St oswalds church, Ronald Ross - old pics of original church

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johnsonr380
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 Post subject: Old st oswalds church, netherton
Hi looking for some old pics of he original st oswalds church, it was locate where st oswalds court is now. It's currently located on ronald Ross ave, netherton, l30. Any help will be much appreciated
It's for a 25 year anniversary of the sheltered accomadation that is currently on the land

Thanks
kmc
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Probably not what you were hoping for but i may have some of me demolishing it.
Will dig them out and try to put on forum.
Kev.
Bootlelass-expat
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Hi Kev

I would love to see those photos and the date it was actually demolished.

I believe it was about 1977 that it was declared unsafe.


Doreen
kmc
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I'm going to have a go at putting the pics on this morning Doreen. So stand by.
I can't remember the exact date of the demolition,but it was in the eighties.
Kev.
kmc
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Doreen,
Have looked through our old diaries.
Demolition was January-March 1985.
Kev.
Bootlelass-expat
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Thank you Kev

I guess we are using two posts. Only just read this.

Doreen
marcos_cu
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I'd be interested in seeing the pix as I was living away from Netherton at the time and was amazed to return home to see the church gone. I remember the church well and the old 1930's structure that it replaced.
Formerly Assissian Crescent, Netherton - Bootle Grammar 1968-72

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carbonbianchi
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I've just seen the photos of the St Oswalds Church demolition on the Forum and had to write - I sang in the Church choir in 1976 when I was 19 and I remember performing a Carol service in the Church and afterwards in the nearby Old folks home where we were warmly appreciated - I can't remember the name of the Choirmaster, he was an amusing chap!

As an Architectural student in Liverpool Polytechnic at the time ( with digs in Old Roan - I later moved to Hightown ), I was fascinated about the failing Concrete structure due to the use of High Alumina cement - it was a product which cured ( hardened ) the Portal frames in 10 days rather than 30, enabling much faster construction ( hindsight is a great thing! ). You could see the cracks inside even then and it didn't look safe ( I'm surprised it lasted until 1985 ).

It was a beautiful crisp modern interior with the choir unusually seated at the rear of the Church ( designed, I was told, to help boost the congregation's singing ). I remember demolition being discussed even then but there was no insurance money available as it was a latent building defect rather than an accident. No doubt they were still opaying for the building when it was demolished? Sad to see it go though wonderful to see the photos.

Paul McGarvey Architect, Northern Ireland
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Bonesy
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I remember a story being told or I might have read it about it, Can't remember which.
A German fighter plane crashed landed into the land where Bootle Boys grammar school would be built.
During the landing it took the chimney of the vicarage of St Oswalds with it.
Apparently rather than removing the remains of the plane, they buried it and is still there to this day.

Keith
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Dan
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Keith. Found the reference under this Britain from Above picture.

December 12 1952. No Ford or Netherton estates. First families started to move in from December 1953 onwards.

Upper right Netherton Moss school and further above right the 5 semi detached homes on Fleetwoods Lane.

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Regards

Dan
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Bonesy
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Dan, well done I knew I had read it somewhere.
One of the comments mentioned a Mrs Hicks
I wonder if she was/is related to Bee Hicks on our forum.
Isn't that the Ford and Daleacre estates top lft of the photo.
My family moved into Mack Grove, Ford in December 1953.


Keith
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Dan
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I think it's Simons Coft and Blyth Hey (the white houses that were dotted throughout the area).

I think of Ford as the area centred on the old St Thomas Aquinas, between the holy Drives and Fleetwoods Lane.
Netherton would be Dodge (Hereford Drive) and the Square,( Marian Way,Peterborough, Glovers Lane, and the Nobel Prize winners estate. Schweizer, Ross, Curie and, admittedly he didn't win an NP , Harvey).

Completely missed Mack Grove.December 1953 would have been newly built. The whole of the Netherton/Ford estates, built then, was on land Bootle commandeered from Ormskirk District Council..
So you'd be Sterrix, Netherton Moss or Holy Ghost? We all carry an indelible mark.
You should be able to see the old house that stood on Sefton Moss Lane. towards the Sterrix Lane end.
I remember being chased by the Alsatian that lived there.
Amazing all the farm land.

Regards

Dan
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Bonesy
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Sterrix Dan, the army huts. I remember that house became the caretakers house and I have a vague memory of the Alsatian.
At the very top of the pic you can see The Taylor's Arms (Cooksons)
Keith
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Invicta
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Good line, Army Huts, Netherton Moss then WB :D

Dan are you sure about 1953 for the Ford estates? I was 4 when we moved to Ford, born 5/1948 and not at school.
Ken
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Bonesy
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Dan, my perception of Ford was bounded by the canal, Boundry Lane, Sterrix Lane, Gorsey Lane, canal. Everything else on the other side of the canal was Daleacre. Fleetwood Lane was always Netherton.

Keith
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Dan
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I can't see anything on the picture by Fleetwoods Lane Ken, and that was 1952.
The early housing looks, to me, like Simon's Croft (just behind the hills) and some on one side of Gorsey Lane, Park Lane/ Bridge Lane semis, and the five semis on Fleetwoods Lane.
Ford and Netherton estates, the corpy housing, would be in the upper right quadrant of the photo. Just lots of grass.

