Oh how I remember the donkeys and my Uncle Jack, with great affection. We lived next to his stable in Seymour Place West (the whole block got demolished in the 60's and he moved to stables in Tollemache Street). My mum was Vera Clarke, Jack and Eddie were her cousins - along with too many others to remember. Someone mentioned Bob Clarke, who was my grandad. He had stables and horses and give riding lessons along the shore. He famously gave riding lessons to Gracie Fields when she was appearing at The Tivoli. I have a picture of my mum aged about 15 on a beautiful horse called Bess. It was taken outside their house in Egerton Street, just by The Avenue.
Occasionally Uncle Jack had an escapee from the stable when he was mucking out and feeding. It would be all hands to the pump to corral the errant donkey, usually the white stallion. Great fun.
Always annoyed me seeing that book with Jack being captioned as Felton. (Any relation to the Felton's from Waterloo road?). Hate it when someone produces a book who obviously doesn't know a thing about the subject.
There were three stables in New Brighton. Tollemache street, Grosvenor road and one most miss is Seymour street as has been stated previously.
I would dearly love to see that photo taken by the Avenue. There are few if any photo's of it at all. PM if you want my email please.
Not sure if this has benn posted before? Marion that owns 'Tallulah's' in New Brighton has brought the donkeys back in the summer months. She worked with them as a girl for the Clark's in the 60/70's.
Hi overthehill, I lived on the corner of Grosvenor Road opposite Pollocks shop; and clearly rememberplaying in those stables, also at times helping bring the donkey's up from the beach.
I did a few summers with Jack and his donkeys. He was a lovely man and sometimes his wife and son would come down. Half-a-crown was the daily wage but I would have done it for nothing. His sister had the lemonade and bucket and spade stall next to him on the beach.
Silver was a bit of a handful but produced a fabulous white, male foal (I cannot remember the name of the mare but think it began with a P) and I often wonder what happened to them.
Another Clarke had the waltzer in New Brighton fairground, always interesting walking through to see what was going on.
I did a few summers with Jack and his donkeys. He was a lovely man and sometimes his wife and son would come down. Half-a-crown was the daily wage but I would have done it for nothing. His sister had the lemonade and bucket and spade stall next to him on the beach.
Silver was a bit of a handful but produced a fabulous white, male foal (I cannot remember the name of the mare but think it began with a P) and I often wonder what happened to them.
Another Clarke had the waltzer in New Brighton fairground, always interesting walking through to see what was going on.
The one that had the waltzer plus some stalls was Leo. Always smoked big cigars and drove a maroon Jag.
A well known photograph of the donkeys at New Brighton. The guy in the photo is actually a relative of mine. he kept his donkeys in Egerton Street just behind the Perch Rock pub
