Old St Helens features

[Alan]

The back alleyway that seperates the upper part of Dentons Green Lane from the old Pilks Recreation ground is strong in my memory. It was known locally as Moggies Entry (Moggies in St Helens being mice not cats). It was a favourite location for a crafty smoke. From memory it was unsurfaced, just ashes and cinders. Is it still there?

[HORT]

It is still there although Gated of and I think its been added to some gardens.

[Alan]

Thanks, HORT. A school mate and his family lived in a quite large house that backed onto it

[HORT]

You can to Moggies Entry half way up Dentons Green Lane between Ruskin Drive and Swinburne Road. Its where the St Andrew's church is. You can see the entry below with the back of the church next to it.

[HORT]

At the same point looking up towards Swinburne Road.

[HORT]

The Top of the entry in Swinburne Road.

[Bert]

I never knew it as Moggies Entry (probably hadn't been mapped then). It was always my first path leading to exploring the upper reaches of Sproggy Brook. The terrain could be treacherous (for bikes), eroded by sudden downpours. No gating; the natives must have been more friendly then.

[Alan]

Compare it with our own Harris Street back entry in the 1940s with its stinking middens and midden-moochers

[Alan]

Back to Moggies Entry.
Another memory of Moggies Entry concerns a school friend who lived in Dentons Green Lane in a house that backed on to Moggies Entry. The entire family including his mum and dad were cycling fanatics who frequently took their bikes abroad on cycling trips. To assist in funding the passage costs of his own bike, he was encouraged to engage in a novel piece of private enterprise. He collected what must have amounted to several stone in weight of conkers during their frequent bike rides into the countryside and then sold them to his less fortunate, conker-deprived school mates at something like eight for a penny. As the game of conkers was a particular craze at that time and the local trees - St Helens cemetery and Victoria Park come to mind as having a few conker trees - had been stripped bare, they were a precious commodity. I vividly remember going to their back gate in Moggies Entry with other like-minded kids to buy a pocketful or two of these from him.
Another, slightly off-topic memory is of the mystique that surrounded the game of conkers and the creation of a winning conker. The various techniques bandied about amongst us kids included drying them in the oven and soaking them in vinegar. As far as I can remember, having tried these methods, there was no real substitute for drying them on the mantelpiece for a week or two, but as time was of the essence, we always looked for short-cuts. After all, in those days, childhood obsessions had their discrete seasons and the conker one was particularly short.)

[Bert]

I cycled to Speke Hall for my quality conkers.

[Alan]

Another old St Helens feature that holds many memories for me is what I knew as Penlake Lane near St Helens Junction Station. A sort of cinder track that went from Lionel Street alongside the Liverpool railway line. Running off it were several allotments and the British Rail Staff Association club-house. From memory it ended by a wagon-sheeting works and then a footbridge oiver the railway. My paternal grandparents who lived in Lionel Street used to take me along it as part of a much longer ramble. Is it still there and containing allotments etc?

[Southlancsman]

The back alleyway that seperates the upper part of Dentons Green Lane from the old Pilks Recreation ground is strong in my memory. It was known locally as Moggies Entry (Moggies in St Helens being mice not cats). It was a favourite location for a crafty smoke. From memory it was unsurfaced, just ashes and cinders. Is it still there?

Remember being able to get from the cricket/hockey pitches onto the Green, not sure if a gate or I just threw my cricket stuff over and climbed, when living at the top of Rainford Road. Nice short cut.

[Alan]

Another old St Helens memory is of the Old Coach Road that ran from the East Lancs Road (near Knowsley Park boundary) to somewhere a few miles north of Rainford. It was a private road gated at each end but accessible from surrounding farm tracks. Is that still there? I think it's original purpose to take Lord Derby and family to a church somewhere near Scarisbrick pre-dated the East Lancs road

[HORT]

The Old Coach Road is still there and gated as you say. It runs from the East Lancs Road to the end of Dairy Farm Lane in Rainford, where it turns towards Bickerstaffe.

[Alan]

A school friend of mine lived not too far away so in the early 1950s it was a favourite haunt. One abiding memory of it is the old WW2 prefabricated buildings on the east side of it, about halfway along it. Some of them still had old bunk-beds and other furniture in them

[Boblyn]

I remember when I used to go to Eddy Camp in the late 1960's, on the Crossley Road side of Whittle Street behind the houses used to run a brook which was fed by overflow water from Thatto Heath dam ( the dam was fed by water from Alexandra Colliery which when the dam was full the overflow ran at the back of the houses on Thatto Heath Road, down to Leslie Road then piped underground the the back of the houses the length of Whittle Street before being piped underground again to the big dam at Alexander Drive). This at the time was quite a flowing brook and the lads from school every dinner time used to have lollipop stick races in the brook, which went on for some years. Unfortunately when they stopped the water coming from the old pit to Thatto Heath dam the water level there dropped so the brook dried up and was eventually filled but some great memories.

[Boblyn]

Just as an add-on I have been looking at a 1900 map of Thatto Heath and the dam along with the stream are on this map so it had been there for many years.
There is a Welsh site that gives you the map of the whole of Wales that you can open it to the far side of Manchester, so obviously covers the St Helens area, and gives you 3 maps for where you are looking, an open street map, an ordinance survey map and a 1900 map of the area you have open. It's very interesting - and FREE. Just copy and paste this link into the top box. https://coflein.gov.uk/en/map/
Personally I love seeing the then and now and what was where.

[HORT]

Lots of maps of past on the site https://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=5.0& ... &point=0,0