Blog 293 – Growing Up in Liverpool, Part 1 – 2 July 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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The tombstone of my grandparents Thomas Joseph Hankin and Mary Jane Ethel Robson 

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Cliff was born on 25 February 1921.  His parents were Thomas Joseph Hankin and Mary Jane Robson.  Although my grandfather Thomas Joseph was born in Liverpool, he went to Newcastle of Tyne after he had qualified as a sheet metal worker.  He met my grandmother Mary Jane Robson in Newcastle.  

Newcastle on Tyne was one of the centres of the British shipbuilding industry and there were jobs available for tradesmen.

Grandfather Thomas Joseph was slightly better off than grandmother Mary Jane.  Although my paternal grandfather had a trade, my maternal great grandfather (father of Mary Jane Robson) William Robson did not have a trade.  William Robson was an unskilled labourer in a city packed with unskilled labourers and their children.

Mary Jane’s Anglican religion was the source of continual bitterness to Mary Jane.  Mary Jane was brought up as an Anglican and Thomas Joseph had been brought up as a Catholic.  In order for Thomas and Mary to get married, Mary Janes had to change her religion and become a Catholic.

After they married, Thomas and Mary Jane moved to Liverpool where they lived at 18 Date Street Seaforth.  Seaforth is a suburb to the west of Liverpool city centre.  Date Street no longer exists, but I found a remnant of Date Street when I visited Liverpool in 2019.  Date Street is within walking distance of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic School.

Cliff attended Our Lady Star of the Sea until he started his apprenticeship as a sheet metal worker with Charles Howson and Company shortly after his 14th birthday on 25th of February 1935.  When World War 2 started on the 3rd of September 1939, Cliff was already a qualified tradesman.  To be accepted as an apprentice, Cliff’s parents had to pay £10/-/- to his employer.  Because his parents could never find such an enormous amount of money, it is likely that regular amounts were deducted from Cliff’s wages to pay the £10/-/-. £10/-/- was the equivalent of about £700 in modern British money.

Getting an apprenticeship was especially hard to do because the Great Depression officially began on the 29th of October 1929.  The Depression left huge numbers of men without work in the north of England.  Liverpool was very badly affected by the Depression.

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Cliff had to find his own way to where the ships he worked on were being built or repaired.  Many ships Cliff had to work on were located on the southern side of the River Mersey.  In those days, pedestrians were permitted to walk through the Mersey Tunnel between Liverpool and Birkenhead.  Cliff used to walk the length of the Queensway Tunnel so he could then walk to the ship he was working on and do his full day’s work.  When work was finished, he had to repeat his walk in the opposite direction.

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Cliff still lived at 18 Date Street when he enlisted in the RAF.  The slum house his family lived in was finally wired up for electricity in 1938, a year before the war started.

Cliff never had a bathroom in his slum house.  A big tin bath was stored in a small shed in the back yard.  Once a week, water was heated up on the wooden stove in the house and the bath was filled with warm water.  Everyone in the family had to use the same bathwater.

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This photo is of the shell of the Caradoc Hotel on the corner of Seaforth Road and Peel Road.  The Caradoc was a "bloodbath” establishment where fighting and deaths were common. Walking away from the Caradoc along Seaforth Road brings you to the small Bowersdale Park on the left.  Walk into Seaforth Vales (on the right before the top end of the Park) and you come to a T junction.  Walk right at the T junction as it curves left to Kepler Street.  Turn them into the unnamed wreck of a street on the right and the remains of Date Street are at the end.  Date Street dead ends at a locked gate to Our Lady Star of the Sea.  Cliff lived in Date Street.  When Cliff grew up, Date Street was a horrible place to live – and it had some houses then.

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By helping others to heal We help yourself to heal Like Cliff did, give abundant Love Always

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Sometimes, growing up as a child takes enormous courage – just ask Cliff.  Courage is the only way that we can ever create the Paradise that should be here on Earth.

Hatred only perpetuates the Hell we have already made for ourselves. 

My parents were astonishingly brave – and they were astonishingly poor.

Bravery multiplies with use.  Poverty has no effect on the amount of courage we can find within ourselves.