Stocky Wood

Stockton Wood Infants School,

All Saints Road

Speke,

Liverpool

L24 3TF

Stockton Wood School in the late 1980s (source: Facebook)

In the 1930s, Liverpool Council had little choice but to start building large housing estates on the outskirts of the city. By 1939, three sites had been bought, but the outbreak of the Second World War brought most new building work to a halt as labour and materials were redirected to the war effort.

One of those sites was Speke, in the southeast of Liverpool. Work had actually begun there in 1936, and after the war construction gathered pace. By the time the estate was more or less complete in 1957, more than 6,000 homes had been built.

Western Avenue (LRO)

Paul McCartney had just turned five when his family moved to Speke in August 1947. It was the furthest south the family had ever lived. His mother, Mary, had taken a job as a Liverpool Corporation municipal midwife on the new estate, and the job came with a house at 72 Western Avenue. The road was so new that it was still being built when they arrived. Young saplings had been planted along the middle, but the grass had yet to take hold.

The move from Sir Thomas White Gardens in Everton also coincided with Jim McCartney returning to work in his beloved cotton industry, something he had been unable to do during the war, and with the start of Paul's schooling.

Although both boys had been baptised Catholics, Jim decided not to send them to a Catholic school. He felt that too much emphasis was placed on religion and not enough on education. Instead, Paul was enrolled at Stockton Wood Road Infants, a new Church of England school just behind their home.

The school had been built to accommodate more than a thousand children, but the post-war baby boom, combined with the steady arrival of new families on the estate, soon pushed numbers even higher. 

Many of these new families had come from some of Liverpool's poorest and most overcrowded areas, where unemployment was only one of a long list of hardships.

It was a tough environment, and many - but not all - of the children reflected that. Paul and Mike soon discovered that, at least in the playground, being able to look after yourself was important. Fighting was part of school life.

Paul remembers, “I started school in a really rough part of Liverpool. I had as many fights as anyone else. I remember once grabbing a lad and hitting him with a big bar – I was only about five.” For this, he was scolded by the headteacher in front of the whole school and faced an even bigger telling-off when he got home.

Mike McCartney gives a similarly lively account in "Thank U Very Much", remembering how often his big brother came to his rescue in the school yard. Mike eventually had a little gang of his own and, on one occasion, took matters into his own hands when an older boy had been picking on younger girls. Charging across the yard in full war cry, his solution was rather extreme: he dropped a house brick on the bully's head. As Mike put it, “after that bloody, awful incident, he didn’t bully little girls, or anyone else again.”

It was also at “Stocky Wood”, as the boys knew it, that Paul and Mike saw their first film. Dick Barton: Special Agent, starring Don Stannard in the title role. It was released in May 1948, the first of three Barton films made by Hammer Film Productions based on a BBC radio series which was a great favourite of the young McCartneys.

Paul, however, wasn't exactly impressed.

Sitting on wooden benches in the darkened school hall, he was apparently scared out of his wits. He became so desperate to get out that he scrambled over his classmates in his hurry to escape, much to the amusement of his younger brother.

School attendance wasn't always a priority either. Paul was bright and more than capable of doing well in class, but he could easily be distracted — usually with Mike in tow.

Mike remembered the summer of 1951 in particular, when the two boys would “sag off” and spend their days exploring instead of going to school. They would pass the rubber factories, many of which were still disguised with wartime camouflage, wander through the grounds of Speke Hall and eventually make their way down to the River Mersey. At the time, the river was still clean enough for the boys to go skinny dipping.

That particular freedom came to an abrupt end in September 1951. As the post-war baby boom in Speke reached its peak, with around 1,500 children of school age, Stockton Wood was struggling to cope**. Paul and Mike were moved to Joseph Williams Primary School in Belle Vale (Gateacre), which, , as luck would have it, was short of older pupils. It's not entirely clear whether Mike moved at the same time as Paul and the fifty or so other children, or whether he followed a year or so later with his own age group.

Apparently Mike McCartney has made it known over the years that one of his most sought after items is a Stocky Wood badge - "black and yellow, with a picture of a Spitfire flying over the River Mersey" - if you have one I'm sure he'd like to hear from you.

Maybe Paul might give him his! (YouTube)

This was one of the first "Beatle locations" I went to photograph, long before I learnt that it was always an idea to check if the building I wanted to photograph was still there before setting off.

Unfortunately I was too late. A new purpose built school stands on the site and nothing remains of the original buildings. The new school operates a house system named after the four Beatles, a nice acknowledgement of the link to one of their most famous former pupils.

Stockton Wood Primary School today

This photograph shows the teachers at Stockton Wood circa 1950-51, towards the end of the McCartney's time at the school. The photograph below shows Mr. Kellet and his pupils in one of the school's classrooms in 1952.

