10 Sunbury
Road,
10 Sunbury Road, Anfield (right)
In late June 1942, Jim and Mary McCartney brought their first child, James Paul McCartney, to their rented home at 10 Sunbury Road, a substantial terraced property in Liverpool's Anfield district, situated in close proximity to Liverpool Football Club's stadium. The couple had taken up residence there following their marriage in April 1941.
Their early married life unfolded against the backdrop of wartime economic disruption. Two weeks before their wedding, trading at the Liverpool Cotton Exchange, where Jim McCartney had been employed, was suspended, a closure that remained in force for the duration of the Second World War. While Mary continued her work as a sister on the maternity ward at Walton Hospital, Jim was compelled to seek alternative employment.
He secured employment in the machine shops of D. Napier & Son Ltd., an engineering company that had recently constructed a factory near the Walton end of the East Lancashire Road. The plant had been established to manufacture the Napier Sabre piston engine, one of Britain's most advanced aero engines, for use in military aircraft.
The expansion of Napier's production capacity formed part of the British government's shadow factory programme, which sought to disperse strategically important industries away from areas considered particularly vulnerable to enemy attack. The company's principal works at Acton Vale in west London were regarded as especially exposed, and by October 1939 plans had been approved to construct a major new production facility in Liverpool.
Construction began during 1940, and by the end of 1941 the Liverpool works was operational. Comprising extensive machine shops, assembly halls and testing facilities covering more than one million square feet, the factory employed a predominantly female workforce exceeding 10,000 by 1942, many of whom had undergone specialised training in precision engineering.
Following a period of instruction, Jim became an automatic setter lathe-turner. His work formed part of a production process that was beset by technical difficulties, reflecting the exceptional complexity of the Sabre engine itself. Although the first fully tested Napier Sabre II engine produced at the Liverpool factory was delivered in February 1942, persistent manufacturing and developmental problems, compounded by the company's acquisition by the English Electric Company later that year, delayed the engine's maturation. Only by 1944 was the Sabre considered sufficiently reliable for widespread operational use in aircraft such as the Hawker Typhoon and Hawker Tempest.
Jim also contributed to the civil defence effort. While still living in Norris Green, he had joined the Fazakerley Fire Unit, and he continued his voluntary duties after beginning work at Napier. Each evening, following a full shift at the factory, he returned to Norris Green to undertake fire-watching duties, recording the approximate locations of falling bombs and, where incidents occurred nearby, assisting with rescue operations and firefighting. By the time he returned to Sunbury Road and retired for the night, he must have been physically exhausted by the combined demands of industrial labour and civil defence service.
During this period Mary appears to have temporarily suspended her nursing career to care for the infant Paul. Nevertheless, she retained the exacting standards of cleanliness that had characterised her professional life. The story goes that one day she left Paul outside in his pram in the yard for a bit of fresh air and when she returned was mortified to find smudges of soot on his face.. Distressed by the incident, she reportedly concluded that Sunbury Road provided an unsuitable environment in which to raise a young child and insisted that the family should move.
The precise circumstances surrounding the McCartneys' subsequent relocation to Wallasey, on the opposite side of the River Mersey, remain unclear. Mike McCartney has suggested that the move resulted from Jim's employment at Napier, believing that his work, regarded as contributing directly to the war effort, entitled the family to housing associated with essential wartime occupations. By contrast, Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn has argued that the house was obtained through one of Jim's former colleagues from the Cotton Exchange. The 'official' version as told in the Beatles' authorised biography by Hunter Davies is a confused mess:
In late June 1942, Jim and Mary McCartney brought their first child, James Paul McCartney, to their rented home at 10 Sunbury Road, a substantial terraced property in Liverpool's Anfield district, situated in close proximity to Liverpool Football Club's stadium. The couple had taken up residence there following their marriage in April 1941.
Their early married life unfolded against the backdrop of wartime economic disruption. Two weeks before their wedding, trading at the Liverpool Cotton Exchange, where Jim McCartney had been employed, was suspended, a closure that remained in force for the duration of the Second World War. While Mary continued her work as a sister on the maternity ward at Walton Hospital, Jim was compelled to seek alternative employment.
He secured employment in the machine shops of D. Napier & Son Ltd., an engineering company that had recently constructed a factory near the Walton end of the East Lancashire Road. The plant had been established to manufacture the Napier Sabre piston engine, one of Britain's most advanced aero engines, for use in military aircraft.
The expansion of Napier's production capacity formed part of the British government's shadow factory programme, which sought to disperse strategically important industries away from areas considered particularly vulnerable to enemy attack. The company's principal works at Acton Vale in west London were regarded as especially exposed, and by October 1939 plans had been approved to construct a major new production facility in Liverpool.
Construction began during 1940, and by the end of 1941 the Liverpool works was operational. Comprising extensive machine shops, assembly halls and testing facilities covering more than one million square feet, the factory employed a predominantly female workforce exceeding 10,000 by 1942, many of whom had undergone specialised training in precision engineering.
Following a period of instruction, Jim became an automatic setter lathe-turner. His work formed part of a production process that was beset by technical difficulties, reflecting the exceptional complexity of the Sabre engine itself. Although the first fully tested Napier Sabre II engine produced at the Liverpool factory was delivered in February 1942, persistent manufacturing and developmental problems, compounded by the company's acquisition by the English Electric Company later that year, delayed the engine's maturation. Only by 1944 was the Sabre considered sufficiently reliable for widespread operational use in aircraft such as the Hawker Typhoon and Hawker Tempest.
Jim also contributed to the civil defence effort. While still living in Norris Green, he had joined the Fazakerley Fire Unit, and he continued his voluntary duties after beginning work at Napier. Each evening, following a full shift at the factory, he returned to Norris Green to undertake fire-watching duties, recording the approximate locations of falling bombs and, where incidents occurred nearby, assisting with rescue operations and firefighting. By the time he returned to Sunbury Road and retired for the night, he must have been physically exhausted by the combined demands of industrial labour and civil defence service.
During this period Mary appears to have temporarily suspended her nursing career to care for the infant Paul. Nevertheless, she retained the exacting standards of cleanliness that had characterised her professional life. The story goes that one day she left Paul outside in his pram in the yard for a bit of fresh air and when she returned was mortified to find smudges of soot on his face.. Distressed by the incident, she reportedly concluded that Sunbury Road provided an unsuitable environment in which to raise a young child and insisted that the family should move.
The precise circumstances surrounding the McCartneys' subsequent relocation to Wallasey, on the opposite side of the River Mersey, remain unclear. Mike McCartney has suggested that the move resulted from Jim's employment at Napier, believing that his work, regarded as contributing directly to the war effort, entitled the family to housing associated with essential wartime occupations. By contrast, Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn has argued that the house was obtained through one of Jim's former colleagues from the Cotton Exchange. The 'official' version as told in the Beatles' authorised biography by Hunter Davies is a confused mess:
The work at Napiers on the Sabre engines was counted as working for the (Royal) Air Force, so through that he was able to get a house on the Knowlsely estate [sic], Wallasey.
- The Beatles, the Authorised Biography, by Hunter Davies (1968)
Sunbury Road (with No. 10 centre)
Thanks for the memories. My great-aunt lived at number 9 Sunbury Road I stayed there often.
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