The title of this video comes from the title of the map used in Peter Shotton's book. A look at the area as it was in their time here as children in the mid 1940's and what the area looks like now.
Dear Jeff, I really love your videos about Woolton and Allerton! Especially when you throw in stuff about John Lennon, his pals, and Paul McCartney etc. I was born in the Garston Tenements on Speke road in 1955. My parents used to take my brother and I for long sunday walks during the summer time around these areas as well as visiting all the beautiful parks. I can remember Clarkes Gardens back in the early 60's having an exotic aviary with Macaw parrots! Magical! We moved away from Liverpool in 1968. All of my Liverpool relatives are now dead and gone, so I havent visited L.pool for many years now. Watching your videos about the leafy suburbs of south Liverpool stirs up many memories and feelings of sad nostalgia within me. Those bygone days were so much nicer than today. Thank you Jeff, I love and appreciate your work. x
Your comment chimes a chord in many minds I believe. They had a whole menagerie there. Imagine the Corpie providing that today? Yes, they were happier times in most respects. Decency and integrity are not dead but resting in a very shallow grave. IMHO anyway. Peace.
I was born in Merrion Close, the wall shown on the map was at the bottom of our garden and we used to watch horses learning to jump where you turned into the new estate. I used to play in the tip, it was mostly piles of brick from bombing in the city. I think the tower blocks must have been built in the late 60s, there was another since demolished. We later moved to Vale Road, a totally original 30s house which was used to get the interior detailing correct when Aunt Mimis house on Menlove was being renovated as it had been modernised.
Hi Mate. The wall on the map ran between the gardens of the houses on the left of Merrion Close and the right of Hillview Gardens. If you look on Google it is still there in the top left of the T at the end of Merrion Close. Hillview Gardens was started in 68/9. Merrion Close 57/8. That's where they taunted the builders. Where the pigeon lands at 22:34 there was a hole in the wall and a pond beyond. That's where he would have climbed over. Those beech trees always seemed massive back in the 70s. They are quite a spectacle now. The best time to plant a tree? 50 years ago. Thanks for your potterings and musings as always. Peace
I was born in Liverpool (Old Swan) but we moved back home to Dublin. I recall as a boy going to Menlove Avenue, around Calderstones (is that the name?) and Woolton Village (I remember they had a cinema there in the 90's) is it still there?
Lennon didn't climb over the brutal children's remand home,six doors from his aunt Mimis home,it had razor wire around it. This was to stop little naughty children from escaping. It's funny no one mentions this big old house,even though you had to walk under one of the classrooms, an unused arts room,to past it on the pavement. The building had bars on the windows and the curtains shut, and if you got caught looking out,you got a size nine Dr Martin shoe up your backside. Perhaps this is where they tipped poor kids,to be physically, mentally and sexually abused,it wasn't Strawberry, more unspoken fields. Due to unfortunate circumstances, mister May will not be able to play the organ today, but perhaps he will tomorrow.
@@roywilding3039 there were escapes regularly in the 60s and 70s when I was a child. We were burgled once as a result. Only broken window . Food. An empty briefcase. There was no understanding of the suffering leading to the flight. The windows were barred and we would see sad faces at the curtains. We were told if we misbehaved we would end up there. When it closed around 1981 we gained access. The testimonials of the incarcerated were evidenced for me anyway.
@@strawberryfields1149 I delivered boiler fuel there a few times to the main yard and remember it being a dark olive green colour but never got to see anyone moving around, one section was bars and wired glass. I do remember the part that stuck out over pavement, I passed it a million times, I always wondered if anyone was ever in there, it looked deserted
I forgot to add, The link for the map is not a live link to click on, You have to copy and paste as you see it. It gives you time to think what your doing.
Great update as always Jeff. Jeff have you heard that one I’ve heard the lyrics on strawberry fields forever and nothing to get hung about apparently was fact John wanted to climb the wall from back of his home to strawberry fields and his aunt mimi said if you do that you’ll get hung so apparently he used the lyrics nothing to get hung about from that.
