EPW017453 ENGLAND (1927). Heyes Lane and environs, Timperley, 1927

Have just resisted sticking a peg on what in 1927 was still a field with the tag "Kevin Ashton's house was HERE!"



And, recalling BHS, I'd add - quite at random - Rodney Bode and his sister, Olwen Holland, Carol Southern, Rita Hammond, Michael Watson, Michael Alexander, Abdul Salam (a pioneer of his kind), Colin Boothway (who messed about) and Elizabeth Wilson who could turn her face purple by holding her breath. Not to mention a kid called Edge whose first name I can't remember and whose dad made bottled pop and lived in Westwood Avenue, and one called Nelson whose dad had the hardware shop on Riddings Road.



You can't still be working at Brooklands Station now it's all transformed into Metrolink, Kevin ...

Brookfield House School.

I went there from Kindergarten till I was nine years old. I loved that school. I wish I had as good a memory as some of you have as I can't remember any names of other children except one who was a friend called Rosemary Coles who lived in Brooklands. I think there was a boy called Richard who was getting into trouble a lot.



I remembered the name 'Miss Lord' when I read it, so I must have known her. I really liked Mrs Beedle. I thought she was very kind, although I thought her husband was a bit frightening :-)).



There was a little girl, who was accepted by Mrs Beedle as a pupil, I think somewhat reluctantly, who had a severe learning disability.



Her mother wanted so much for her to learn to read and persuaded Mrs Beedle to admit her. I remember Mrs Beedle introducing her and her mum to the class. She was such a sweet and pretty little girl, but she was unable to learn even with one-on-one coaching, and she left after a few weeks. I think Mrs Beedle really wanted to help her...



When my father died( January) and my mother realized she would be unable to pay the fees, and was going to transfer me to Frieston Rd. Mrs B. offered to let me stay on with no fees for the rest of the year, and even offered to let me stay on until I took the 11 plus.



She said she knew I would pass. She even asked me if I would prefer to stay rather than going to the other school. I said I did not know, because I thought my mum might feel uncomfortable with that arrangement. But in my heart I really wanted to stay at BHS.



I loved those huge rhododenrons in the front garden and sitting under them in the summer, and I remember when Mrs Beedle showed us where there were some scarlet pimpernels blooming between the crazy paving.



I went back to see Mrs Beedle when I was 15 and she greeted me so warmly and took me in to meet a class. Afterwards she asked me all about how it had been in the other school and that she was glad I was at Altrincham Grammar. I told her that when I got to Frieston Road I was 2 years ahead of the children in the class in which I was placed, and that they couldn't even do 'running hand writing' and she beamed.

I can still see her in my memory with her rather Edwardian hair do, grey-streaked and piled up on her head and her rather sharp nose, but she was a great teacher. Her favourite saying was, 'there is no such word as can't!'

Hi Kevin



I'm retired too, since end of 2006 - went to university in Wales and stayed there 20 years, but came back in '84 to be near my dad when he got ill and frail, and haven't managed to escape since! Currently in Hazel Grove.



Yes, Rita Hammond did indeed have red hair - coppery rather than ginger - and always got the "Merit" badge; don't know where she lived, though. Jennifer Newsome's and Carol Lunt's names both ring a bell, but I can't recall faces. I couldn't remember Clive Reeves, though - and yet now it's in my head the surname "Reeves" does seem to strike a faint chord.



I remember Gabrielle Thompson clearly, though - another one with coppery hair ... quiet voice, elfin face. Abdul Salam was the first foreigner I came across too - unless you count Gwilym Hughes for being Welsh. Remember him? He was severely mentally handicapped, but his mum wouldn't accept it and Mrs Beedle accepted him at BHS - we always thought it was because he provided her with another fee when her numbers were declining!



I don't remember a Miss Brown among the teachers; other than the terrifying Mrs Beedle (we used to speculate what her initials E.G. stood for, and finally settled on "Ethel Gertie"!) I only remember Miss Spilsbury (young back then, taught me when I was first there) and Miss Lord - the senior teacher next to Mrs B., a big woman with curly grey hair who used to cycle to school from Hale each day on a bike with clicking gears.



Dorothy and Timmy Jones I remember very clearly, though. I recall neither of them wanted to pass the 11+ exam because if they did they wouldn't be able to go to Welly Road with their friends! No one banged on about aspiration then, because jobs were there for the having.



Intriguing to have run across you again. A few years back I found, via the net, a secondary school friend whom I'd not heard from since 1969. Even longer since I ran into you - I'd say late '50s, when I saw you on your way to Altrincham Grammar on the bus!

Hi John,

Rita Hammond - I'm pretty certain she lived in 'The Triangle' on the Grange estate, just near Park Road. Clive Reeves had younger twin sisters, one named Victoria and the other also having a name beginning with 'V' - I can't remember now exactly what! The family lived on Bollin Drive (or possibly Downs Drive) and the father worked (I think) for a fruit & veg importer named Mayo. Possibly Clive didn't attend BHS, but as I "palled" with him for a while, I'm assuming he did.

Gwilym Hughes I definitely remember, as our family knew the Hughes family quite well - believe it or not, I didn't start talking until I was nearly four, and my Mum and Mrs. Hughes had similar concerns. Sadly, Gwilym was actually diagnosed as severely autistic - as the doctors and local district nurses explained (in those earlier times), he was far from lacking in intelligence, but was unable to communicate with the 'normal' world. As our two families were somewhat more closely involved, all of us were able to gain some understanding of his behaviour. Of course, eventually (when his father died) he was an adult and too much for his Mum to cope with, and (if I recall) he was placed in a home that specialised in autistic cases, somewhere in Shropshire. Coincidentally, I started work on the railway at Sale station - Gwilym's father (Bill) was the chief clerk there, subsequently moving to Timperley station, where he retired.

Now that you mention Miss Lord - I remember her; I suspect Miss Brown was not there for long, but I can't remember whether she was there before or after Miss Lord....

Kevin, I'm replying to you in the "chat" section of your profile rather than here, as it strikes me that however fascinating our reminiscences of the early 1950s on this patch of land are for us, they probably aren't interesting to anyone who didn't experience the gimlet-eyed gaze of Mrs Beedle as a pupil of Brookfield House School!

As this is the area where I grew up, I had a head start!

Hi Katy



Well - the one photo on this site which shows the future location of the house where I grew up gets to be the most commented upon - fame (of a sort!) at last ...



I've got a 1" to the mile OS map dated 1924, but my main information has come from the Chester Record Office's website, which carries the tithe maps from around 1840 and the OS maps of 1875 and 1910. It's a particularly useful site because it will set whichever old map that you choose on a pane next to a modern map, so it's possible to see exactly where modern roads and buildings stand in relation to the landscape as it was in the past.



I'd happily have a go at writing this up on the Wiki tab, though I'd have to read up what's entailed - I've not read every detail of this site's info. yet.



But there may well be other people who've got more specific and/or detailed knowledge than I have, who may do a better job.



By the way, though the spelling in the 19th century seems to have been "Heys", it was "Heyes" by the 20th.



John Ellis