28 – Family Secrets from Bootle and Seaforth = Part 1: 25 September 2024

When I was under age 10, mum told me once that if she had accepted a marriage proposal from an American serviceman, I would have been born in America in a mid western State the name of which I cannot remember.

On a different occasion, she told me that I had an older sister, but that she had been born dead.

Being only a child, I asked no questions and accepted at face value what my mother had said.

I assumed mum had rejected the marriage proposal from the American serviceman because she was in love with dad and wanted to marry dad.

I assumed that after mum and dad married, mum had given birth to an older sister of mine who had unfortunately been dead at birth.

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Many years after both mum and dad had died, I began researching my family history and discovered that many of the “facts” I thought I knew, were nothing of the kind. 

Here is some background information.

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Mum was born in 1924 and in 1939 she lived at15 Northfield Road, Bootle north of Liverpool city centre. 

This was 15 Northfield Road Bootle on 24 September 2024. 

When mum lived in this house, her parents rented it from the local Council.  They did not own it and it is implausible that they would have ever been able to buy their own home.

 

Even allowing for the improvements and updating that have taken place since mum lived there until 1946, it is obvious that by local standards, this was never a slum dwelling.  It even had a feature that most houses in Liverpool certainly lacked in the 1930s when this house was built.  It had a bathroom inside the house.

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By contrast, dad lived at 18 Date Street Seaforth, a suburb adjoining Bootle.  In August 2019, Date Street no longer existed except as a short stretch of road leading to a locked entrance to Our Lady Star of the Sea School, Seaforth.  The official address of Our Lady Star of the Sea is Kepler Street, Seaforth, Liverpool L21 3TE.

This is a photo of what was left of Date Street in August 2019.

 

 

Number 18 Date Street once stood just below the sign on the railway station saying “Seaforth & Litherland, Way Out”.  Heading north on Seaforth Road with the River Mersey behind you, turn left into a street called Seaforth Vale West.  When Seaforth Vale West comes to a T junction with Kepler Street, turn right at the very first (unnamed) street.  When this unnamed street comes to a T junction, turn right and you are now in the remains of Date Street. 

On the right as you look at the locked gate to Our Lady Star of the Sea School, in 2019 there were some derelict houses.  They were more modern and much newer than the house at 18 Date Street where dad was brought up in.  Here are the derelict houses as they looked in 2019.  The cars did not belong to anyone in the street.  They were the cars that brought me there.  No one could live in Date Street in 2019.

18 Date Street had no bathroom at all,

 

 

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My maternal grandfather William Wood was the Chief Ship’s Electrician on a ship called MV Leighton in May 1938.  He had been appointed to this position after the Great Depression had rendered him and thousands of others, unemployed.  The story mum told me was that a shipmate had taught him the Freemasons’ handshake and he had used this handshake to get his job on the Leighton.  My grandfather had a heart attack while serving on the Leighton and was transferred to Saint Elizabeth Hospital Antwerp, in Belgium.  He died in Belgium on 20 May 1938.

Mum was age 14 when her father died.

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Dad was age 17 in 1938 when my maternal grandfather died and he had already completed 3 years of his apprenticeship as a sheet metal worker.  As an apprentice, he often had to work on ships on the southern side of the River Mersey.  He did not have the money to pay for the ferry fare to cross the Mersey – so he walked all 3,751 yards of the tunnel - then he did his very hard day’s work and walked back through the tunnel so he could then catch the train home.

Dad was one of the poorest of the poor in Liverpool at that time.  He was not the very poorest because he had a trade and that meant he would usually be able to earn a living.

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 Dad and mum married on 10 March 1945.  World War 2 had not yet finished and dad was still a serving member of RAF Bomber Command.  He was not demobilized by the RAF until 1946.

When dad finally returned to Liverpool, mum and dad rented a house at 13 Lawler Street Litherland.  The house we lived in was demolished many years ago, but Lawler Street still exists.  This is a photo of the more modern, rebuilt version of 13 Lawler Street Litherland (right of photo).

 

 

 

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Why then did my mother, who lived in a comfortable house all of her life, fall in love with and marry a man who was raised in abject poverty?

I uncovered the answer to this question only by investigating mum’s claims that if she had accepted a marriage proposal from an American serviceman, I would have been born in America and that I had an older sister who had been born dead.  My research is not yet finished, but I have many answers to questions I never knew I needed to ask.