosby singing ‘Let Me Love You Tonight’ in Spanish.
One of our favourite records was also one Maria Marketa Linda (I often wondered about Dellas second name) or we would listen to Vera Lynn on the radio. Hilda would make us cheese and sauce sandwiches or grilled tomatoes on toast. We also had Blue Riband Biscuits and sometimes her mum made super flapjacks. Hilda married at twenty one and had a daughter about Pats age, later they parted and Hilda had a toyboy.

We would go by train to visit Auntie Nelly (grandads sister), we would walk from Aintree Station to Kirkby along country lanes Auntie Nelly lived in a thatched cottage with a garden, a well and a rain butt where we washed our hands and face with Pears soap before leaving for home.
She also had a tap by her front door.Once when Henry came we walked around the garden and every time we passed a big apple hanging on a tree we all had a bite but left it hanging there, Strange!

Auntie Lily was always lovely to us, She looked after us very well, washing our hair every Sunday. She made our dolls clothes and took us for walks, she was a good help to granny helping her with the cleaning, cooking and shopping. When she left school she went to work at Turners Nursery where she met Clay.(For years Lily and Clay looked after the grave setting it with Alyssum, Lobelia and White Rock).
She loved working with the flowers and having a laugh with her fellow workers, when the tomatoes were growing she would come home green and smelling of tomatoes, Sadly she had to leave as she became allergic to daffodils and would get a rash on her hands.
When she was seventeen she started dating Clay.One Christmas they were canoodling in the back kitchen. Sis and I kept walking past the window singing '‘Love Makes the World Go Round'’ a popular song at that time, when Sis started work there were four redheads leaving the house together every morning - Lily, Dolly, Sis and I. When the war started, Lily was called up, She chose to go into a factory making shells, sometimes working nights which she hated, soon she was married in white, Our dad gave her away (He was married to Emily at this time but she never came). Sadly no pictures were taken of the wedding, Grandad drank too much and Dad and Dick Ashley went home singing. Ann was born a year later.To this day I always think of Lily saying ‘Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today’.

Two tales Granny used to tell. MaWinstanley came to tea and our mum ‘Jinny’ whispers ‘I think Mrs Winstanley has got a feather on her head. ’On closer inspection Blue Granny had dyed her hair and the roots were showing. The other story was mum going to see Blue Granny after she was ill and Blue Granny had said ‘Don’t come crying to me – I’ve troubles of my own’. How cruel saying that to a poorly young woman, I sat wondering why I did not remember much about my sis at schooland it came to me that if she started Gateacre at eleven I would have only had a year at school with her, I do remember Miss Harper taking a sewing lesson (she took about four classes of girls altogether) saying ‘All the talking in this classroom seems to go on behind Sarah Winstanley’s hair’. At that time Sis wore her hair in film star Veronica Lake style, over one eye.

The old school is now a block of flats although it still looks the same from the outside, I hated school there were some nice children and some nasty ones, which did not help. One boy called Wallace Frogate would kick the teacher on the shins. I liked a little fat boy called Rex Measham who would chase me around the classroom.
In the morning we had bottles of milk which were placed around the fire to warm. Granny insisted that I had this milk even though it made me sick. I had to drink mine in the cloakroom by the wash basin so that I wouldn’t make a mess. We danced the spiders web and the plait around the Maypole.That was great, on Fridays we could take a toy to school. Not to be out done I took a large teddy dressed up in one of Henrys baby suits, all the kids made fun of him, Dolly was not best pleased with me dragging Ted two miles to school (she escorted me at that time).
A girl called Peggy was always nice to me, her granny and Aunt Kitty kept a sweet shop in the village, so she gave me sweets. When Jehane was born I went to Elmswood Nursing Home which was in Mossley Hill and run by the Salvation Army. I booked into a room with 4 beds (one could get a private room), when I arrived who should be sitting in one of beds but Peggy, two days earlier she had had a baby boy. He was her second child, I saw her from time to time after that. Her husband died quite young and she was left with three children, about 7 years ago Jehane and I were going into Tescos when I heard someone calling Alice Winstanley, It was Peggy she never seemed to change.

