Going for a Walk

  My mother often looked back with nostalgia to the good old days before   television when people enjoyed the simple pleasure of going for a walk. Often, on a nice summer evening after chapel, a whole group of friends would go out for a walk together.

Here we have a group of people from Digmoor Chapel. I’m sorry I do not know all the names.

1. John Myers,  7. Gladys Johnson nee Myers,   8. Clifford Johnson (Gladys’ husband)    9. Mary Olive Davis nee Lockwood,    10. Hazel Hesketh nee Speakman.

From the left:

Walt Nixon, Mary Hesketh,

Mabel Ashurst, Eric Ashcroft,

Eva Myers, Ernie Pennington,

at the front, Eric Watkinson and

John (Jackie) Myers

Choir Trips.

I grew up hearing lots of stories from my family about all the fun they had on the Digmoor Chapel Choir outings they had each year. This one looks to be in the 1920s, and the ladies look very elegant. The one in the centre is Cath Moss, the only one I know for sure. The lady just behind her in the darkest coat I think looks like Peg Watkinson, who was married to Walt Watkinson.

This Choir trip was to Morcambe, they look like they are having fun!

From the left: Edie Roscoe (nee Lyon)  Hilda Bannister, Lizzie Middlehurst (standing at the back)  Lizzie Lawson,  Ada Rowley, Ivy Sharrock.

Choir trip to Southport.

From the left:

Nellie Myers, Sarah Lawson, the bus driver, Nellie Finney, Edie Lyon.

The face in the bus window is my grandfather, Tom Myers.

The Delph

Many visitors to this site will recognise this scene. I presume it was once a quarry, and had filled with water. Some intrepid locals used to swim there…it must have always been very cold!

Please someone leave a comment and tell me what happened to this once famous landmark, is it still there?

The little boys posing on the edge are members of my family – John (Jackie) Myers and Eric Watkinson.

Grimshaw Lane Shop.

In the 1920s and 30s my Gran, Mrs Alice Myers, had the shop in Grimshaw Lane which was later taken over by the Kenyon family.

The first photo was taken in about 1921, and shows a group of local kids at the back door of the shop.

Standing at the back: Edna Lyon, May Alker, Eva Myers, Abram Ashcroft, Mary Barton.

Seated at the front: Billy Lyon, Belle Myers, Arthur Sixmith.

During a visit to England, my mother and her sister went to visit the shop which had once been their home. In the photo you see my mother, Mrs Eva Coulshed at the left with her sister Mrs Gladys Johnson and Wilma (who was running the shop at the time) in the centre.

This photo was taken either in 1977 or 1981.

Digmoor School Identities

I included this Digmoor School Photo in my last post. Since then I discovered a sheet of names that my mother had written to identify some of the students at the school at the time. (It was just a lucky find…I was looking for something else at the time!)

So I numbered the photo, and here are the names that she could remember. Who knows, the visitors to this site may see an ancestor or two?

1. Anna Lawrenson (Wainwright)     2. ?     3. Jimmy Barton     4. Tom Barton     5. Jack Pennington     6. ? Kenyon     7. Mr. Mack     8. Sally Pennington (Sargeant)     9. ?     10. Jack Ashurst (?)     11. ? Bannister      12. ?     13. ?    14. Polly Stringman     15. Jem Watkinson     16. Lizzie Watkinson (Halliwell)     17. Alice Watkinson (Myers)     18. ? Bannister     19. ? Bannister     20. Jem Kenyon

(She did not know the others.)

Digmoor School (again)

This is a very old photo of Digmoor School, from my Gran’s collection.

This is one of the oldest photos in my collection, and shows my great grandmother Polly Whittle (left) and her sister. Polly was born in 1871, so I guess this photo was taken in about 1876. Polly attended Digmoor school, (though this is not a school photo.) Polly went on to become Mrs Watkinson, who ran the Watkinsons shop at Tawd Bridge. Polly would have been attending Digmoor school during the 1870s to 1880s. Does anyone know the date when the school was started?

This is the oldest actual school photo that I have from Digmoor School, it belonged to my Gran, Mrs Alice Myers, nee Watkinson. She is the girl close to the centre wearing a white pinafore and blond hair with a long fringe. On the left of her, the little girl also with a blond fringe and a white frill on her dress is her sister Lizzie, who became Mrs Will Halliwell. My Gran was born in 1891, and as she looks about 9 or 10 in this photo, I would estimate that the photo was taken around the turn of the century (1900)

My Gran told me that in those days when they were having school photos taken, the students were permitted to bring along their younger siblings to have them included in the photo, so that is why there are a couple of toddlers and a baby in the photo.

