Does anyone know when the demolition starts?

I was planning to find a spec and take a few pictures a day of the demolition

Is it Ravenhead or sherdley that's being demolished?

Peasley Cross Lane, is that Sherdley?
It's being demolished to make way for Saints new stadium isn't it?

Yes, that's whatI knew as Sherdley when I briefly worked there in the early 60s

I was talking to someone who works for JKP and he said they've taken a short term contract in one of the warehouses that are going to be demolished but he did'nt say for how long

Gazza

A bit late but thanks for the replies

Demolition is well underway around the back, there's really only the warehousing left.

The problem being Le that's not where the ground is going. It's going where the old UG car park was, on the right as you go in the main gate

That suits me better Gazza, I can grab it rising from the tarmac so to speak.
I'll have to find a spec around the front of it on Peasley Cross Lane.

I reckon Peasley Cross bridge would be your best vantage point. Also on Redvee they said it was going to start on march 15th but that may only be the roadworks by the council. I know the guys on security I could have a word see if you could get inside

In the very early 50's Liverpool Stanley moved their club to a new ground in Ken Dodd country. I remember going to watch St. Helens going to play Liverpool there just after it opened. Think it must have taken the Liverpool club all of 4 weeks to get the ground ready. The stand was made from scaffold tubing and wooden planks. If the Saints ground is not yet started, perhaps they are going to use the same method to use the spectators.

And, if I remember correctly, they (Liverpool City as they became) had the old Knowsley Road popular side stand moved to Knotty Ash when the new stand was built. Perhaps Saints should ask for it back for the new ground - oops, too late.

You're quite right Llany They did get the old stand. I remember as a kid going to the Knotty Ash ground with my dad and grandad.At half time in those days they used to leave the ball on the centre spot.Well it ended up 200 aside rugby for the half time duration, absolutely hilarious.It looked akin to the Eton wall game lol

Well Le. get you camera at the ready looks like things are about to kick off (scuse the pun)I saw a few high vis jackets on site when I passed yesterday and someone on RedVee saw diggers on site today.Not much happening at the moment but looking imminent

I'll keep my eye open for owt happening Gazza, had no car since Saturday so I couldn't do anything

Hi Le
I'm now working @ jk philips so I can keep an eye out for anything about to happen. There was a digger on site fro two half days last week.
You want to see the massive swimming pool like hole which was under the batch plant and lehr ends, that's going to be a big job for starters filling that in

Gazza

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.....

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

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.

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

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?