When I was 14 Granny found me a job, I left school at Christmas and by the new year I had started work . Acrefield Garage was quite a thriving business at that time (1940). Mr and Mrs Peters both had Hackney carriage cabs, petrol was rationed so they were kept busy running people to hospital, stations, shopping and church. Sometimes, they had weddings. Mr Peters would give the cars a good clean and polish.
There was also the shop which sold motor and cycle accessories, batteries, electric light bulbs, petrol and paraffin. They also charged car and wireless batteries.
Living over the shop there was housework and cooking to do, Mrs Peters was very good to me, she gave me clothes and sent me to the local hairdresser to have my hair done. Connie Parker burnt my forehead giving me a quiff, the food was very good, egg and bacon for breakfast and lovely dinners too.
She also bought me a secondhand red racer bicycle so that I would be on time for work - not really suitable for slow me, Clays brother Gerry looked great on his bike as he rode along Wood Lane every night to see his fiancé, Olive, who lived in Halewood. One day I rode into the kerb at the top of Gateacre Brow and went head first over handle bars, I was winded and had sore hands and knees for days, when the prefabs were built in Belle Vale about 1946 (I wished I’d kept a diary) the buses started running to the Bridge Inn so I gave up the bike, I sold if for a pound and never rode one again.

Woolton was a busy place after Gateacre. There were trams, buses, the picture house, village club and a few pubs. Woolton woods was always very popular with its cuckoo clock, Woolton was friendly with small family run shops, most people knew each other you could not look out without seeing someone familiar.It was lovely, I do miss it.
Even the police would have a chat, I had a few dates with one officer – a sergeant no less! I remember I was in my twenties, your mum was well married by this time and living in Egremont. I went to Seacombe with him to see the Festival of Britain display with ships going along the river letting off fireworks, I then went to your mums to stay the night.

Teenage winters were grim with deep snow and ice, I remember chilblains, It was agony getting shoes on to swollen feet.
Both Sis and I got TB of the eye one winter. We had to go to the eye, ear, and throat hospital in Myrtle Street once a week to have injections. This lasted three months, Mrs Peters brought me cod liver oil and malt and made me rice puddings, she would send me and her daughter Pam on walks to the top of Church Road as she said this was the highest point in Liverpool, I thought I got plenty of fresh air in Wood Lane.
Mrs Peters always had friends staying I think she met lots of people whilst driving. I remember Eric Éclair who was a Czech. For a long time she had Rosie who was French and had escaped from occupied France, she got a job at the Bear Brand stocking factory I think they made parachutes in war time, Rosie took me and Pam to the pictures quite a lot. We saw Holiday Inn together, She had a boyfriend Maurice who was in the Merchant Navy, when his ship docked in Liverpool he came to stay bringing three friends with him – Caspar, Tifi and Paul none of them could speak English very well but Mrs Peters spoke French so all was well.
They seemed to enjoy themselves with plenty of food and drink. One guest Mrs Peters had was a Mr McKay – a ships engineer, he was a Scot so I suppose they had a lot in common as she came from Scotland in 1944 she upped and left with him taking Pam with her to Perth, Scotland, later she took Pam to Montreal where she had a sister.

Looking back on my teenage years I think I liked it well, I had Sis and a loving family. I made a lot of mistakes I know I could have been more thoughtful. The most awful time was when we lost Jane, that was unforgettable, my poor Sisy. When Pat was born she was so protective of her, she took her to the clinic every week and had the vicar baptise her at home. The GP said to Sis ‘Don’t bring her here every time she cries’ which I thought was very bad of him. It was strange to think when Pat was four months old Sis took her to the windswept ‘Top o the Heights’ with no mod cons.

