Hoylake Promenade between the Wars
At 38 Banks Road is a restaurant with a hairdressers
above but in the 60's it was the Thistle Cafe with a
dance hall rehearsal rooms over the top.
On Thursday 1st February 1962 the Beatles made their first performance outside Liverpool after Brian Epstein took over their management. It was the intention that the group would perform regularly there and call it the Beatles Club, but in the end this was their only appearance in the town. Epstein took 10 o/o of the £18 that they were paid. I was there on that night and had been praising the group in the town prior to the event.
However, on the evening it didn't go well. Maybe because of the acoustics but whatever it was I came in for a lot of criticism from the locals.
The Wirral has seen many personalities over the years who have been either born or lived in the area. Harold Wilson went to Wirral Grammar when his father worked in Brombough, Fiona Bruce lived in Heswall when her father worked for Lever Brothers, Ian Botham the cricketer was born in Heswall, Roger Moore had a house in Gayton (that makes two James Bonds plus Timothy Dalton who was born in Colwyn Bay.)
Paul McCartney bought a house named Rembrandt for his father Jim in Heswall, he paid £8790. Ringo Starr had a spell in the Children's Convalescent Hospital in Heswall with pleurisy when he was young. There have also been a number of premier league footballers that have lived in the area over the years from both Liverpool and Everton clubs. Rafa Benitez the former Liverpool manager still has a house high up in Caldy worth in the region of £6m.
The Wirral Peninsular is a diverse and interesting area, from the industrial towns of Birkenhead and Ellesmere Port to the villages of Caldy and Burton that are constantly mentioned in the list of the richest villages in Britain. The area has a long history and I have only scratched to surface of the many facts and also the personalities that have lived there over the years.
So this concludes my four stories about the Wirral.
“Across the River Dee,” “The Rise and fall of Birkenhead,”
“Land of the Welshman,”
and this last one about the area that I grow up in.
My thanks to all the historical articles and memories that have given me the information about this fascinating area of the country.