I rember the old steel works,the Manchester Arms, the Brown Jug, the Combamere pub the old Printers and Mr Dixon and Mr Davies shop all around the St Andrews Church and Flats around Conway Street and Claughton Road, as I moved over from Conway Place to St Andrews Square my name is Michael Haydn.
shops on conway st i remember a electronic shop and aquarists shop also the angel pub that stood in the middle of that gravel car park also remember asda with its rooftop car park
Two electronic shops in Conway st, one was opposite W.H.Trace tv engineers and the other one was further down, Bert Aults, that went up in flames and Bert moved to shop by the park gates, virtually lived in both of them.
I recall buying from one of those shops what was advertised as the 'world's smallest radio'. It was a self-assembly kit, about the size of a matchbox...put it together, looked very 'Man From Uncle' sadly it was not working
Could it have been the Sinclair MicroMatic? I think they did these ready made and diy kits, in the mid to late 60's.
nb From previous post, could the other shop on Conway St have been Jack Brownings? (Remember the smell of fiberglass resin and parafin heaters?) And - Bert Ault moved to a basement in Bridge St, behind the Woodside Hotel, for a number of years before he retired on health grounds.
You sent away for the Sinclair radio, you bought it via an advert in Practical Wireless, they did work, as I built one, but I got more fun out of a radio built from a razor blade a safety pin and a bit of pencil and a big coil, wire was from the bottom of the newly started tip at Storeton Quarry and a good aerial and earth, book for building it was from Birkenhead Children's Library, where you could get books on making fireworks and any other then innocent pastimes, anybody remember the Sinclair MK14 computer 1k of memory, Z80, all programmed in hex, drove me mad.
I can remember building cats whisker radios in the 50s, hiding them in my desk in school and listening to the Ashes cricket matches with a tiny earphone, used to buy the bits to make them from Ivy Street, probably Bert Aults. I remember the Children's Library at Birkenhead, when it was in the basement, entered from the end where the Bust of King George Fifth was, still don't know why they removed the Bust and the seats, probably vandalised all the time.
ref post no 624239 18/11/11 and also an earlier post about the same subject ( read it and can't find it again). The Asda supermarket on Woodchurch road was originally, going from the M53 end, a small Co-op general store/grocery shop with a hall above it used for functions , one of which was a youth club run by Harry Winters,(who I think was a teacher at Woody Sec) about 1955/7, (my Mother was the Caretaker for a number of years, we lived just to the right hand side of the store.) next door to that was the UCLA Laundry, whose main job appeared to be laundering Army (forces) blankets, there were thousands of them going in and out every day, We used to play inside and build dens out of these blankets, they were in rolls of approx 20 or 30 and then stacked about 10 or 12 feet high, we used to get told "Don't go in there you'll get fleas", we never did catch fleas, I think the business declined after the end of National Service, next door again was the Belmont Factory, never went in there, apart from playing on the roof, very strong drain pipes at the back, where was HSE then. I think it became Leo's next, using the Cop-op building and the laundry and you could park on the roof and look through our bedroom window, until they screened it off, I think when the Belmont closed the whole building became Pioneer supermarket. I still remember our divi number,(44037) it was drummed into you as a small child, if you went to the co-op and never came back with the Divi receipt, there was nothing down for you, Happy Days
Just seen this thread thought I might jump in...I too spent a lot of time and money in Brownings and Aults..he used to call his glasses his headlamps!! As a kid I lived in Wirral Street off Claughton Road (now a car park of course) I went to St Werburghs school and then St Anselms and Rock Ferry High...ended up as a TV engineer, then telecoms, then computers..now semi retired and back on the Wirral after living in Spain for 10 years...nice to be back!
I remember there were 4 bridges to cross on the way from Birkenhead to Wallasey. We used to walk across them most days in the summer. They do not include Duke St bridge as some people seem to think when the 4 bridges are mentioned. I also remember the original market with a massive indoor part as well as the outside market. A famous market seller was Eli who sold bedding and towels. He attracted BIG crowds Dot
I remember there were 4 bridges to cross on the way from Birkenhead to Wallasey. We used to walk across them most days in the summer. They do not include Duke St bridge as some people seem to think when the 4 bridges are mentioned. I also remember the original market with a massive indoor part as well as the outside market. A famous market seller was Eli who sold bedding and towels. He attracted BIG crowds Dot
i also remember the bridges and the market, do you have any pics Dotdl ?
