IT’S time to shed some light on a couple of our nostalgia pictures from previous columns after a lively response from readers.

Peter Greer got in touch all the way from Sale, Victoria, Australia regarding our picture in my December 4 column of children playing beside a pub.

The photo is Carr Mill Rd, Chadwick Green, and features the Masons Arms. Peter wanted to share his memories of growing up around there.

He wrote: “We lived in the end cottage from just after the war till 1953. Old Mo was the landlord.

“We moved to St Helens when I was seven, as Greenalls demolished the cottages for a car park. It was a great place to live as there was only a couple of other children. I was amazed when I returned to England to see all the fields gone and houses in their place.

Geoff Sandford also confirmed the location: “Could it be the Masons Arms pub in Carr Mill Rd, Billinge? It is just behind the children, the sign just visible above their heads (but not readable). The building on view is now demolished and the pub car park is there now. The Masons is a pub I have frequented for many years now.”

To this day the pub retains the nickname ‘Old Mo’s’ to many of its regulars and is a thriving, traditional real ale location. I take it that was named after the former landlord? Can anyone share their memories of him?

Before moving on Peter added in his email from Oz that he is researching his family history and is seeking information on Turley’s Furniture & French polishing business?

Can anyone help him?

Further responses came to a grainy image featured in the November 27, with one reader pinpointing the location.

Alan Briers wrote: “That shop was Charlie Creavie’s in Pocket Nook Street, next to Ayrshire Dockyard. I was born just round the corner in Davies Street 63 years ago. I queued loads of times in there to get my Spanish and Bazooka Joe’s.”

Meanwhile, Rita Allcock tells me she is presently “working towards an exhibition of Cowley Archives to open at The World of Glass on January 17, which will last until March 13. It is to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Sarah Cowley’s legacy to the town, which she left in her will when she died on March 5, 1715.

Much of the revenue from her legacy was increased and linked to the Sankey Canal which went through her lands.

Rita wrote: “I am looking for an old map to show where her fields were – I have seen one from 1600s? It showed ‘Cowley Fields’ and as the canal runs right by The World of Glass a copy of the map would be of interest to ‘our public’. Have you any idea how I could find one please?”

I replied that old maps of localities tend to be quite rare. One way is to locate and read the wills of relevant ancestors in the family history chain, providing they had wealth to pass on. They may detail the boundaries of the lands passed on. Such documents may be in our Local History Archive, or the County Archives.

Last year there was a feature in this newspaper about Doris Cleworth.

It read: “When she was born she was so tiny it was feared she could die within hours. Yet 106 years later she is still going strong, and is surely one of the oldest people living in St Helens today.

“Doris, who after being born at home in Chapel Street, St Helens on November 15, 1908 was baptised immediately because concerns for her life were so grave, was surrounded by her family at the Colliers Croft nursing home, in Haydock, this month to celebrated her latest landmark. “ So not only is Doris thought to be the oldest person in St Helens, but the oldest who was also born in St Helens or the neighbouring townships now in the borough. Do you know of anyone older?

A date for your diaries: Local author Sue Gerrard will be narratinge Ghost Stories to Chill You on Saturday, January 31, at 6pm, at Fir Tree Farm, Kings Moss. The Stories and Seasonal meal costs, £11. Ring Edwina on 01744 894959 to book.

Contact: email chrispcoffey@gmail.com or ring 01744 817130 or write to 37 Holbrook Close, St Helens, WA9 3XH.