There doesn't appear to be enough room to fit in two football pitches on the land in front of the hills.
You needed to be half mountain goat to play on the pitch at the Stand Park end.
Build up a lead kicking downhill in the first half ,then hang on for dear life in the second half.

I'll try and get an equivalent view of the area today for comparison

As for the annexe, I think it was a bit like St Martins on Stanley Road, lots of schools used them as temporary residence.
Holy Ghost had them from approx 1962.
The photos of the school football and cricket teams I posted were taken at the annexe.
Sterrix Lane school was immediately to the rear on the photos.

Don't know if it is an apocryphal story, but I heard the hills on both sides of the canal were erected to carry a link road between the Cabbage and Dunnings Bridge.
Bit like the story of the Princess Way bridge that was meant to go over the Hawthorne Road junction at the White House but someone got it wrong.

Edit. I can't replicate the exact view, but if you use the golf course and canal to get your bearings you'll have fun.

Image

Image

Regards

Dan
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Bonesy
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Dan for absolute certainty the hills either side of the canal were ramps for a road bridge heading directly from Netherton way and to come out as you say at the Cabbage Inn and continue on to the Form by by pass.
Certainty on the "big hill" as we called it on the Ford side of the canal drains had been laid to accommodate the road . As kids we would lift the lid on the drains and climb down a ladder to explore. :D

Keith
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Invicta
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Correct Keith , that is my memory. We had 2 pitches beyond the “big hill “ on our side, both were rough but one at the Holy Ghost end was marginally better but they were full of glass from a former dump. Ken
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Bonesy
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Deadly to play on those pitches cus, we was tough in them thar days. Imagine the little darlings now :lol:


Keith
J.F.G
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Afternoon

This thread has awoke a few memories from 50 plus years ago, I remember the corporation yard in Bridge lane, and walking to school ( Our Lady of Walsingham ) I can vividly remember someone in one of the houses on Bridge lane playing the Bagpipes on a regular basis.

I also recall the Holy Ghost hills as being earmarked for a road between Dunnings Bridge road and the Cabbage Inn.

On the black / white photograph posted by Dan, is that the Forticrete depot on the right side of Park Lane west, also if you follow the path of Park Lane west, what is the building on the site of the old St Oswalds church ?, I recall there being a long hut adjacent to the church, the Bootle St Christopher cycle club used to meet there, I used to ride around the country with this club, till I found drink and girls !

I was of the opinion that " Ford " was the estate opposite the cemetery ?

Regards

John
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BOBHAMO
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I used to go to my cousins in Tristrans croft 1956ish :D :D
it was like going to the country all the land at the back with the hill
was a great adventure John my cousin still lives there
im lived off simons croft for about ten years
and my children where baptized at the Holy ghost and went to the school
sefton moss lane was called Blindpool lane and where the huts where that was park cottage
next to it was a stone quarry
rimrose brook followed the back of the golf course and along the side of the canal
happy times
Image
bobhamo
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Dan
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Cheers Bob
Bobhamo's picture is June 29 1953.

Can't miss the hook of Sterrix Lane in the centre. From Britain from Above - Sterrix Lane the boundary between Litherland and Ford?


The derelict house that I remembered, in the early 60s, is on the bottom right of the picture on Sefton Moss Lane, almost opposite the annexe.

Would I be right in thinking the houses in the distance,upper left, are in Crosby?
And is that Thornton in the distance behind Cookson's?

Someone on the Britain from Above site has mentioned Sniggery Wood. I don't know if that refers to the clump of trees around the Convent of the Good Shepherd or the clump of trees, upper right, on the way to Thornton.
You can make out Ford cemetery upper left just above the trees on the left.

Regards

Dan
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Dan
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Found this on the Netherton Moss Primary School thread on this site, from 12 years ago.

Image

Regards

Dan
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Bonesy
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Dan, both rjkelett and Red Ron where members of this forum.


Keith
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Invicta
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I can’t make out that pic. Where is the Convent and Ford Cemetry ? Ken
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Bonesy
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Ken, the Greenie is the diamond shape area.
To the top tip to the left the dark areas are the trees at the convent, just above that is the cemetery.

Keith
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Invicta
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Cheers Cus,
I’ll have a closer look on the desk top sometime. K
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Dan
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Ken detail from the photo showing the cemetery and the Convent.

The line of houses to the right are on Sterrix Lane.
Gorsey Lane, no houses, is on the upper boundary of the cemetery.

Image



Regards

Dan
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Dan
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Found Sniggery Wood

Image

August 12 1953

Fields in cultivation between Sniggery Wood and Hall Road East.

Regards

Dan
SteveC
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Here's some I took of the demolition

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filsgreen
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Thanks for posting your photos, Steve, welcome to the forum. Any other good photos of Bootle or it's footballers?
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Invicta
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Thanks Steve,
Our Daughter was baptised there just before we moved South.
Ken
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Thanks for the photo’s even though they make me sad.

So many parishioners saved by buying bricks (my family included) to build that beautiful church.

So sad that the builder and cement company declared bankruptcy and it couldn’t be rebuilt.

Many years of good memories though.

Doreen
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Invicta
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Lots of Churches of that era suffered similar fete Doreen, very sad as you say.
Hope you are well.
Regards
Ken
Bootlelass-expat
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Thanks Ken, I am well.

My best to you and your family.

Doreen
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