RE: Markets looking positive...............17 May 2026 07:33
@MrGreenLight Before moving to Ashton, we lived on Scottie Road in Vauxhall with my grandparents (who are now deceased). I don't know where they went to school I'm afraid. At the time, my dad was a communications officer in the Navy, serving on various ships including the Ark Royal. He was stationed for a time in Malta alongside Prince Philip, during which time my mother was a member of the wives' club alongside Princess Elizabeth, shortly before she became Queen. They often did the washing-up together! My mother was completely gobsmacked when she later heard her friend had become Queen, as Elizabeth's true identity had been kept a secret on the base in Malta.
When I was born, my mum worked at Littlewoods Pools in Wavertree (I think). While she was at work, my grandma looked after my elder brother and me. My granddad worked as a docker and struggled with alcoholism.
We eventually left Liverpool when my dad left the Navy. While my parents looked for a home they could afford, they finally found a three-bed semi in the process of being built in Ashton for £3,000. While it was being completed, we spent a couple of years living on a caravan park near Burtonwood Airbase nr Warrington, which at the time was being used by the USAF. The house was finally finished in 1964 and we moved in; it had no heating other than a coal fire in the living room, but it did have indoor plumbing, its own bathroom, and a small garden. My parents lived there for the rest of their lives.
After leaving the navy, my dad secured a job as a departmental manager at Owen Owen in Liverpool, selling furniture and carpets. The role came with a company car, a rarity in those days, a Bond mini car. My dad was even a little bit naughty with that car and used to race it in rallies and we still giggle at the family photos!
Ashton was within easy commuting distance via the East Lancs Road, and it offered a much better environment than Vauxhall, which was one of the less salubrious areas of Liverpool at the time, characterised by back-to-back houses with no indoor plumbing and shared outdoor lavvies.
By today's standards, those old Vauxhall conditions are unimaginable. Those were the days when some people could actually afford to buy their own home, though most rented. It makes me wonder: how many people today would be happy to buy a house if they were offered a two-up, two-down back-to-back with no heating or indoor plumbing, where they had to share outdoor toilet and bathing facilities with their neighbours?
Or even a property like my parents: a three-bed semi with a basic kitchen, no appliances, single glazing, no insulation, no floor coverings, a simple bathroom, and no central heating, leaving it all up to them to fit themselves over the coming years as funds allow? It was 1974 before we finally had central heating installed. Do you think these may solve the housing crisis after all listening to some today our parents and grandparents had it all offered to them on a p
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