everysinglestreet

#everysinglestreet [22/09/20] Allerton Road and Calderstones Park

Graham Holland   

Stats

  • Tuesday 22nd September 2020
  • 18 streets – Addington Road, Allerton Beeches, Allerton Drive, Ballantrae Road, Burnham Road, Carnforth Road, Gressingham Road, Harthill Road, Henley Road, Lyndon Drive, Tanat Drive, The Quadrangle, Wembley Road, Ensworth Road, Wyndcote Road, Hillside Road, Courtland Road, Addingham Road.
  • Total: 1,241 (22%)
  • Remaining: 4,400

Notes

I have an app on my phone called PictureThis. You take a photo of a plant and it will identify it for you. That’s why I know the impressive plant next to No 26’s front door is Scarlet Firethorn.

I took a photo outside of 83 Menlove Avenue. This is the third house my Dad lived in. The first was on Ullet Road, the second out in Formby where he was evacuated during the Blitz. This house originally had a box room upstairs at the back of the house which was only accessible via a back staircase. The stairs were eventually removed and the box room was used to extend one of the rooms upstairs.

The old police station and fire station lie abandoned. They were bought by a developer to be turned into affordable housing. I used to work with the person who lived in the house next to the fire station. He said you just get used to the noise of the sirens at all hours. The house was cheaper.

There’s a really odd-looking house on Greenhill Road which looks really out of place. I can’t work out if it’s a new house or whether one of the original houses has been totally remodelled.

The Quadrangle is a quadrangle.

A bit of history. In the UK the official Scouting organisation is called The Scout Association. In 1967 it changed from The Boy Scouts, got rid of wide brimmed hats, changed Rover Scouts into Venture Scouts and Wolf Cubs into Cub Scouts, and totally revamped the training programme. Some members who didn’t agree with the changes broke away and formed the Baden-Powell Scout Association (B-PSA) – a.k.a. ‘traditional’ Scouts. But this wasn’t the first split. In 1909 the Brotherhood of British Scouts broke away from the Boy Scouts, complaining that it was too bureaucratic and militaristic. Ken Jackson lived at 7 Garth Drive and was a member of the BBS. If the B-PSA were traditional Scouts, the BBS were ultra-traditional Scouts. Every room in his house was jam packed full of old Scouting literature and equipment. He kept a trek cart in his hallway. He ran his own Scout Troop and didn’t want anything to do with either the B-PSA or the Scout Association. When he died some of his rare books were donated to a Scouting museum at Waddecar Scout Camp in Lancashire, but the rest of the contents of his house was thrown away. The offer was made to other local Groups to make use of any of his equipment, but there was really nothing worth taking.

The Calderstones Road entrance to Calderstones Park has statues outside. Two strong men either side of the gates, and a couple of women to the side of each.Calderstones School used to be called Quarry Bank, and was where John Lennon went to school.

There’s a miniature steam railway inside the park. I can’t remember having been since I was a child.

Beechely Stables does fantastic work providing horse riding experiences to disabled children and kids with special needs.

On Allerton Road, set back from the road near the church, is a Scout Hut. To the right of this there’s a piece of land which is now disused and overgrown. Back when I was helping out with the 1st City of Liverpool B-P Scouts we had access to this land and did overnight camps and backwoodsmanship sessions. Now all that’s visible is the gate, overgrown. I was really tempted to jump over the wall and have a look around, but the brambles were a little too thick.

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