I don’t know who is in this photograph with Mum (wearing the big belt), but it looks like our Keith holding the baby (Rob?) on the grass and Dad must have taken the photo. I’m not sure if it’s in Port Sunlight Village but there’s something about those houses that says it is?
The village was a sociable place to live, everybody knew everybody and they all worked for Lever Brothers. William Hesketh Lever built the village for his employees. There was a swimming pool (now a garden centre), theatre, post office and even an Art Gallery (worth a visit today if you like Pre-Raphaelite paintings). Lever believed that if his employees were happy at home they would be happy at work and make more of his Sunlight Soap for him!
‘. . . it is my hope, and my brother’s hope . . . to build houses in which our workpeople will be able to live and be comfortable. Semi-detached houses, with gardens back and front, in which they will be able to know more about the science of life than they can in a back slum, and in which they will learn that there is more enjoyment in life than a mere going to and returning from work, and looking forward to Saturday night to draw their wages.’
If I had worked for Lever Brothers, like my Dad, then I would have made a lot of soap, as I have many happy memories of growing up in Port Sunlight!
Who’s in the photo? Could it be the Ebbrell family who used to live next door at number 33 and later moved to Riverside?
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| Village neighbours? |
Rob has just told me that this picture was probably taken in Liscard, near Wallasey. Mum & Dad lived there for a time while waiting for a house to come available in Port Sunlight. Before Liscard they lived in Port Sunlight opposite the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Windy Bank with Grandma (Dad's Mum).
ReplyDeleteI have to say she looks like a young Mary Ebbrell to me, but I think Rob is right and it will have been taken in Liscard. The archway in the background reminds me of Brackenwood houses, which is where Jimmy and Rita Worsnip lived. But I don't know if they had met yet with Rob being so young?
DeleteYes Mary, Lesley's Mum. And his Dad's name? I also thought she looks like Mary, but just wasn't sure where it was taken. I've found a photo that could be taken outside where Mum & Dad lived in Liscard, will post soon. Was it just a bedsit?
ReplyDeleteOkay, so know I have to ask: who are Jimmy and Rita Worsnip?
Think I've just remembered Lesley's Dad's name, Billy?
ReplyDeleteYes it was...Billy Ebbrell.
ReplyDeleteRob will know better than me but I'm fairly sure it was a bedsit. Don't think I've ever seen a photo of where they lived in Liscard.
I think Jimmy Worsnip may have worked with Dad, and Mum became good friends with his wife Rita. Mum and Rita used to go to the cinema together quite often. Jimmy made me a doll,s house one Christmas/Birthday, and also a rabbit hutch when I had 'Bunsy'! I remember he was missing a couple of fingers and rode a motorbike! (ie Jimmy not Bunsy!)