This photo recently came into my possession from my Nana Coulshed’s collection. It is definitely at Digmoor School again, but what the occasion was, I do not know. It seems like there must have been some sort of working bee with the local ladies all in their pinnies, and then two very important ladies in the centre – not wearing pinnies but very stylish hats instead. They must have been important visitors, I think. I wish I knew the story behind it. My Nana, Mrs Coulshed, is fourth from the right on the back row, but I do not know the names of any of the other ladies.

Finally, another view of the school that was sent to us after we came to Australia. It would have been taken in the early sixties. There is also one of those street lights which had to be turned on by the one armed lamplighter!

Aunty Sally

My great aunt Sally Johnstone, nee Watkinson. She was quite a well known character, born in Tawd Bridge. She was completely deaf, but never handicapped by this at all. She was the best lipreader I have ever known and could also speak very well, and nothing ever stopped her from enjoying life. She is seen here at the door of her house in Tawd Bridge holding one of her great-nephews.

When my family and I emigrated to Australia, Aunty Sally was always a regular letter writer and kept us well informed of all the local goings on. She loved to go out and take photos of anyone and anything, so she sent us a lot of nice photos over the years. Some of these have already appeared on this website in other galleries, but I am going to post some here as well.

The following photos were all taken in the early 1960s.

Tawd Bridge locals, Mrs Muldoon (left) and Mrs Mary Anne Pennington, sitting at the bus stop on the corner of Spencers Lane and Ormskirk Road. (I am a bit surprised that these ladies consented to have their photos taken while wearing their “pinnies”!)

Three of my former school friends from Dogmoor School, Sheila Bennett, Valerie Taylor and Betty Davis. Very stylish teenagers in the early 1960s.

At the bus stop again. From the left,  Beverly (nee Roughly) Jacqueline Bryers, Mary Forshaw and I can’t remember the other one, ( I hope someone will tell me who she is!)

Tawd Bridge in the snow. The lady on the right is Lizzie Arnold, but I am not sure who the other two are. Maybe someone will comment and remind me!

The Back Lane

I have written about the back lane before, but I thought I would share this photo which is the only one I have of the back lane – and my brother Harold joyfully running down it!

“The Sermons”

1. ? 2. Christine Birch, 3. Cynthia Howarth, 4. Evelyn Nixon                            1. Susan Hartley (?) 2. Jaqueline Bryers,

5. Susan Hartley(?), 6.Jacqueline Bryers, 7. Edith Coulshed                            3. Edith Coulshed, 4. Beverly

8. Nellie Peet                                                                                                                           (nee Roughly) 5. Nellie Peet,

6. Janet Peet, 7. Ethne (nee Halliwell)                                   These photos are from 1952 I think.

1. Christine Birch, 2, ?, 3. Harold Coulshed, 4. Janet Peet

5. Edith Coulshed, 6. Jacqueline Bryers, 7. Maureen Seddon

8. Myra Ball, 9. Nellie Peet

This photo was probably taken in 1953

This last photo was taken in 1956, I think. It shows my mother, Eva Coulshed (back row right) and her sister Belle (Ramsay) with Edith Coulshed, Keith Ramsay, Jean Ramsay and Harold Coulshed. We are all dressed up in our finest Sermons clothes! It looks like the photo was taken out in the countryside somewhere, but actually it was just down in the “garden” or pasture at the back of my Gran’s house alongside the Grimshaw brook.

My mother’s family all belonged to the Digmoor Methodist Chapel, and a very important part of their year was what they called “The Sermons” or in other words, the chapel walking day. I suppose it was called the sermons, because as all the congregation walked in procession around the village, they would stop at various places, sing hymns and a preacher would deliver a short sermon before the procession continued.

Much preparation and practice went into the sermons, which also included organising the children of the Sunday school, deciding what form the procession would take, and practicing the music for the services in the chapel that day.

It seems to have been an important occasion for the ladies of the congregation in that they all tried to get new summer outfits to wear on the big day. My Mother told me that they used to have a clothing club, and paid in a small anount each week so that they could afford to have their new clothes for the occasion.

Many far flung members of the family would try to return to Digmoor for the sermons, so it was also a time for family reunion and special occasion foods for the visitors.

Everybody hoped and prayed for fine weather for the day of the sermons.

Digmoor shop 3