Notes:

* Opened June 1940.

** Reportedly making Stockton Wood the biggest Primary School in the UK

Source:

Thank U Very Much - Mike McCartney's Family Album" (Mike McCartney)

http://www.liverpool-schools.co.uk/html/stocktonwood.html

Crossing Western Avenue to "Stocky Wood" (LRO)

.

Published 26 September 2012.

The Tommy White Album

Sir Thomas White Gardens,

St. Domingo Road,

Everton,

Liverpool 5

The McCartneys in Everton 

(1945-1947)

St. Domingo Road, Everton at the time the McCartneys lived here. The chimneys of "Tommy Whites" are visible on the top left of the hill. (L.R.O)

Taken almost from the same position as the previous photo but dating from the 1960s after the trams were taken out of service. (L.R.O)

After leaving R.O.F. Kirkby, Jim McCartney’s next job took him back to Liverpool, to Everton where he’d grown up. Unable to return to the Cotton Exchange because of the war, he found work in the Cleansing Department of the Liverpool Corporation as an inspector of refuse collectors, making sure the dustmen did their jobs properly. It was a far cry from the cotton trade and likely not a role Jim enjoyed, but with a wife and two young sons to support, it would have to do for now.

Mary had spent the past two years at home caring for Paul and Michael, and after returning to Walton Hospital to give birth to both boys, she realised how much she missed her old profession. Likely due to tight finances, Mary also found work with the Liverpool Corporation, as a municipal midwife. The job let her work from home and came with a rented flat at 75 Sir Thomas White Gardens, a huge tenement block on St. Domingo Road.

It was a tiring but fulfilling role for Mary, who had to be on call at all hours. The boys would watch their mum leave the ground floor flat in her crisp blue and white uniform, a respected figure in the neighborhood, while poor Jim carried on with his dreary rounds, checking up on dustmen and waiting for the day he could return to his trade. He might not have been an actual dustman or worn their hat and ‘cor blimey trousers,’ but here they were, living in a council flat. When both parents were out working, one of Jim’s sisters would step in to look after Paul and Mike.

Map showing the position of

 St. Edward's Roman Catholic College

The tenements were just five years old when the McCartney family moved in. Between 1938 and 1940, 348 flats were built on the former site of St. Edward's College, which had been founded as a boarding school in 1848 in a grand mansion called St. Domingo House, named after the Isle of San Domingo where George Campbell, a privateer and later Mayor of Liverpool (1763–64), had prospered. 

Liverpool’s Catholic population grew rapidly during the Great Irish Famine (1845–52), and it’s thought that only about 5% of their children were receiving any education when the College was established. 

Around the same time, Alexander Goss (1814–72), coadjutor bishop of Liverpool, saw the need for a cathedral to serve his growing congregation and selected the grounds of St. Edward’s College. In 1853, he commissioned Edward Welby Pugin (1833–1875) to design the new cathedral.

Our Lady Immaculate which stood at 69A St. Domingo Road, Everton, L5 4LH (L.R.O)

The Lady Chapel of the pro-cathedral was opened by Bishop Goss on 7 December 1856, but with greater focus on building new churches and educating Catholic children, funds were redirected and construction stopped. The Lady Chapel – later renamed Our Lady Immaculate – became the parish church for the local Catholic community, which likely included Mary McCartney when she moved to St. Thomas White Gardens in 1945.

On 19 September 1938, St. Edward’s moved from St. Domingo Road to Sandfield Park in West Derby, an occasion marked by every student walking the three miles from Everton to the new location. Soon after, the old college was demolished and construction work began on the new tenements. A section of the original sandstone wall from the college was incorporated into the boundary wall of Sir Thomas White’s in Penrose Street, and ironically, it remains the only surviving remnant of either building today.

According to the Sir Thomas White Gardens' Facebook page the lady about to cross Penrose Street is Mrs Ringworm (photo circa 1973). Part of the large stone wall is still present today.(L.R.O)

The artists impression for Sir Thomas White Gardens with St. Domingo Road running to the left, Beacon Lane to the right, and Penrose Street across the top

As can be seen from the original design above, the new building had to accommodate the site of the existing church. The plans were ultimately scaled back, presumably due to the outbreak of the Second World War, and the flats in the bottom right corner were never built.

Sir Thomas White JP was a Liverpool Councillor who had began his working life as a cabin boy before building his career in the brewing trade. He entered local politics and became chairman of the Tramways and Electricity Committee and was later chairman of both the Liverpool Housing Committee and Speke Airport Development Committee, living on Menlove Avenue for a time. He died in 1938 and as a tribute the new housing development was named after him.