It was outside Peter's house that he met Paul who was sniffing around on his bike after the Fete and told him he was in the band. There's photo online of Nigel, Paul and George outside 84 Vale Road. Ivan Vaughan lived there. Nigel lived at 88. Those hedges bordering the Tram lines meant Julia could not see the car, nor the driver her.
Not being familiar with what automatically goes down the Internet memory hole I presumed that historical institutional abuse was discussable whilst adhering to the necessary legal confines. Coincidentally speculation as to insect decline seems to follow the same fate. Clown World.
The powers that where and powers the be don't like talk of that sort as it might cost them money. I sent you an email and it's not gone. I'll resend it later tonight. Technology!!!
Strawberry Fields was a convent home run by the Catholic Society who enventually sold off all that land and most of Woolton Rd Wavertree. You say John Lennon climbed over the wall but I doubt other lads lived there at that time as it was all girls and most got transfered from Freshfields to Strawberry fields when they became school age and was sent to Blessed John Almond in Horrocks Ave, I still know of one such girl that lived at strawberry fields who's in her 70's, most children was Irish born from the North of the city. Strawberry Fields had a bad reputation amongst their kids, I know of many storys. It should have been demolished walls and all. Anything to do with Beatles is always glamorised and out of proportion all for the sake of lyrics in a song. I can't see those tramlines going all the way to penny lane as those Elm trees are are a part of the whole mersey forest and too many are in the middle of its section, I don't recall any tramlines at al along there. opposite John Lennons House was the bungalows where my music teacher lived and a customer of mine after leaving school. the wall you drove past was the remand home. Yes the area has changed since I was a lad and I worked it every day and had some great tippers come christmas time. Those sandstone walls are everywhere and was boundary walls to either estates or grand houses, they go the full length of Liverpool. Strange enough I don't recall those flats being built either or never noticed. Great video of Menlove Avenue, Your right its not changed much in certain parts, I don't know all the road names of the area but knew the area well and still one friend in the villiage that was born there 70 odd years ago. South Liverpool was a great place growing up. I may appear grumpy about Strawberry fields but those kids was never really welcome in the area and local kids mocked them, could that have been John Lennon? who knows! Delete if its unsuitable Jeff as a lot would dissagree but i do have old paperwork and certificates of the home and one survivor that I know of.
One point. I don't say John Lennon climbed over any wall. It's a story told by cab drivers taking visitors to Strawberry Field. I doubt he did. In fact in the book, Shotton never mentions climbing over a wall. He only mentions playing in the pond. What I did say was it was possible that they/he gained entry via that wall. Trams had gone when I was a kid, I don't remember any tram lines on Menlove Avenue but they are in that old photo.
hi Norman. in the late 60s there was a hole in that wall. stones removed. you could get through but we were warned off by parents saying the mud would suck us in an dirty old men would kidnap us. it actually worked . there was a rusty old Army truck in there. there was a gate lower than the wall where Jeff pointed to the brick change. he would have been everywhere if you read the Shotton book. they roamed freely. we used to regularly see absconders from the remand home. poor souls. if you look into the history of that place it was run by sadists and pdf files like the Christian Brothers school opposite accross Menlove, first hand testimony of that place. we had kids boys and girls from Strawberry Fields in Out Lane school in the 70s. i dont know where they went before that. maybe mosspits. ? i would not be surprised at bad things happening to kids from there. The Variety Club Sunshine Coach would regularly take them out for the day..... The Vineries was where your music teacher lived. i trudged around all the area as a paper boy for Brayfords.
@@NormanLong I don't know if you got to see my comment on the traumas suffered at the 2 institutions in the area. Google / you tube considered them unacceptable. Peace
@@strawberryfields1149 I know of nothing personal to anyone apart from a schoolmate that was sent to the remand home but he was a trouble maker from the off and got punished for his actions quite regular, in fact a few from the school I went to ended up in there, that was the era we grew up in.
