Terry and Sandra Williams mention the local parks
Resource Type: Audio | Posted on 24th February 2012 by Liam Physick
Terry and Sandra Williams remember mixing up lemonade power with carbonated water in a bottle before spending the day playing in the local parks: Mystery, Wavertree Park, Botanic Park and Princes Park. They remember the air raid shelters in Botanic, and how they used to play in them: Terry mentions that they are still there, but being covered up. They would also travel to the Cast Iron Shore in Aigburth: this name was given to the banks of the Mersey in that area because there was an iron foundry there: St. Michael’s Church, an Anglican church opened in 1815, became known as the Cast Iron Church because cast iron played a major part in its construction. The Cast Iron Shore is mentioned by the Beatles in the song Glass Onion, released in 1968 on the White Album
Interviewee: Terry and Sandra Williams
Date of Interview: 22nd November 2011
Interview Transcript
Terry: Its a, a sad reflection of the times, but when you think that we used to go out for near enough all day, we’d get up in the morning and we used to, used to get lemonade powder, didn’t we, from . . .
Sandra: Yes, mixed in a lemonade bottle and have a jam butty, if you were lucky! (she and Jodie laugh)
Terry: And what, what we used to do, there was a shop just up, up the road here, in Wavertree Road, and used to take a, a lemonade bottle or a milk bottle, and they had carbonated water as it was called then, you know, gas bubbles in it, and, excuse me, we used to put lemonade powder in the bottom of the bottle, and on the way through from our house which is Willoughby Street, along Tunnel Road, we were going to . . .
Sandra: To Mystery.
Terry: . . . to Wavertree Park . . .
Sandra: Yeah.
Terry: . . . well, Botanic Park, we used to call in and she used to fill it up, pennies, something like that (Jodie laughs), and you’d take a few sandwiches if you were lucky, wrapped up in newspaper, and you’d spend the day in the Park . . .
Sandra: Yes.
Terry: . . . really did, and in the Park, after the War, there was big air raid shelters, underground air raid shelters . . .
Sandra: We used to play in the air raid shelters.
Terry: . . . in front of Littlewoods, in the Park, I think they’re still there, actually, I think they’re still being covered up . . .
Jodie: Yeah.
Sandra: Yeah.
Terry: . . . but used to play in there, and you were never in fear of anything, not at that time, anyway, I’m talking now, you know, in the early 50s, 52, 53, and you used to go to Sefton Park the same . . .
Sandra: Walk down there, and Princes Park and (inaudible due to Terry interrupting)
Terry: Cast Iron Shore.
Sandra: Yeah.
Terry: Yeah, so you’d go up from here down through to Aigburth, to, at Cast Iron Shore, and be out for the day and come back, your parents, as long as you got back when they’d told you what time you had to be back, it wasn’t an issue.
Jodie: Yeah, that’s right.
Sandra: Yeah.
Terry: And obviously, you know, “Don’t you get into trouble, otherwise you will be in trouble!” (Jodie and Sandra laugh) You know . . .
Jodie: Yeah, definitely.
Sandra: Yeah.
Terry: But, you, you, you had a good life anyway there, didn’t you?
Sandra: Yes, yes, very good.
Categorised under: Change & Communities
Comments
It is really lovely to hear stories of my family’s past. I think it would have been great to experience the circus.