Colourful history of a former Hoole dairy
A HOOLE resident's quest for information about the history of his house has come up trumps.
Allen Walker lives at 58 Hewitt Street, Hoole, which was known locally as Brown's Dairy.
Ian Palin, of Rawson Road, Blacon, contacted The Chronicle with happy tales of his childhood at the house.
Ian said: "I sold this house to Allen Walker 11 years ago this July.
"My brother John and I were brought up there - John was born in 1958 and I was born in 1963.
"Our parents, Ivy and Percy Palin, bought the house in 1953 for about ã1,200. It had previously been split into two flats, sharing the downstairs bathroom and kitchen.
"I remember there being two electric meters in the front room - one for upstairs and one for downstairs and a partition wall between the living room and the kitchen. I'm not sure when this would have been done, but it was maybe when the dairy finished."
Ian goes on: "My mother told me that Mary Whitehouse`s father, a Mr Hutcheson, lived there with his lady friend! A Miss G E Hutcheson also lived there - perhaps this was Mary's auntie or sister."
Mr Hutcheson moved out to Shotwick House, Saughall, years ago.
Ian remembers using a brick and slate-built shed, which would once have been the dairy store, as a motorcyle workshop.
He said: "It was rebuilt in the late 1980s to the same size and shape as the old dairy store."
He can also remember watching the demolition of the City Hospital from a bedroom.
He said: "There were stables on the back wall - I can remember the outline of where they used to be. This wall also formed part of the old City Hospital workshops on the other side.
"It was a great place to live, very happy days when hardly anyone had any cars. My dad was only one of about three or four people who owned a car in the street.
"I particularly remember an old lady, Mrs Williams, who lived in Hewitt Street, coming to the rear gate asking for some milk from Mr Brown in the 1970s. She was suffering from dementia but was remembering it as the dairy."
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I was born at the city hospital in 1943 and lived at 33 Hewitt street with my mother and father (Bertha and Norman) and my sister Barbara who were a very good friend to Ivy Palin after her husband died.Sadly both my sister and brother-in-law, Jim cornock have now died.There was another Dairy in Burges Street,not to sure may have been In a family called Parry, one of the brothers there was called Percy.(Names and Dates are my downfall but will try a few Beck's,Venables,Willbrahams,Rimmers,Gregory,Madocks,and many more that made that street years ago so happy.My other sister Philis lived at 12 vicarage road for some years and then moved to Canadian Ave.Sadly she has now died.
Like my Uncle Dave, I was born at Chester City Hospital and lived at 33 Hewitt Street for many years with my parents, Barb and Jim, and my brother John. I spent a lot of time at Ian's house and grew up calling Ivy and Percy "Auntie" and "Uncle". Being the same age I can remember Hewitt Street as Ian does, with only a few residents owning cars in the sixties and early seventies - in fact, I think our Dad's were probably some of the first to own cars back then. I also remember John and Ian's ongoing collection of motorbikes and cars in the back yard and shed at number 58. Their yard was triangular in shape with the back wall bordering the alley behind Claire Avenue, and we'd climb over it as a short cut when we were late for school.
It had a wonderful community feel back then. Everybody knew their neighbours and we all watched out for each other. I remember as children riding our bikes around the alleys behind Hewitt Street and Burgess Street, climbing the "bomby" wall to explore the field behind the City Hospital, and playing in Hoole Park and the playing fields on the other side of Canadian Avenue with Ian, Alan "Uggy" Edwards, Mark Day, and Robert Parry.
A lot of the names Dave mentioned rang a bell too. It must be genetic as my memory for names is appalling too, but off the top of my head I also remember Mr and Mrs Locke, Mr and Mrs Warrender, Mr and Mrs Williams, Pat and Norman Tuggey, the Thomas family, Mrs. Ruslin, Brian and Hazel Stoakley, and Dave and Brenda, who owned the famous pink and green house halfway between our house and Ian's.
My Mum used to send me to buy milk from the small dairy on Burgess Street that Dave mentioned (which I think may have been owned by the Gregory family). Maybe someone else can help with that one.
Thanks for the memories Ian, and I hope all is well with the family, Dave.
Thank you both for this interesting information which will now be included in the paper.