Streets of Hoole & Newton: Difference between revisions
Add article - Walker Street
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A selection of articles describing the history of the streets of Hoole.
[[File:8SH1 Hoole UDC 1940s.jpg|center|thumb|
== Bishop Street ==
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Originally all the houses had individual names – the only one displaying its name today is No.195, 'Sunningdale'. In the 1933/4 Directory only three of the four houses to the east of it (i.e. in the direction of Piper's Ash) were named (presumably one was unoccupied). There is speculation which could have been called 'Marna', 'Deepdene' or 'Brindlewood'.
[[File:8SHM2 Hoole Lane Aerial Photo 1931.jpg|left|thumb|''<small>Aerial photograph c.1931 Hoole Lane</small>'' <ref>''<small>Copyright ‘Historic England’ <nowiki>http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/EPW037241</nowiki></small>''</ref>]]
The original No.205 was a farmhouse set back where Hornbeam Close is today. This was occupied from 1927/8 until the 1950's by a George E. Roberts and was called “Lynwood”. George E. Roberts looked after the spinney behind Pine Grove and had large chicken houses there. (The spinney had been planted to block out the view of the Workhouse lower down Hoole Lane so that the then lady owner of Hoole House could see neither it nor the poor and destitute of Chester forced to seek shelter therein.) The spinney can be seen on the aerial photograph which was taken before Pine Grove was built around 1932, Myrtle Grove having already been completed. The white building very near to Hoole Lane below Myrtle Grove (level with the smoke from a passing train) was Shortridge's Dairy Farm which was still operating and selling milk in the late 1950s.
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This land on the north side was sold in 1852 – the sale details show that Hoole Lane was then called St. Anne's Lane. When the Workhouse was built in 1878 it was for a short time known as Workhouse Lane. Hoole Lane was a long-established route from Chester through Boughton to Guilden Sutton and remained a country lane for many years, the last farm “Batemans” not being developed for housing until the middle of the 20th century.
== Walker Street<ref>''<small>Article by Ralph Earlam, some parts of which were initially published in ‘Hoole Roundabout’ in February 2016 - <nowiki>http://www.hooleroundabout.com</nowiki></small>''</ref> ==
[[File:8SHN1 Walker St.jpg|left|frameless|183x183px]]
An exploration of the early history of this street which "dog-legs" from Faulkner Street to Lightfoot Street.
Tithe maps in the Cheshire Record Office show that a Thomas Walker (1782-1857) owned properties in Newton Township in the area we now know as Flookersbrook. These included a tan-yard, a brewery, a brick bank and at least 6 houses and cottages. On the south side of Hoole Road, in Hoole Township, he owned plots of land and a number of dwellings including Ashtree House (recent research show that the rightful owners were the Trustees of the Estate of John Lightfoot, his father-in-law).
Thomas Walker’s father, George, was a brewer and liquor merchant but Thomas became a tanner and he married Katherine Lightfoot. When the lands in question were finally sold the part south of Hoole Road was acquired by Brabner & Court, Solicitors from Liverpool, who developed the properties we see today between Faulkner Street and Lightfoot Street.
Walker Street was built in 1881 from an opening in Lightfoot Street (see article above). Initially it only went as far as Pickering Street, the dogleg, its link to Faulkner Street, known as New Walker Street, not being built until 1887 when All Saints School was erected. It was necessary to demolish houses in Faulkner Street by the Bromfield Arms to create the opening for Walker Street.
=== Corner Shops ===
[[File:8SHN2 Walker St.jpg|thumb|''<small>Walker Street 'Corner Shop'</small>'']]
Unlike Faulkner Street and Charles Street where houses were turned into shops, Walker Street had shops on every corner. The range of shop provided all that one could need; grocers, bakers, butchers, newsagent, smallwares, boots and shoes, as well as a bicycle dealer. They changed hands and their type of trade frequently. Old “Hooligans” fondly recall Lowndes' fish & chip shop being there.
A special feature of these corner shops was the entrance actually built into the corner. The photographs show where the current owners at the junction with Phillip Street still have their front door actually on the corner while others have shifted the doors around the corner.
[[File:8SHN3 Walker St Co-op.jpg|left|thumb|''<small>Walker Street - the old Co-operative shop</small>'']]
The arrival of the Co-op in 1906 which included a grocer, a butcher, and a shoe and clothing store on the upper floor, was a major event. Many will remember getting their ‘divi’ and buying milk tokens there as well as the cash pulley system. The car park was called Hoole Bank and bonfires were lit there on 5th November but, miraculously, the Co-op wasn't burnt down.
The Co-op in Walker Street closed in July 2017 (the Faulkner Street shop had already closed) in order to concentrate business on The Elms site on Hoole Road. This will bring to an end 110 years of the Co-op on its Walker Street site.
The other major building was the Tin Chapel erected in 1894 following a dispute between Nonconformists, who had run a successful Sunday School at Westminster Road Schools, and the Church of England to whom the Duke of Westminster eventually gave the Schools. The Chapel was originally a Church of England Mission Hall from Edge Hill in Liverpool. When the Congregational Church moved to its present site on Hoole Road, it became Braids furniture store.
In the 1950s, football fans could catch a double decker bus from behind the Bromfield Arms to take them to Chester Stadium in Sealand Road. It’s unlikely that the bus would get through today.
== Warrington Road - Mayfield House ==
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