Many thanks to Terry Roberts for sending me this photo that shows the old bridge at the bottom of Grange Hill/Grange Road. Terry dates this photo at about 1956 and wonders by any chance if anyone recognises the boy in the photo.
I remember the old bridge being there in the late 1970′s early 1980′s but I can’t recall when it removed? I remember the school buses (Crosville) turning round near the bridge on what was probably one big mud patch.
Feel free to comment.
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I don’t know when the bridge was removed but I certainly remember the row of shops on the right of the picture. Just in view is what was, in the post-war period, when shortages of cash and petrol meant that few people had cars, one of West Kirby’s most important shops – Boardman’s bicylce shop where new bikes were sold and ailing bikes repaired. Boardmans was an indispensible part of the West Kirby scene.
The bridge represented the first puffing stage in my morning slog by bike up Grange Hill to Calday School – overtaken by Crosville buses and struggling heavy lorries on their way to the RAF camp.
The foot of the bridge was, of course, the terminus and turning point for several Crosville bus services – the buses being ‘regulated’ in the late 1940′s by an over-large, red-faced inspector, resplendant with smart uniform and whistle who stood massively outside the cramped little waiting room.
Alongside Boardmans on the right hand side of the picture was the Butcher’s shop, owned by Mr. Denton and his son Keith. Was there a hardware shop on the corner.
I left WK in 1954 and this photo really brings back many memories. During the war I can remember standing on the bridge watching the shunting engine working and the bus is very like the old school bus that used to ferry us to Hoylake Parade. It was called Kate because of the number KA8, the one in the picture seems to be a little younger. Peter is quite right, Boardman’s was an essential part of life then.
I remember the bike shop well as my parents bought my first bike from there in about 1956.
Just up from the bike shop was a ‘Chippy’ , was it Whitely’s ?
thanks for the memories
The hardware shop was called Arthur Lewis’s I think I can remember the place being open in the sixties and specialising in lawnmowers for some reason and the chippy was called Whitelys and you could go through to the back where there was a cafe as well. Above the hardware shop in the forties however was Mrs Orme’s cafe and my nan worked there. Her name was Mrs Mutch and she lived in Dunraven Road at the time. My Grandfather was Fred Mutch and his family were well known in West Kirby. I think his father (My great Grandfather) was the station manager on the old West Kirby station, the one that went along what is now the Wirral Way!
The Hardware shop on the corner was my Great Grandads Shop, my Grandad took it over until he retired, i will ask him when it was that he retired. what a great photo!
The bridge was removed because it was a traffic hazard. Cars would often come down the hill too fast and were unsighted by the initial dip for the bridge. A girl in my school year was killed when a car in which she was travelling took off over the hump causing the driver to loose control.
The main thing I remember is that the 66 Club was on that row of shops in about 1967. I loved that place!
The hardware shop used to be a cafe/restaurant ccalled the Orange Cat (or Kat). My aunt had her wedding reception there in 1946. Just by Boardman’s was Whiteley’s Fish and Chip shop – very popular. I also remember seeing the butcher at Dentons cutting a carcas in half in the doorway his shop. It was tied by its legs to cast iron bars either side fo the doorway. What an extraordinary thing that seems now.
Does anyone remember the Crosville bus before the one shown. It had a Crosville ‘E’ number and had the seats along the sides facing inwards and a bar along the centre for people to hold onto and I operated out of Orrysdale Road depot in the 1940s and early 50s.
Even our transport museum does not seem to have heard of it, but I can remember it because my dad was a conductor on it for a time. All the passengers got on at the front and moved along the bus to seats or a place on the bar.