25 replies to this topic

[Le200]

Take your camera with you Gazza it'll save me a trip out each day

[DJGAZZA]

No problem but there's not much happening at the moment. At least i can take a picture of the big hole lol

[mishka]

My Aunt worked at UGB in the late 50's and my cousin and I used to walk over to the main gates (the ones opposite the cottage hospital? am I right there?) to walk back to Boundary Road with her. We used to cut down a sort of alleyway/entry and I remember on a huge brick wall a sort of sign made of coloured bricks in Latin - I think it was the elements - earth, fire, wind etc. Have I been dreaming or does anyone else remember and what did it say? Also - where did the alleyway bring you out? I can only remember looking at this sign every time we went down there - not where we ended up in relation to getting back to Boundary Road. And what building was the sign on and why? I've been racking what is left of my brain cells all day and come up with zilch.

[Alan]

If the entrance you went to was on the opposite side of Peasley Cross Lane to the Cottage hospital, it must have been the Sherdley entrance. As to the alley with the high walls that you passed through, I cannot imagine it. I'd have thought that the best way to Boundary Road from the Sherdley entrance would have been straight through town then up Liverpool Road and then either Peter Street or, if we're talking the top end of Boundary Road go through from Liverpool Road onto Prescot Road and then turn right onto Boundary Road

[Le200]

It could have been along Old Warrington Road, that had very high walls on either side and the odd railway bridge crossing over it, it would have brought you out next to Todd Metals near the Church St canal bridge.
I can't remember any signs on the walls but I didn't pass that way often.

[Alan]

That Warrington Old Road was a place from Hell in the late fifties. The walls leaked foul-smelling green and brown liquor from whatever was on the other side (gas-works?) and the closer you got to the UGB entrance Peasley entrance the smokier and fouler the air became with swirls of yellow sulphurous "producer gas".

If she came along there she must have walked through the factory from the Sherdley Lodge

[stephen nulty]

As I am always on the lookout for opportunities to promote my website, I thought I'd step in here and mention that Lt John Frederick Dixon-Nuttall, who was killed in action on 21st May 1915, was the son of Dr Frederick Dixon-Nuttall of Eccleston Park, who was one of the men behind the establishment of UGB in rhe 1800's.

Dr Dixon-Nuttall also commissioned the memorial statue which stands at Eccleston Lane Ends.

Details can be found by folliwing the appropriate links at www.prescot-rollofhonour.info

[mishka]

Alan you've hit the nail on the head. High walls and a strong smell of sulpher - and it was always dank and gloomy round there. I've had a look at the map printed and that was the way we used to walk back although I don't remember going through the factory we must have done. I think the 'sign' was inlaid brick of different colours and was Latin for earth, wind, fire and water but my memory is crap and I can't swear to it. Could it have something to do with the gas works - the elements etc? I phoned my cousin last night and her memory is as bad as mine - neither of us can remember the actual wording of the damn thing although we used to look at it every time we passed. Oh if only mobile phones with cameras had been available.....

[Alan]

Mishka, I can vaguely remember there being an inscription on the gas-works wall but can't remember the detail. Was it not just Ex Terra Lucem? Although to answer my own question, the gas-works made great play about all the stuff extracted from coal-tar such as dyestuffs, sacharine etc so it may have been a bit more erudite than that.

I worked at UGB as a student in summer 1961 and that dreadful environment in Warrington Old Road under the railway bridge is etched into my memory. It was bad, even for old industrial St Helens

[Minerlad]

The sign in different colour brick on the side of the Gas Works that read Ex Terra Lucem, translated was. From the ground came light.

[Carr Millite]

stephen nulty, on 05 May 2010 - 06:54 AM, said:

As I am always on the lookout for opportunities to promote my website, I thought I'd step in here and mention that Lt John Frederick Dixon-Nuttall, who was killed in action on 21st May 1915, was the son of Dr Frederick Dixon-Nuttall of Eccleston Park, who was one of the men behind the establishment of UGB in rhe 1800's.

There's some connection in my family history but I'm having a hard time with it.
It's Nuttall Booth and I know Voll had a family link too but I think his was the Dixon part.
I think one of them (Nuttall's) was a widely travelled botanist?