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quote:
Noel,
Rigby built the house I used to live in, on the corner--387 Croston Rd.
Small world innit.
John
Isn't it just , John, and what a great site this is for communicating. Ah well off to work now. The old L&B is looking rather sad. Everything behind Fishwick's is knocked down. If there were some way to post a photo I'd do it.
The significant owl hoots in the night.
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According to my brother Colin (who used to be a reporter for the Lancashire Evening Post) the big old house that used to be where QuikSave's parking lot is now, was the HQ for Leyland Construction Company and was called Wellfield House. The company was created towards the end of WW2 to build what became Spurrier Works. The Secondary Modern school was named after the house.
The chairman of the company was Thomas (later Sir Thomas) Hargreaves, who lived in the cream-colored stucco house that is hidden in the trees next to the May Field (going up Church Road towards Balshaw's), opposite Wellington House.
They built a bit after the war, including Hargreaves Avenue, where my family lived when Eileen and I were married.
Not sure when the company closed down, but presumably had done so before QuikSave came along. I have vague memories of the house being derelict.
Frank Damp
Anacortes, WA, USA
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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That has prompted my memory! I do recall it being called Wellfield House, however have no memory of the Hargreaves Builders. What a font on knowledge your brother could be to this site! Not sure about the house on Church Road, that area has changed so much I can hardly recognise it. Mayfields is now a housing estate, as is the land where Stokes Hall was.
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Vanessa:
The old Hargreaves family house is (maybe was?) immediately east of the end of the old Mayfield fence that ran along the edge of the sidewalk on Church Road, on top of a dirt bank. At one time, there was no development across the road (where Stokes Hall was) between Beech Avenue and Wellington House, just a number of fields where a farmer kept cows. There was no sidewalk on the Stokes Hall side of the road. Those fields actually reached across to where my grandparents lived at the foot of Crawford Avenue.
I used to deliver papers on the Church Road route for Threlfall's shop at the Cross, and Hargreaves was one of my customers. The house was just about invisible, as the trees in the front garden were very large. As you came up to the slight kink in Church Road, the driveway to the house angled off to the right, then there was a small pedestrian gate a bit further east.
On my last visit, that area was nearly unrecognisable, with both Stokes Hall and Wellington House gone and the Mayfield built on. I don't remember if Beechfields (the big manor house a bit further up towards Balshaw's on the south side of Church Road) was still there or not.
I've told my brother about this site. He's a very busy lad (runs a pub in Plymouth) so I'm not sure if he'll join in. At least I can ask him questions.
Frank Damp
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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'Twas Leyland construction company I think>My cousin used to work on the office; I used to take a carrier bag round the back where a man gave me free sawdust for my hamster's cage. It was empty for a while but had a preservation order on it as it was quite a fine Georgian house.However,Leyland folk woke up one morning to find that the bulldozers had been brought in the early hours while there was nobody about to protest, and razed it to the ground...Yes, Leyland Palace was a bit of a dump- I saw Rock Around The Clock there when I was about twelve, I was impressed and a bit frightened when Teds got up and started bopping in the aisles.
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Yes, Leyland Palace was a bit of a dump- I saw Rock Around The Clock there when I was about twelve, I was impressed and a bit frightened when Teds got up and started bopping in the aisles
I used to go to the 'Palace' on Saturday's. Usually 'Hopalong Cassidy' or something similar. It sometimes got a bit rowdy during the boring bits whereupon the owners dad would stop the film, walk down to the screen, whack it a few times with his walking stick and threaten to throw us all out if we did'nt keep quiet. The owner [forgotten his name] always arrived before the show with his wife in a convertable pink Cadillac, really something in 1950's Leyland. He usually had a big cigar going.
I think it was he that built and ran the petrol station at Tardy Gate, it was called the 'Riviera' for some reason.
John
