Thanks for your comments! (From St Helens Star)

Thanks for your contributions

10:29am Thursday 19th July 2012 in Coffey Time By Chris Coffey

I KNOW that some of you read your weekly edition of the Star on the Star’s own internet web page (sthelensstar.co.uk) which makes it available all over the world when you are away on holiday.

I do occasionally forget to go into the “Coffey Time” section to check if anyone has posted any responses to any of the stories, with info I should paste into my column. Here are some.

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REMEMBER that photo of a derelict house on Merton Bank Road?

SUE Herdman and Marie Glynn told me: “I was recently on a trip home to St Helens, (I live in Dublin), when I spotted this picture and I knew that my great aunty live in this house so my mother, (Marie Glynn) gave me the info that she had.

“Her Aunty's name was Dorothy Greenough nee Melding and she lived in the house in the 1930s and 1940s.

“At that time the house was rented separately from the yard. In the 1940s, after the war, Dorothy and her husband Harry moved out as Mr Blake wanted to move into the house.

“The yard was used as a pottery at that time but we don't know if it was only starting then or if it was already a pottery when she moved in.

“Hope this little snippet of info is helpful and you can always contact me if you think we can help you further.”

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DAVE Forber commented: “I was discussing this with my friend at the weekend. Having both grown up in Barwell Avenue from the 70s we have both known this building for a while.

“Being a little older than me he remembers it selling wool at some point although I don't.

“I do remember pottery there though, possibly in the late 70s to early 80s, but I don't recall it being made there, just rows of it on shelves.

“I had been walking home along the canal with my mother from where she worked at the Clarendon Hotel, the door was open, so we went in to look.

“Reading that some clay was possibly dug from the nearby fields reminded us about small 'pits' in the field we used to call 'the eyes'.

“Circular pits maybe a couple of feet deep and maybe 8 feet wide, but my memory could be wrong about the sizes after time.

“Maybe that's where clay was dug from? I think there are houses built there now (I moved away in the 90s).

“Another memory we both had was that at some point in the 80s it was used to host games. In the house was a large table with a landscape set on it where men would be playing 'war games' with plastic soldiers, tanks etc.

“Hope this is of some use to people.”

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AND there was one anonymous comment about that ‘castle’… “It is in Victoria Park by the Duck Pond. We climbed all over it when we were kids. It was a magic time. Isn't it wonderful what a child's imagination can do?”