The Sunbury Tales (The McCartneys in Anfield, 1942)

10 Sunbury Road,

Anfield,

Liverpool,

L4 2TT

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:

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)

Knowsley is a village in Merseyside just east of Liverpool, whereas Wallasey is a coastal town on the north-eastern tip of the Wirral Peninsula, facing the Irish Sea. During the mid 1940s the McCartney's lived in both Knowsley Village and Wallasey, but not at the same time.

Sunbury Road (with No. 10 centre)

Paul's first house on Sunbury Road is situated within easy reach of Anfield Road and Walton Breck Road, both locations with important associations in the early history of the Beatles which will be explored in greater detail in future posts. 

Source:

  

Thank U Very Much (book by Mike McCartney, 1982) Link

Mary Had a Little Lamb (the Birthplace of Paul McCartney)

Walton Hospital,

Rice Lane,

Walton,

Liverpool L9 1AE

Walton Hospital, 4 October 2009

Between 1864 and 1869, a new workhouse was constructed on Rice Lane, Walton-on-the-Hill, to serve the northern district of the West Derby Poor Law Union. Designed by the Liverpool architect William Culshaw—who also designed the Toxteth Park Workhouse on Smithdown Road (later Sefton General Hospital, another Beatles' location)—the institution was built at a total cost of approximately £65,000, including the purchase of its 37-acre site from Lord Sefton. 

Initially, the workhouse was designed to accommodate around 1,200 inmates. A contemporary newspaper account described the scale and ambitions of the new institution:

"The grounds extend over an area of 37 acres, and it is intended to devote a great portion of the land to cultivation, so as to afford useful employment for the inmates. At either end of the building are hospitals for male and female inmates, and it is intended immediately to proceed with the laying out of a cemetery and the erection of a church. The main building is already nearly full; and it is probable that in course of time the accommodation will not be too much for the numerous poor chargeable to the rates of the West Derby Union. Messrs. Culshaw and Sumners are the architects, and Mr. James Walters, the builder."

Like many Victorian workhouses, the institution expanded steadily in response to increasing demand. By 1930 it could accommodate approximately 2,500 inmates. The principal building comprised a long three-storey, T-shaped block, with male inmates housed in the eastern wing and female inmates in the western wing. During the twentieth century, the workhouse was progressively transformed into a healthcare institution, first becoming Walton Institution and later forming part of Walton Hospital. 

Mary's Boy Child

The hospital is closely associated with the early life of Paul McCartney, who was born there on 18 June 1942.

His mother, Mary Patricia McCartney (née Mohin), entered the nursing profession in her twenties. It has often been suggested that her decision to pursue a career in nursing was influenced by the death of her own mother during childbirth. She undertook her training at Alder Hey Children's Hospital before transferring to Walton Hospital, where she specialised in midwifery and eventually became a maternity ward sister.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Mary remained a senior member of the maternity staff at Walton Hospital. When she returned as a patient for the birth of her first child, her colleagues ensured that she received the five-star treatment, arranging for her to stay in a private room for the delivery—a privilege that reflected the esteem in which she was held by the hospital staff.

A photograph of Mary McCartney used as the front cover of her son Mike's  first solo album, "Woman" released in February 1972

Paul's birth was difficult. He was born suffering from white asphyxia, a condition in which a newborn fails to establish effective breathing and appears pale owing to inadequate oxygenation. Emergency resuscitation measures, including mouth-to-mouth ventilation and cardiac massage, were required before he began breathing independently.

His father, James McCartney, later recalled his first impressions of his newborn son:

"He looked awful. I couldn't get over it. Horrible. He had one eye open, and he just squawked all the time. They held him up and he looked like a horrible piece of red meat. When I got home I cried, the first time for years and years.

But the next day he looked more human and every day after that he got better and better. He turned out a lovely baby in the end."

— James McCartney, The Beatles by Hunter Davies.

- Liverpool Echo, 18 June 1942.  Baby McCartney is announced in the births column

The baby was named James Paul McCartney,  James after his father, and Paul likely from Paul Clegg, his great-grandfather, though this has never been confirmed.

Eighteen months later, the McCartneys' second son, Peter Michael McCartney, was also born at Walton Hospital, on 7 January 1944.

The hospital continued to serve Liverpool for much of the twentieth century before closing permanently in December 2010. Its historic buildings have since been redeveloped for residential use.

Walton Hospital, Liverpool

Source:

The Workhouse Link

Mike McCartney solo album Woman"

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