Old Pictures of Our 'New' Town

By Chester Chronicle on Nov 20, 08 12:29 PM in

RUNCORN may be a New Town, but it is also an old town with a long history.

The words are those of historian Bert Starkey, eloquently summing up an introductory piece to his latest pictorial book entitled Runcorn - A Town Not So New.

The book provides us with everything we have come to expect from the historian's offerings: more than 200 photographs (the majority new to most of us) with every one accompanied by explanatory, lucidly presented, self-contained captions.

And once again, the contents are neatly compartmentalised, beginning with breathtaking pictures of the building of the Runcorn-Widnes Jubilee Bridge, followed by chapters on industrial Runcorn, town and country views, landmark buildings, church activities, pageants and processions.

Finally, there is a chapter on Some Runcorn Folk, in itself a modest title for a number of revealing and fascinating pictures, ranging from an Edwardian wedding 100 years ago to a picture taken at a banquet at the Exchange Station in Liverpool on December 7, 1916, when Hazlehurst & Sons Limited celebrated its centenary.

Hazlehursts was acquired from the United Alkali Company by Levers who closed the soapworks in 1913 and transferred production to Port Sunlight. Among the 150 guests were some retired employees of the firm. Hazlehursts brand name was still in use in the 1930s.

There are also photos of the boys of the old Runcorn County Secondary School, seen in formal pose in 1927, and a group of sixth formers of the Runcorn County Grammar School at the Waterloo Road site in 1946.

Within a couple of years the school was closed and the pupils were transferred to the then new Helsby Grammar School.

Bert prefaces his book with an easy-to read account of the town's 1,000-year history, skipping easily though the years from the third century AD when the Romans established a settlement at Halton Brow.

Published by Avid Publications, Runcorn, A Town Not So New is priced at £12.99 and is available from the Curiosity Bookshop, High Street, Runcorn