The Willows, Breck Road

Does anyone remember The Willows which was off Breck Road, near the junction of Belmont Road. My piano teacher lived at the vey bottom of this cul-de-sac of dark, :PDT_13:Victorian cellar and attic houses, at the bottom of which was the back of Barker Dobson's sweet factory. I used to stand on Breck Road, looking into the Willows, hold my breath, and leg it to the bottom, as I was terrified of the dark shadows from the overhanging treees. I would not have been able to go there on my own these days!!!

yes I remember The Willows. Also Barker & Dobsons - the lovely aroma of sweets coming from there. :)

I have lived in the area for 30 years (redrock st) and now i live on the site of the willows. i remember in 1973 when they were knocking the houses down at the side of the montrose, facing the rock communtity centre. i watched a crane fall into the ground up to the top of the drivers cab. it took about 25 men to pull the crane out. i looked into the hole and i will never forget, there was a deep cavern with bricked arches. the next day i told my friend what happened and to show him where the crane had fallen into to. when we got to the site they had put steel threads across the hole and was pouring concrete onto a base they had made which had been slid under the threads. then i asked a cocky watchman to verify to my friend about the deep carven the driver had nearly fell into. he replied don't be bloody daft, have you been on the double diamond? and my mate laughed at me and called me the jackanory boy. those carvens are still here today and i can never prove it.
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A pic of the Rock Community centre is on my site below. Try the post war b&w pics page.

Remember The Willows,used to deliver papers there when I worked for Pyes paper shop.It was the 2nd shop up Breck Rd from The Willows.

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Originally Posted by folkiesue

Does anyone remember The Willows which was off Breck Road, near the junction of Belmont Road. My piano teacher lived at the vey bottom of this cul-de-sac of dark, :PDT_13:Victorian cellar and attic houses, at the bottom of which was the back of Barker Dobson's sweet factory. I used to stand on Breck Road, looking into the Willows, hold my breath, and leg it to the bottom, as I was terrified of the dark shadows from the overhanging treees. I would not have been able to go there on my own these days!!!

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Yes I remember the Willows well. I used to live there as a kid in one of those large crumbling houses. I remember the smell of Everton mints and sugared almonds. In the summer Barker and Dobson sweet factory roof became our playground and in the winter we played footie on the cobled street and were constantly being interupted by B&D wagons.

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Originally Posted by folkiesue

Does anyone remember The Willows which was off Breck Road, near the junction of Belmont Road. My piano teacher lived at the vey bottom of this cul-de-sac of dark, :PDT_13:Victorian cellar and attic houses, at the bottom of which was the back of Barker Dobson's sweet factory. I used to stand on Breck Road, looking into the Willows, hold my breath, and leg it to the bottom, as I was terrified of the dark shadows from the overhanging treees. I would not have been able to go there on my own these days!!!

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I am interested in a place called the Willows as I believe my grandmother may have lived there. She gave piano lessons too. Do you remember your teacher's name? My grandmother's name was Lily Woods. I am trying to trace all my Liverpool relatives and I know that they all seemed to come from the West Derby area. I only ever visited her once many years ago and cannot remember where it was.

Yvonne, Guru, Abbo - aren't these great memories! I remember Pyes newsagents shop well -was it called Scolds later (or before?) Remember Lister's pork butchers with the sawdust on the floor and at Christmas there would be all this meat hanging up in the shop, from large hooks.
Yvonne - my piano teacher's name was Miss Hilda Dold and she lived at the bottom of The Willows with her sister. I think they were both unmarried. Abbo -what a fascinating story about the arches when they were knocking the old property down near the Montrose club - do you know what was there previously? It shouldn't be that hard to find out. I wish I could go back in time and be there again, with the sights and sounds of those days -Breck Road was (in my memory) a nice place to live. I went round there a few years back and was dismayed to see how the area has decayed.

Yes I remember The Willows. I was born and lived the first 10 years of my life there. I remember Miss Moorcroft the Piano Teacher who lived in about no 31. She was tall and thin and had very long fingers with long nails, and when she played the music you could hear her nails tapping on the keys. Got a few slaps for not doing the exercises correctly!

I agree about the street being dark, if I went to Pyes shop where my friends lived, I would walk down the middle of the street because there were lots of trees and the gate posts were very tall, someone could have been hiding. Pyes had the first television and I saw some of the Coronation on it. We used to watch the cowboys and Indians on it every Saturday.

I can still recall most of my friends and neighbours names. If anyone is interested I could give a list.

We used to have fights throwing stones across the oller at the Woodville terrace gang, and the vet in Larch Lea had the house backing onto it in the Willows and had a couple of very big dalmations.

Happy memories.

i used to live in the willows half way doen on the right,i left in about 1970, iremember the big trees well the chimney with the black smoke from the B & D factory, playing football with lads of all ages against the B & D main entrance gate until it got dark,the old gas street lights converted to leci,the coble stone street, the old lady down the bottom on the LHS who used to give us her half eaten bags of stale crisps,the Jones brothers who lived opposite Everton fans,The back entries to Richmond terrace,the laundarette on breck road that caught fire,the (bomby) bombed out house from the war halfway doen on the RHS,my dads ford Anglia then his rond old rover,the chippy on breck road, all good memories