ALAN WHALLEY'S WORLD

COULD a humble herbalist have taught patent medicine king Joseph Beecham how to make his world-renowned pills?

That's the intriguing thought raised by a fascinating peep into the past, penned by Mrs Winnie Roberts who was raised in the neighbourly side-streets close to St Helens town centre.

She picks up on reader Roy (Dubbie) Preston's recent letter and flashback photo, featuring the old Bruck area.

"Thank you," says Winnie, "for all the memories brought back by the photograph of Clyde Street, where we lived from the early 1940s until 1958."

And she, in turn, provides the picture featured on this page today and showing Roy alongside her brother Jackie proudly posing in RAF uniforms during National Service.

"We had the unusual name of Wase," says Winnie, who now lives in Lakeland Avenue, Ashton-in-Makerfield. "My grandfather, a herbalist, was one of the first to have a stall on St Helens market. And an old man once told me that my grandad taught Beecham's how to make pills."

"My uncle, Arthur Johnson, carried on the business in Tontine Street. Everyone knew it as the Temperance Bar, making pills and cough toffee as well as sarsaparilla and half-and-half. And on Saturdays my dad's sister had a sweet stall, called Rooney's, on the outside market."

Winnie's family lived in a shop-fronted corner premises with one window in Clyde Street and another facing into Kirkland Street.

And, underlying just how closely-knit a community it was, she says: "My sister married the next-door neighbour whose father was mayor during the Queen's visit to St Helens in 1956.

"My youngest brother, Alan, was born in Clyde street and when the area was demolished he salvaged the street sign which now hangs in his garage. Alan joined the army, ending his career with the rank of WO1.

"The Clyde Street block where we lived was cobble-stoned and there was a big air-raid shelter in front of the house. The shop part was used to store ARP sandbags.

"Even though it was a small street, we were not without our prominent sportsmen," she recollects. Johnny Molloy, a top pro boxer and championship contender, lived three doors away from Winnie, and further along lived Saints players Ernie Large and George Parr.

Her brother Alan's friends included members of the rugby-steeped Chisnall and Mousdale families.

Winnie's family have deep business and professional links. Her maternal granny's cousins included the Fosters, one-time wine merchants, whose shop stood on the corner of Westfield Street with Kirkland Street. Another cousin had a corn merchant's business in Liverpool Road, while a third one was a teacher at Sacred Heart School and also the church organist.

"There are so many memories from those days that I could write a book," Winnie signs off.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.