In 1946 Uncle Lens nephew came out of the Army and moved in with Len. His name was Ronnie and his wife Sue was a nurse from Belfast. It was supposed to make no difference to me but it did, They were a nice couple – I liked them – but I felt redundant so I left.
I went to work for a teacher who had two old parents to look after. A few months later her father died and Miss Brown decided to have a holiday for three weeks with her cousin who lived in Balla Salla, Isle of Man, I went with her and her mother who was eighty something. We went from Speke Airport in a small plane that only held seven passengers, It was a lovely time, we had trips round the island and meals out. Mrs Guin,her cousin had a lovely house and garden and made me very welcome she was homely and had a daughter, Avril, who was two years younger than me.
We went on the little train to Douglas, to the pictures and to see her friends who lived on a farm.
One day we went to Peel to visit Miss Browns two old cousins who lived there. Miss Brown said we could have an extra week with them but I didn’t fancy that, I was probably feeling a bit homesick by then so we came back as arranged. The three of us had the plane to ourselves. I have fond memories of that holiday and still love the Isle of Man. I stayed for three years with Miss Brown. She had high blood pressure and had to retire early, after I left she only lived for two years so I felt sad about that.

Sis and Ronnie also liked the Isle of Man and would get the boat across on Friday at midnight and come back on Sunday morning, one Friday I remember going to see them on the bus, they were singing ‘I will take you back Kathleen’ all the way – most embarrassing! Just as well there was no talent scouts about.
I went quite happily back to the garage as by this time Sue and Ronnie had gone. They were still friends but I don’t think it worked out like they hope it would, Uncle Len used to say he felt like a lodger. I must say I liked Mrs and Miss Brown and felt guilty leaving, but I always felt so happy to get away after work. Sometimes I went to see your mum who was living in Deane Road with the Nolans at the time, I used to get the tram from Menlove Avenue.

When Pat was about four she came to stay in Woolton. I asked her what she wanted for lunch. ‘Chicken noodle soup’ she replied which was a new one to me, we live and learn, we had to go and buy some from Hargreaves, the shop next door but one. When I was about fourteen I used to go on messages there, as I passed the place next door, one fellow who worked there used to say ‘Where are you going to my pretty maid and what have you got in your basket' I thought that was very funny.
We did have some nice Christmases there, there was a Christmas tree in the front room which had the big fireplace and the grapevine going round the ceiling. When Pat stayed she would sleep on the sofa with a tin of biscuits to hand, Jehane also had her cot in there.

On a sombre note in war time Hildas sister, Thelma, was about 17 and dating a boy called Harry Wilson who lived in the village. He was in the Air Force and was killed, sadly Thelma took this very badly.
He was buried in Childwall Churchyard and she bought him a lovely wreath shaped like the Air Force emblem made with bluey grey flowers, I remember going to see it with Hilda, we were about 13 at that time. Hilda later had a boy in the Air Force, a rear gunner. He went missing (shot down) and was never seen again. Dreadful for his parents who lived in Huyton, he was the only child, Hilda and I would visit his parents once in a while.
Flo Cook also married an Air Force fellow, He went missing when she was expecting Stanley and he was never found. I think Flo found this hard to accept, from what she told me, as I suppose it would be not to have a final farewell. Even though Flo married again she always kept in touch with her first husbands family who lived in Cornwall, Flo was a dear friend to me – she died about 9 years ago.

On Saturday, 26th August 1944 in St Stephens Church, Gateacre Dolly was married. She wore a golden wild silk dress, It was far too long to begin with so she had the bottom cut off to shorten the dress and also make a dress for Ann to wear. Ann was about two years old, I think. Sis and I were bridesmaids in dresses from C & A’s, I don’t think Sis liked them very much, I did because I met my first boyfriend when I wore mine the following year. We had black patent leather shoes with bows and a headress of black net and pink carnations. We had a nice day, I remember being given a lovely fitted dress by a rich blonde girl (she used to sing to the troops with ENSA during the war – it was deemed good for moral. Ave Maria was her forte).Anyway this dress was black with metallic stripes running down it, and was a perfect fit for Sissy’s fab figure, (I was too fat to wear it). I don’t remember her wearing it very much.She liked what she liked did my faddy sister, to this day I still think of how lovely she looked in that dress.

