Brenda Allen remembers visiting West Kirby when she was a girl
Resource Type: Audio | Posted on 16th September 2011 by Liam Physick
Brenda Allen remembers how, as a girl, she and her family would visit West Kirby and walk over to the island there. They hoped that the tide would come in and leave them stranded, but in the end they always came back because they were hungry! Brenda describes the coaches in which they would travel, which Margi compares to the Hogwarts Express from the Harry Potter books and films
Interviewee: Brenda Allen
Interviewee Gender: Female
Interview Transcript
Brenda: We used to, as I say, just round down there, all excited, wait for the train to come, get the train into Liverpool, and then walk to Exchange . . .
Margi: Yeah.
Brenda: . . . station, was it . . . ?
Margi: That’s right.
Brenda: . . . that goes to either Ainsdale, it was very rare Southport, cos there was a fare there, me mum and dad keep . . .
Margi: Too much money?
Brenda: Yeah, we just go . . . and West Kirby . . .
Margi: Yeah.
Brenda: West Kirby, we used to go there all the time . . .
Margi: I used to go to West Kirby a lot, yeah.
Brenda: Yeah.
Margi: It’s amazing, isn’t it?
Brenda: We used, used to walk to that island.
Margi: That’s right, yeah . . .
Brenda: Yeah
Margi: . . . cos you can, and you can only, well, walk to it at certain times of the day . . .
Brenda: Yeah.
Margi: . . . can’t you, you know, when the tide comes in?
Brenda: I can’t remember the tide ever being in in West Kirby though (Margi laughs), it was always out, wasn’t it, I didn’t know it had water in West Kirby! (laughs)
Margi: No, me neither! I, I think it’s like the Southport one, like . . .
Brenda: Yeah.
Margi: . . . it never comes in . . .
Brenda: Comes in.
Margi: . . . it never comes all the way up.
Brenda: Cos, I think we sat on the island once, waiting for the tide to come in so we could get stranded . . .
Margi: Yeah.
Brenda: . . . God knows what would have happened! (Margi laughs) But we had to go back cos we were hungry! (laughs) Always had to go back for your jam butties!
Margi: Oh, of course, well, that was another thing as well, you know . . .
Brenda: Yeah
Margi: . . . you had your jam butties . . .
Brenda: Yeah.
Margi: . . . on day trips and stuff like that, but you mum must have been really pleased that at least she could give you the day out with the railway pass and . . .
Brenda: It was, yeah
Margi: . . . stuff like that, it’s a pity they stopped that. When did they stop it, do you know?
Brenda: When, when I was 14, 15, it got stopped, cos you left school, but me mum still got hers, cos she’s . . .
Margi: A widow?
Brenda: A widow, yeah . . .
Margi: Yeah.
Brenda: . . . I mean, unfortunately, she doesn’t use it that much now, cos she’s pushing 92 this year, but I don’t think they stopped cos it all changed, didn’t it? But . . .
Margi: They privatised all kinds of stuff . . .
Brenda: Yeah.
Margi: . . . it all changes.
Brenda: Yeah, cos I remember the carriages, even, we’d get in one of them, you know, the six carriages and that corridor . . .
Margi: Yeah, oh, yeah.
Brenda: . . . so, the whole family, I mean, we all didn’t get a seat, cos there was seven of us! (laughs)
Margi: Like the train out of Harry Potter!
Brenda: Yeah, oh is he, I haven’t seen Harry Potter! (laughs)
Margi: Oh, haven’t you seen Harry Potter, that . . .
Brenda: So we’d have our own carriage . . .
Margi: Yeah, with the doors closed and all that . . .
Brenda: Yeah. So . . .
Margi Oh, that sounds so lovely.
Brenda: Oh, well . . .
Margi: I think you must have though you were extra special, though.
Brenda: Well, it was, all these seats and all that, all your family was there .
Categorised under: Social Life
Comments