Ormskirk during WW1

[BurscoughLad]

Thanks for that prompt, Lal.

Only lived in Burscough since 1977, and completely overlooked the Depot!!   

I know about the remount depot because my son did a dissertation on Lathom House when in the sixth form. There was a railway spur from the Ormskirk - Skelmersdale - Rainford Jcn line directly into the depot.

The ROD at Burscough also had its own spur from the Ormskirk - Preston line which accessed the Southport - Wigan - Manchester line via the Burscough Curves.

[Lal]

BurscoughLad, have you seen the book by Ernest Rosbottom - Burscough, The Story of an Agricultural Village? I'd borrowed it from my mother months ago, and it's well worth finding a copy if you've not got one, it's one of the best written local history books I've read and I'm always looking something or other up in it.

In it, he writes that the site for the Ordnance depot was acquired in 1890, it had previously been Williamson's Table Baize Works, only itself set up in 1879 but a business that didn't turn out as successful as had been hoped. The military liked the site because it was so close to both the canal and the two railway lines. The stores were to be moved from Chester Castle to Burscough Junction and initially included holding tents and 'certain wares' (wonder what that might be...). With WWI, the depot also held gun stores.

Between WWI and the 1950s, the depot was apparently the biggest employer in the area with 300-400 people having jobs there. I can just about remember it being there, but it must ahve only had a skeleton staff by the 70s!

[BurscoughLad]

Hello Lal,

Happy New Year.

Yes, I do have that book. It is quite a significant reference for Burscough.

In 2005, I was asked to put together a PowerPoint presentation for the centenary of Crabtree mission (St Andrew's in New Lane). It was surprising what photographs surfaced!!  I have photos of all the vicars from 1905 onwards, together with some of the curates and readers from the same period, as well as group photos going back to the early 20th C

The naming of the missions is confusing for people coming fresh into the area.

Crabtree mission is in New Lane
New Lane mission (now a private house) is in Marshmoss Lane
Drummersdale mission is in Merscar Lane.

St Andrew's was started in the loft of the barn, now part of the Slipway pub, in Crabtree Lane in 1899 and the name moved to the new site.

I also have a book called "Burscough Boatmen - Their marriages and their boats" by Robert Cheetham-Houghton. Worth a look for anyone doing genealogy of the boat families.

Best wishes

[Lal]

I've a fair few in my extended family tree who lived at New Lane, and also some who worked on the canal boats! Have you seen the Boat Families website? I've put the link here if not, as it's got a great database of names on there - it's recently helped me in solving a mystery on my family tree and uncovered some new branches. The book is one I'm currently after, along with the one about Martin Mere - Lancashire's Lost Lake, as almost all my father's family are from the area (and me!).

Crabtree Mission always used to interest me because it's very similar to the Good Shepherd Mission in Scarisbrick (where we used to go to Sunday School as children) - both satellite churches, set up in the same decade and almost identical in design. The Good Shepherd was actually sent in pieces from Wigan down the canal to be rebuilt in Scarisbrick - always known locally as 'the tin mission'.

http://www.boatfamilies.org.uk/pages/canal-01v08/individuals1.htm

[BurscoughLad]

Lal,

I wonder if you knew Nellie Glover who lived on "the bank" until recently.

After she had a stroke and was hospitalised, she went into Park Grove Rest home a couple of months before Christmas.
Sadly, she had another stroke and died in December.

Nellie used to go to Crabtree and we would sometimes bring her home from the village - if she wasn't on her bike!!

I have a photo of her as a young girl on one of the barges.  It was used in the Crabtree PowerPoint presentation.

Ian

[Lal]

Sadly no, but my father might know the name through being a Sidesman at the Good Shepherd, they used to have fucntions/services with other churches as far as I remember...It's likely my grandparents might have known her, my grandad (a Leatherbarrow) used to work on threshing teams moving round the farms in the area and they seemed to know everyone!

[BurscoughLad]

Was it Mrs Leatherbarrow from Scarisbrick Cottage in New Lane?

We knew her - - quite some time ago now; but she was here when we first moved in.

BL

[Lal]

No, my grandparents lived at Hurlston Green and then on the edge of the moss at Wyke Cop in Scarisbrick. I'm trying to trace other Leatherbarrows off side branches of the family tree though and she could be related somewhere along the line - I'm having to go very far back as our branch seems to have dwindled over five generations just to us.

[Hartburn]

BurscoughLad - thanks to the information in your postings you have helped me to identify the history of an old postcard. It is printed with a rhyme entitled "A Happy New Year to all from Lathom Park".
It ends with the lines -

"So a happy New Year to everyone,
Is the wish of every heart,
Of the Remount boys of the A.S.C.
In their camp at Lathom Park."

The poet signs himself A.H.
It was printed by Hutton of Ormskirk.