Here's the Sandy Lane article by Mary Cuckson which appeared in the West Lancashire Magazine Vol 1 issue 5 in July 1981, kindly donated to me by Geoff Peet.

We don't all want Hypermarkets, Shopping Precincts or Arndale Centres. In fact many of us here in Skelmersdale would dearly love to be able to turn back the clock and have Sandy Lane just as it used to be.
Alas! We know that it isn't possible except in our imagination.

Top o' the lane! To outsiders passing through this was simply a crossroads, the junction of three roads, Liverpool Road, High Street and Sandy Lane. Liverpool Road led to Rainford and St Helens, to Ormskirk and Liverpool. High Street led to Upholland and Wigan and Sandy Lane was our main street with more than forty shops and with the Town Hall at the bottom.
But the top o' the lane was much more than this. Looking back, I see it as the hub of the wheel, the very heart of our town, the centre of things!

Here was the familiar black and white of the Skelmersdale Arms and behind it the Masonic Hall. Here we came on Friday nights in the twenties and thirties, to the flourishing little market which was held in the Masonic Hall and in the yard behind the hotel.

Here was a modern building, the Majestic, which began life as a dance hall and later became our second cinema. There was also a period between the two when the Majestic became a repertory theatre where we could see a different play every night of the week.

Here was the Shoe Factory where many Skelmersdale people spent most of their working lives. Before being taken over by the Skelmersdale Shoe Company in 1919, this large building had been the Market Hall and also the venue for local dances and concerts.

Here too, at the top of High Street, was the football field, the home of Skelmersdale United and the scene of Inter-school sports, open-air meetings, carnivals and every kind of outdoor activity. For a whole month in midsummer Silcock's Fair took up residence on the football field for this was the season for our annual 'tea-parties'.

Walking Day procession near the bottom of Sandy Lane about 1907-8

On four succeeding Saturdays the local churches held their processions of witness, each followed by tea for the children and sports and all the fun of the fair in the evening. During this time the football field lost it's identity and became known as 'the tea-party field'.

On each top corner of Sandy Lane itself was a chip shop. Davies's on the Liverpool Road corner and Humphrey's on the High Street corner. And surely no two chip shops were ever more favourably situated. At mid-day ordinary shoppers were joined by workers from the Shoe Factory as soon as the twelve o'clock whistle blew. In the evenings the irresistible smell of fish and chips drew in those leaving the Skelmersdale Arms, the Masonic Hall and the football field, as well as the patrons of the first and second house at 'the pictures'.
There were the bus passengers too for the Ormskirk and Wigan bus stops were within a few yards of both the chip shops. I'm thinking now the days when there were penny bags for the children and a tuppeny bag with a tuppeny or three penny fish, was a satisfying meal for a man.

The pit buses too, stopped at the top o' the lane after every shift, spilling out their cargo of black-faced, work-weary miners. Pavements then echoed to the familiar ring of clogged feet as they made their way home to food and rest.
It was here too that the old men and the unemployed would gather, passing their time in reminiscence, sharing their troubles and perhaps consoling each other a little.
And, should you wish to risk sixpence each way on a horse you fancied, it was to the top of Sandy Lane that you came to find a bookie.

Early view of the bottom of Sandy Lane. Note: no houses on the right after the shops

Later view of the bottom of Sandy Lane. Note: The houses on the right now

In Sandy Lane itself you could buy anything from a sewing needle to a suite of furniture, from a bicycle to a battery for your'flashlight'. You could have your shoes cobbled, your clogs clogged. You could have a haircut and shave, a bob, a shingle or even a permanent wave.

There was a choice of butchers, bakers and confectioners, grocers and greengrocers and fishmongers. There were two more chip shops half way down Sandy Lane and yet another at the bottom. Drapery and haberdashery were supplied by Mrs Bolton, Mrs Carr and the Misses Close as well as the C.W.S. drapery department. There were three newsagents, two doctor's surgeries, two chemists, several banks and a Post Office. You could drink a pint in one of several pubs or enjoy afternoon tea at Swift's Cafe. All these there were and many others too numerous to mention.

But Sandy Lane was more than this. On Friday afternoons there was a different atmosphere, almost an air of festivity. It was as though the street celebrated a week's work well done and the weekend in sight. Shopping became a social occasion. Housewives met and chatted, exchanging news and titbits of gossip. Young mothers pushing prams, enjoyed showing off their babies to each other and comparing their progress.

And at night, when the shops were closed, Sandy Lane took on yet another role. Now it became the parade ground for the local lads and lasses. We didn't know the word 'teenager' then. Up the lane to the Majestic or down to the Empire in Elson Road. And if they weren't bound for 'the pictures' they sauntered up and down in twos and threes, calling to each other, chatting, flirting, now and then pairing off and sometimes even quarreling. Many a courtship began, continued and was brought to a successful conclusion, in Sandy Lane.

Only very late at night, or maybe around mid-day on a Sunday when church-goers had been and gone, would you find Sandy Lane quiet and deserted. At any other time it was a busy bustling street full of life and activity.

It's all changed now! The Developers came! But we who have been here longer than they have, still cherish our memories . . . . and see our ghosts!