As Allan and Dot had things to do today, we went off on our own to explore our old home town. On our way to Huyton we had a look around Prescot cemetery and we managed to find, what we believe to be, Ron’s grandparents grave – it seems to be the only one with the family name on it and Ron had previously visited it , albeit more than fifty years ago!! Had a drive around Huyton where Ron used to live – he didn’t think it had changed as much as he thought it might have done (we had, of course, seen some of it the other day). We then drove to Roby, where I lived and saw that my father’s cricket club, Whitefield, was still in operation!! I used to score for him when I was young and it was strange to see that it was still in use. It has also been interesting seeing all the motorways around where we used to live!
We carried on around to the church where we were married, All Saints’ Church, Childwall. It is still as lovely as we remembered and I must admit, having attended services there all through my childhood, I did tend to take its beauty for granted.
We were lucky that the church was open (a funeral was being held later) and so we were able to go inside and back down memory lane. The Sexton came to say hello and he took a photo of us both, standing before the altar just as we had done in 1966. We’ll be attending a service there this coming Sunday and we’re really looking forward to that.
After a shandy and a pork pie in the Childwall Abbey Inn (opposite the church), and after taking far too many photographs, we drove to Allerton, where Ron was stationed when he was in the Liverpool City Police Force in the 1960s. More photos and reminiscing, of course! We then drove to Aigburth Vale to see where my school used to be. I say “used to be” because it’s now an apartment complex – it would have been 100 years old this year, so it was quite sad to see that it had been demolished, although the complex is very nice!
Our next stop was Otterspool Prom (never called Promenade), overlooking the River Mersey towards Ellesmere Port – much more touristy than it used to be when we went for Sunday drives, but a much nicer environment. Neither Ron nor I had ever made the connection in its name to otters as the name had always been one word; however, today we saw a sign saying Otters Pool and we both saw the light at the same time!!
We are really enjoying remembering all the places we knew together, even though so many of them have changed almost beyond recognition.
On our way home we called in to see Allan and Dot’s allotment – these are very popular in England, even with people who have their own gardens. Allan and Dot rent a double block, about half an acre in size, for just 48 pounds per year! They grow all sorts of vegetables and have an amazing array of flowers such as roses, peonies, geraniums (as opposed to pelargoniums) and foxgloves, plus several fruit trees. For dinner tonight we enjoyed a delicious home grown cabbage as part of our meal.
Tomorrow we’re off to North Wales for the day so more of that later.
