Jim Critchley... the biker

 James Crithcley, always known as Jim was the fourth child of Mary Ellen and James Critchley. Known to Mollie as "Granny's uncle Jim" he was the only one of three Critchley brothers to survive and return to St Helens when he was demobbed at the end of the first World War. At a guess this picture was taken by my grandfather when his brother bought a new motorbike. I will put the picture of him on the old one, which I guess my grandfather also took, in the same place and the same location at the end of the Knowsley Road terraced houses, below. Mollie writes:

     "James never married, He was in charge of the bakery side of the family business when his father died. During the 1914-1918 war he served in India, an experience he never forgot – as his family were well aware the following years! He must have had malaria, because from time to time there would be a recurrence. Fond of opera, he had a large record collection as well as a collection of ivory carvings. He was very generous, even treating my cousin and me to a holiday in the Isle of Man and frequently buying ornaments and curios for the house. In his retirement, he used to sail to the Isle of Man from Liverpool twice a week in the season and would meet retired sailors and other sea-loving friends on the boat."

    I also have my father's memories of his uncle Jim Critchley:" It was about my tenth Birthday that I finally conceded that other people might also be "real". An uncle from St Helens had been staying with us, a large rough handsome man of about fifty, who wore tweed suits, smoked a pipe and donned a cloth cap. Uncle Jim was a rogue in the family. He drank bottled stout and talked over-loud. he was also notorious for being "skint". – fleecing off brothers and sisters and in-laws with a hearty contempt for anything "posh". for some reason, Uncle Jim took to me and we became, during that week, good friends, to the dismay, I suspect, of my disapproving parents. At the end of the week,  on a Saturday, he went home, unlamented. Next day was my Birthday, and I awoke to find that Uncle Jim had left behind for me a beautiful new bicycle, not a fairy cycle, nor one for a fully grown boy, but it had a cross bar, pneumatic tyres, a pump, lamp and bell. I took it out into the street and stayed sitting on its enchanting little saddle thinking – "This is ten. This is what it feels like to be ten and I shall never forget this moment ever." One consequence was that I felt so confident of my own identity that I was afterwards prepared to allow that others, too, could be "real" – especially Uncle Jim. But all I can remember now is pride in my new bicycle, the scent of my father's roses, admiration (as I hoped) for my bicycle of a little girl across the road, and an intense preoccupation with what it felt like to be ten. I think the clicking of the school clock was still haunting me with the swift passage of time."

Below are pictures of Jim Critchley on his old bike, and another picture of Jim on a bike on a trip to the Lake District.

Phoebe Critchley, Mollie's Auntie Pe

 Phoebe Critchley was the eldest surviving child of James and Mary Ellen Critchley. Her niece Molly writes:

    "Phoebe was the eldest. She helped to look after the rest of the family. She was a housekeeper. I think this was quite usual in those days. There was also home help from Maggie (or Margaret) who was some sort of relative. Phoebe married James Matthews. They did not have any children. At some stage, before my day, she had some sort of internal operation – very dangerous in those days – her specialist being one of the surgeons in Rodney Street, Liverpool."

    "My grandmother died in 1937. After that my Auntie Pe (owing to the difficulty I had in pronouncing her name) continued to keep house and look after her husband and her brother, Jim, who never married. By this time we had moved to Glasgow. I used to spend holidays with them in Bleak Hill."

    "I thought my aunt was a wonderful person with her infinite patience, sympathy and her lively imagination. she lived a busy life, cleaning, baking shopping and providing, but she always had time to play games and have imaginative adventures."

    "The chores had to be done first, then, after Granny's uncle Jim had had his lunch, she would be free until her husband came home from work. Tuesdays and Fridays were shopping days. There were cakes from Bowley's with pink wafers on top, meat pies and custard tarts from Mercer's. There would be meat from the market as well as well a tripe – honeycomb usually – and pork from the butchers – Critchleys (no relation I think). Perviously she would have done her own big bake of cakes and goodies. There are getting on for hundreds of recipes in her cookery notebook. Friday, too, was the day when summer flowers, grown by Uncle Jim Matty, were cut and arranged for decorating the house. I remember especially carnations, lots of sweet peas, and gypsophila as well as marguerites and cornflowers."

    "In summer too there were picnics in nearby fields down Watery Lane. If time was short, Auntie would pack a basket and we would walk round the garden several times, pretending to see new exciting things on each tour. then we would settle in a corner and unpack the food."

   "There were many other imaginary games, like the time we had a cocktail bar. The family were teetotal, but that did not prevent the making of coloured water drinks. These would be arranged in old bottle and decanters on the inside dining room window-sill, along with an assortment of cheap glasses from the household store. I would dispense the drinks from inside the house, while my aunt would present to be a customer outside."