Both Paul and Michael McCartney have written autobiographies and "Tommy Whites" is mentioned in both books, but neither appear to have retained any memories of the place. As Mike admits, he was only three at the time. 

When Mike returned to his old home in the late ’70s to snap a photo for his book, he ended up with a more memorable impression than planned—courtesy of his foot. Stepping out of the car, he landed right in a pile of dog muck. Definitely not the homecoming he’d envisioned.

Paul and Mike circa 1947 (c) Paul and Michael McCartney

These tenement flats, like many in Liverpool, were built around wide communal squares and housed hundreds of people. Whilst Paul and Mike were barely there long enough to form any sort of attachment it is clear that those who lived there longer hold many fond memories. Whilst doing research for this blog I was surprised to discover a Facebook page set up and devoted to “Tommy Whites” and its former residents, all of whom, seemingly without exception recall their time there with great fondness and sentimentality. Clearly the tenants here shared strong bonds and a sense of community. With Everton being one Liverpool’s poorest areas the families here may never have had much wealth to speak of but they looked after each other.

Dave Parkinson was a former resident and lived in flat 72 between 1949 and 1965. His flat was in the front square on beacon lane and recalls “we was all posh we had an indoor toilet, not like me granddad, he lived in (nearby) Calder Street, he shared his outside bog with his pigeons. Great memories”

Anne Hess recalls that "when I grew up there (many moons ago) we used to walk around the first square under that very arch and sing ‘We are the tommy white gang, we know our manners and how to spend are tanners we are the tommy white gang”

Mavis Ellis: “I used to go out down the slope, but back home up the steps, because the bus stop was right opposite, I used to hate going home, running through the arches across the squares, then up the stairs, sometimes the lights were out on the staircase, I used to be terrified some times, I don't know how we did it, when I think about it now, Ha!!!”

Mary Jones: “Does anyone else remember the smell of Sunday roasts coming out of all of the kitchen windows onto the landings. Lovely memories”

Debra Jones has more specific memories regarding Our Lady Immaculate: “The large middle window of the church was the alter .. The left side of the church, was where the crib was situated at Christmas, the confessionals were on the left also... If you walked up from the altar to the middle of the church, there was a double door, this led to the vestry and the sacristy.. At the very back of the church was the organ , Mrs Walsh from Our Lady's school played the organ... I remember the smell of the candles, the polish, and Father Carr’s tobacco... Our bench was facing the christening font by the doors...”

Freddy O’Connor, author of “Liverpool It All Came Tumbling Down”(revised edition 2013) recalls his daily walk through the flats with his brothers, sister and friends when at school. “Occasionally we would encounter sectarian trouble, not that we’d even heard of the word then just the Orange (protestant) and the Green (catholic) to us, and our school was in an Orange area anyway, although Catholics also lived here”

It seems another big memory for a lot of the former residents is the games of football which took place in the big square. Freddy O’Connor: “It was amazing, no one ever knew how many a side were playing, it could have been anything up to 30 odd each team, or even more, and the score would be as high, no one ever got it quite right, far too many goals!”

The lady who has helped me out most with my research for this blog is Christina Smith another former resident from the Facebook page. One of the other members of the group posted the photograph above. The girl with her hand in her pocket is Christina’s sister and the little boy at the front is her brother. What’s remarkable here is that the photograph also shows the actual flat where the McCartneys lived. 

Christina confirms that the two ground floor windows on the bottom right hand side belong to number 75, and to the right of it is the “wonderfully historic Beacon Lane”.

She adds “If you’ve never put a piece of wood on top of a set of pram wheels and hurtled down the Beacon Lane cobbles, you’ve never lived!”. To my knowledge, this is the first time the McCartney’s flat has been positively identified. Thanks Christina!

Another view of the McCartney's flat viewed from Beacon Lane (L.R.O)

List of voters for Sir Thomas White Gardens with Jim and Mary at no. 75

In August 1947, the McCartneys made their first move to South Liverpool. The Liverpool Corporation’s Municipal Midwifery Service needed a domiciled midwife on the new housing estate in Speke, and the job came with a rent-free house at 72 Western Avenue. Mary accepted the position, and after two years in Tommy Whites, the family was on the move once again.

Paul himself seems unsure as the reason behind their move to Speke: I don’t know why; maybe she volunteered. Maybe she wanted to get a new house because a house came with the job.

A document exists of the minutes of a 1947 health committee meeting concerning the transfer of Mary McCartney to 72 Western Avenue and reads: “Nurse McCartney has incurred expense in removing her furniture to this address and as the transfer was effected in order to meet the convenience of the Midwifery Department, the Medical Officer recommends that she be paid a sum not exceeding £5 to cover her expenses, in accordance with the usual custom”

"It all came tumbling down" -  the rubble in the foreground was formerly block 16 to 20

The flats were demolished in 1984-5 and despite having listed status, the Chapel of Our Lady Immaculate was demolished in 1990.

