12 replies to this topic

[Alan]

Anyone remember that tea-room place half way up on the St Helens side? When I was a kid they had an earth toilet where you could hear the blue-bottles before you could see it and the smell stayed with you for hours after.

[Olliebeak]

Hello again Alan
Yes - I remember the tea room on Shaley Brow.
We used to get the 99 to Kings Moss and then walk up Shaley Brow to get to Billinge Lump.
The tea-room was the last chance for a pee in 'comfort' - if that was what you could call it!!!
If I remember rightly, it was very low down at the side of the road, and the pathway was almost level with the roof. The windows looked onto the low stone wall that surrounded it on the road side of the building.

Ollie

[val]

I associate the tea room with the smell of wild garlic - wasnt there a mass of wild garlic beside the road as you went up the hill?

[Alan]

Val, you're so right. I went up there in the car about seven years ago and the smell of garlick was still there. There was a huge patch of the stuff just up-hill on the left hand side

[Alan]

I "bumped" this as I wondered if any of our most recent members recalled the walk up to Billinge Lump

[brunty]

i remember the big old derelict house half way up on the left it was renovated maybe 15 yrs ago to its original stature
it belonged to the waterworth family who owned the fruit and veg shops in st helens.

[Griffin]

I remember that house in about 1971. You wouldn't have given tuppence for it. I can't believe what they've done to it now, although part of me slightly prefers it as it was. I understood that the lady who kept that little shop in Crank, not far from the Red Cat, where there are now new houses, had some connection with that old house.

[kes]

The old lady who lived in that house was more like a Hermit, only part of the house was habitable, and she kept her Hens in the house with her. But what a job was made of doing it up, i have been inside since it's makeover and what a nice job.

[Yatesy]

Fondly remember the little tea shop (wasn't it wooden and painted green?) as a kid what I remember most was the homemade scones - cor luvly! Even though I'm now well into my fifties I often cycle there as part of a loop .. with effort you can cycle right up to the beacona nd back through the woods ... however the descent down Shaley is as quick as anything, hit 43 mph only the other day (have to watch for cars turing into/out of the Golf Club though).

[Griffin]

Between the road and the golf course, just before you get to where the footpath leads to the beacon, there are the vestigial remains of a stone wall. That always amuses me. I remember it being a big wall the best part of forty years ago. Over the years since, I assume people have taken it home bit by bit for rockeries, etc., until there's now hardly any of it left.

[Dave]

Here's a picture of that old house before it was done up (1984).

[Griffin]

Good heavens. I never saw it as bad as that.

[kes]

I think the present owner it the guy who has Taylors chemist in Haydock. Now in the old no1 labour club.