   "The pretending extended to her holiday stays with us in Glasgow when, for a day or two, we ran the "Cosy Corner Cafe" In our garage. Food was modelled by Auntie Pe in glitter wax and we used my doll's tea set and cutlery. I still have the menu." 

Tom Critchley, chemist from Knowsley Road

 This is a picture of young Tom Critchley, Mollie's uncle Tom, my grandfather. He wrote letters to her and her mother as he and his wife Annie Louise experienced the London blitz. This picture was taken in the greenhouse The Homestead, Knowsley Road, St Helens. My guess is that it was taken in the early years of the 20th century when he first went out to work. Later he married Annie Louise in Millom, Cumberland and was employed by Johnson Matthey. When he went for his first interview, he got lost in London when he tried to find the firm's Hatton Garden premises. Mollie remembers him:

    "Uncle Tom did very well at Cowley Grammar School, his name being on the merit board even in my time. He was a chemist and once, when a boy, he caused a shattering explosion on the railway wall at the back of the house, when attempting some experiment or other. He does not seem to have been all that strong, as at one stage, threatened with T.B. (I think) he went on a voyage to South America for his health, signing on as a supernumerary member of the crew. Despite all this he was good at cricket and very interested in photography, being one of the first to experiment with colour transparencies in 1938-1939.  Just before the First World War he got a job in London. Soon after he married Annie Darvell they lived in Barnet for many years before moving to a new house in Oakwood. Their two sons were called Ronald and Thomas (Tom).  Tom senior was an analytical chemist with Johnson Matthey in Brimsdown, where he designed their new silver nitrate plant as well as introducing several new processes. He had at least one Patent to his name."

     Also taken in the greenhouse at Knowsley Road is the picture below, which may be of Tom Crichley's own grandmother, Ellen Melling nee Wright, who died in 1907. The picture is about contemporary with the one above, which was probably taken in the first decade of the 20th century. It is one of the pictures from Phoebe Critchley's (Auntie Pe's) photograph book, so it is likely to be one of the family.

The Critchleys of The Homestead, Knowsley Road, St Helens

 Here is a picture of Knowsley Road, St Helens, taken in the early 20th century. Children are playing in the road; two of them are bare foot. Further up the road, is a child outside an end terrace house, which could have been inhabited by the Critchleys. One thing which had puzzled Mollie and other members of the family, is why did the house number change? Were the Critchleys moving regularly? One theory was that they defaulted on the rent and had to move. I noticed a similar change in the number of the terraced houses relatives lived in Great Yarmouth. I thought maybe the houses needed to be vacated to rid them of pests; to fumigate them. In fact the most likely explanation in both cases is that the numbering changed because the farmland opposite the terraces was developed. New housing is the most likely explanation for the number to change. In 1916 and 1918, Mary Ellen and James Critchley were living at 146a Knowsley Road when they received the devastating news from the War Office that their sons, first William, and then George, would never return home.

   Mollie writes that when she first knew her grandmother, she was living "in the family home, along with her daughter Phoebe and Phoebe's husband Jim and two of her sons, another Jim and Seth. This house at 164 Knowsley Road was known as "The Homestead". It had originally been joined to the one next door when it had belonged to the builder of the terrace. When the family took over, a central division had been made, thus creating two houses. The larger, right hand one belonged to the Critchleys. Downstairs there was a front parlour with a piano, and, at the back, the dining room, facing on to the back yard. Under the stairs was a sort of small cellar with steps leading down to it."

   "The kitchen had a large range and a table under the window with a rag mat on the floor, This kitchen led on to a wash place with a half door like a stable door. Outside was a garden and greenhouse with a paved path."

   "I often stayed at Knowsley Road, especially on a Friday night, when my parents went to the cinema. Uncle Jim Matty would take me home on Saturday morning."

   "Another memory of those days is making daisy chains in the field opposite the house. That field has long since disappeared along with Glassey's farm when the houses were built on the church side of Knowsley Road."

    "The family moved from that house, when I was about four or five."

NB Calling the house "The Homestead" may have avoided further number changes, as more housing was developed along Knowsley Road. From the Hogg family who lived in Stepney, East London, I have information that "The Homestead" was a popular name for houses around the time of WWl. The Hogg family taught the words to later generations and gave them to me from memory::

                                "The Miner's Dream of Home

                                "I saw the old homestead and faces I loved,

                                        I saw England's valleys and dells,

                                        I listened with joy, as I did when a boy

                                        To the sound of the old village bell.