One thing that I was afraid of in wartime was search lights and barrage balloons, It did not seem natural – these long bright lights sweeping the dark sky. One bad winter the snow was very deep and the bread man never came so Granny and I were going to the village to buy some. We walked about 10 minutes when we came to a snowdrift which looked to me like a barrage balloon covered in snow and I would not pass it.
Poor Granny had to go back and Sissy went with her, what a coward I was – leaving it to my little sis. One autumn when Sissy was at school and I had just started work it was wartime and the teachers gave them the chance of picking potatoes at Rimmers farm or lessons, so picking spuds it was with five or six more children to help the war effort!

It was a sunny summers day when we met Ronnie for the first time, in the evening we decided to go for a walk, as we walked out of our gate, along Wood Lane came a lean looking Air Force cadet on a bicycle. He gave us the eye and rode on, down the road we went to the bogs as it was called – a pathway with the Woodlands on one side, a stream and pastureland on the other. We saw Ronnie making friends with the cows and calves, when he spotted us he changed his attention and chatted to us instead, I don’t remember what we spoke of – it was so long ago.
When we got back home he made a date with Sissy and that was that! Fate had played a hand. Sissy, at seventeen, had a lovely baby girl, Jane. She seemed so well and had grown so chubby at eleven weeks but so sadly she was taken from us very tragically. Did Sis ever recover? She went to live with Ronnies family in Deane Road. She seemed happy, I hope she was. After a while she longed for another baby. I remember it was Sunday morning when Granny rang Uncle Len who took us to Oxford Street. Pat was born in the afternoon, she was the apple of my eye. They were moved on the Wednesday to a hospital annexe in Southport, on Saturday Ronnie said he would take me to see them on the back of his motorbike. I’d never been on one before so arrived a bit shaky with an oily leg and bashed looking flowers, it was worth it!

When Tom was born the address was 1 Northview Terrace. Prior to that it had been Stacksteads, Warrington, and Ronnies’ grans. We got the message in the morning before I left for work. I got the bus to the Pier Head, the ferry across and another bus.This must have taken two hours, when I arrived there was Sis sitting calmly with Pat on her knee cutting out figures from a Cornflake box all alone, so we three got on a bus and went to hospital, I think it was Mill Lane.
On Sunday I got Pat ready to visit her mummy and Tom, (She hated having her face washed ) ,when we arrived at the hospital Ronnie took Pat back to his grans and I returned home on my own a little sad.

Ronnie, Raymond, Min, and Carol were all born at home at Northview Terrace. Vera helped out as she was living there at the time. Chrissie and Alan were born in Moreton, and Della at Higher Lench Farm so I did not see her until she was a month old. When we arrived she was in her pram by the door – a lovely bonny baby, as the saying goes ‘every baby brings it’s own bit of magic’.
When Sis lived at Queasty Birch Cottage it was out in the countryside.On one visit when Pat was only small and just walking I thought I’d buy her a pair of shoes so I changed buses in Widnes and bought her a pair. I took them back to Woolton and posted them to her.
Hmm, this story always makes Jane laugh.Going back to when Sis and Ron moved to Barlow Street, which was a one bedroomed house with a pantry. Ronnie worked at a plastic factory, It was winter when I visited and he was working nights, we went out in the afternoon with Pat – she was only a baby. When we got back Ronnie was asleep and Sis had forgotten her key so we went round to next doors, who were a friendly couple with a little boy. The husband took a knitting needle and said ‘No problem’ and in no time he was back to say the door was open, but when we went back the door was locked and Ronnie back in bed. Typical!

I must say how nice it was to have a sister, My one regret was that it did not last long enough, I always thought we would be together as old ladies and make up for lost time.I feel lucky to have had such a sister.
What a legacy she left behind – nine bright, healthy children to take care of each other - my nieces and nephews who have given me so much happiness, love and kindness.

Jack, Lily, Dolly & Sis

Sis, 'our Henry' & Jack

Jack & Sis