"Tommy Whites" viewed from Penrose Street

The colour photo below was taken in the late 1960s by Philip G Mayer: Looking east across St Domingo Road we can see STW on the right. From left to right - The church of St Cuthberts which stood on the junction of Robson Street and Burleigh Road South until demolition in 1970, in the foreground is the short Hodder Street, then Calder Street, Carmel Street (where my parents-in-law were living when my wife was born in 1970), and Penrose Street adjacent to Tommy White’s.

Carmel Street (Nos 3-23 on 12.1.68) - with housing typical of many streets surrounding "Tommy Whites". All would be cleared by the early 1970s.(L.R.O)

A new housing estate now occupies the triangular site of "Tommy White's". Comparing today's map with the one at the start of this blog, the clearance of the surrounding "slum housing" in the late 1960s and subsequent redevelopment is all too evident. Beacon Lane for example, is a fraction of its former length. (Google)

It wasn’t just the Victorian terraced streets that were cleared; in many cases, entire areas of Everton were demolished—good housing alongside the dire—often with little thought about what would replace them. In the process, the heart of the community was torn out, as residents received compulsory purchase orders and were relocated to new estates in Kirkby, Speke, and Cantril Farm. Many say the slum clearances by Liverpool Council caused more destruction than the Blitz itself.

Some of the cleared sites remained untouched until the last couple of decades. The issue was that, with government grants, purchasing and demolishing properties was relatively cheap, but through the 1970s and 1980s there simply weren’t enough funds for rebuilding. Today, while Everton is still one of Liverpool’s most deprived areas, it has been redeveloped with masses of green space, and continues to boast the best view over the city centre.

Source:

Web:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/9513633599/?fref=ts

Book:

Freddy O’Connor: Liverpool It All Came Tumbling Down (revised edition 2013)

Share your memories of "Tommy Whites" here!

Give My Regards To Broadway

92 Broadway Avenue,

Wallasey,

Wirral,

CH45 4SF

Broadway Avenue, Wallasey, Wirral (with no. 92 pinpointed) (Bing Maps)

Paul McCartney's  second home on the corner of Broadway Avenue and Brookway

At the time of Paul McCartney's birth in June 1942 his parents Jim and Mary were living in rented accommodation at 10 Sunbury Road in Anfield, near Liverpool city centre.

 The infant Paul with Mary (credit: Paul and Mike McCartney)

Mary was a nurse and as one would expect, obsessed with cleanliness and hygiene. One summer's day Paul was sitting in his pram in the garden when Mary was horrified to find his face flecked with soot. That was reason enough for her to insist they must move house. 

For a short time, perhaps only a month or so around November 1942 and certainly no later than the middle of 1943,  the McCartneys moved to this fine semi detached house in Wallasey over on the Wirral.

How they got the house remains a bit of a mystery. Reportedly it was the property of one of Jim's colleagues at the Cotton Exchange, although with his work there suspended during the war I wonder how much contact he still had with them. Other sources, possibly originating from Mike McCartney's book "Thank U Very Much" suggest that the house came through Jim's wartime work at Napiers. The job was classified as Air Force making Jim eligible for this government sponsored house.

Some suggest the McCartneys moved to the relative safety of the Wirral to escape the nightly Luftwaffe bombing raids. However, since Wallasey docks were hit just as hard and as often as Liverpool’s, this makes little sense. It’s also worth noting that the last major raid on Liverpool happened in January 1942, six months before Paul was born.

The reason why the McCartney family moved back over to Liverpool so quickly after arriving in Wallasey is similarly unclear. From the Wirral it was certainly a lengthy commute for Jim to the factory on the East Lancashire Road but his work at Napier's seems to have come to an end around this time and they may have lost the house as a result (although I think its strange they'd even bother moving him in for such a short time if this was the case). Another suggestion is that with a young infant Mary found that she was too far away from family support and with a second baby on the way from around Spring 1943 the move back over the Mersey had become a necessity.

Jim found work at the Liverpool Corporation cleansing department and the McCartneys lived for a time with Auntie Gin and her family at Fieldton Road, in the Croxteth area of Liverpool and, ironically, not far from the East Lancs Road where Jim had just finished working.

Peter Michael McCartney would arrive in January 1944 by which time Jim had a new job, and the McCartney's a new home: a bungalow in Roach Avenue, Knowsley.

A short distance from Broadway Avenue is the Grosvenor Ballroom in Grosvenor Street which would become a regular venue for the Beatles in 1960.

Source:

Mike McCartney - "Thank U Very Much - Mike McCartney's Family Album" (book)

McCartney family photos - property of Paul and Mike McCartney.

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