                                        The logs were burning brightly,

                                       'Twas a night that would banish all sin,

                                        For the bells were ringing the old year out

                                       And the new year in"  

The Critchleys and the Isle of Man

 

This is a picture of James Critchley, right, with three of his sons. They are likely to be Tom, my grandfather, and two of his brothers, Jim and William. The photograph may have been taken on one of their trips to the Isle of Man. Ancestry tells me that many of my paternal connections are with North West of England and the Isle of Man. Mollie and I spent a holiday on the Isle of Man more than ten years ago. It was then she described how her grandfather James used to let the Critchley children run wild in the glens and blow a whistle to summon them back to him. I also remember being told, as a child, that great uncle Jim Critchley rode his motorbike so fast, that he didn't need to take the ferry over to the island. My guess is that he enjoyed the TT races. When I visited St Helens as a small child, great uncle Seth, the youngest of the brothers, took it on himself to 'reform' my accent and teach me colloquialisms. He drew cartoons and wrote little ditties to remind me. I can remember them and I have kept them. For instance "Who powed thee,"  translates as "who cut your hair." When we visited St Helens we also learned to make small food items, to go on my sister's dolls' house dining table, out of flour and water paste which we painted. After my grandmother died, my grandfather, Tom Critchley, lived with us in north London from 1957 until 1961. He had a keen analytical and logical intelligence. He loved a political, religious or philosophical debate.  In his career as a chemist he patented a method for developing photographs safely at home. He used his knowledge of chemical processes when he cooked for my grandmother later in life. For us, he made the sort of brittle toffee you might crack your teeth on, but it was good for making toffee apples in the autumn. He made furniture, miniature furniture for my sister's dolls' house and fencing and animal pens for my toy farm. He was a brilliant chess player. I could never win. He would take the time to explain what I had done wrong, giving me the opportunity to put it right in another game, but I still didn't beat him. I was relieved, when I read in his memoirs, that my dad was never able to win against his father either. Playing chess with my grandfather, I learned to enjoy the challenge and not to worry about winning. He also taught us card games, such as pontoon. As he was a smoker (Players Navy Cut), he saved the spent matchsticks and we used them to "gamble" with. He was also generous with pocket money and would sometimes give us half a crown (two shillings and six pence) He encouraged us to study and rewarded our exam results with gifts from the royalties he earned from the Patent Office. Tom Critchley was an avid stamp collector. He concentrated on British, Commonwealth and Protectorate stamps mainly, but delighted in stamps which designated violent regime changes and had the features of heads of state blanked out. He followed sports on television, particularly cricket and rugby league. Particularly enjoyable was watching those "Derbys" St Helen's versus Wigan with him. When he died and I went with Dad to sort out his things in the nearby nursing home, his stamps and hinges had been laid out ready to file the following day and a book on cricket was open on the table, with the book mark in it, showing as far as he had read. He had expected to continue organising his stamp collection and reading the following day.

NB: Half a crown, two shillings and sixpence would translate as 12.5 pence in todays money. If we saved up eight half crowns, we could have a whole £1 to put into National Savings. But Woolworths was just up the road in the High Street and that's where we usually spent it.  

Critchley children of Knowsley Road, St Helens

Seven of James and Mary Ellen Critchley's children survived into adulthood. Here they all are, photographed early in the 20th century with serious expressions on their faces. They are outside "The Homestead" Knowsley Road, St Helens. On the back row, from the left is my grandfather and Mollie's uncle Thomas, who was born in 1888. He is the eldest of the boys. Next to him is his brother James, known to Mollie as "granny's uncle Jim", born in 1891. William Critchley, is standing on his right. He was born in 1892. Standing on William's right is Phoebe Critchley, known to Mollie as "auntie Pe" because she couldn't pronounce Phoebe as a child. Phoebe was born in 1887 and is James and Mary Ellen's eldest child. In the front row, from the left, is George Critchley, born in 1894. In the middle of the front row is Mary Ellen Critchley, born 1896. She was named after her mother and would would become Mollie's mum. To Mary's right is the youngest of the family Seth, born in 1896. The story goes that he was called "Seth" because he was the seventh child. Mollie knew her auntie Pe and uncles Tom, Jim and Seth. But she never met Private William Critchley and Corporal George Critchley, although they were often spoken of with affection by the rest of the family. William and George were killed in action in World War l. 

James Critchley, baker of St Helens

 James Critchley of St Helens (1863 to 1923)

Mollie wrote:

"My grandfather died in 1923, so I never knew him. But he does seem to have been the father of a happy, well-balanced family, often taking them to the Isle of Man for. holiday. He would let them wanter freely in  one of the glens and blow a whistle when he wanted them. It was there my mother acquired her taste for oysters."

 "My grandfather, along with a certain James Smith (known as 'Bread Uncle Jim') had owned and run a bakery business in Crowther Street. Grandfather did the baking and Uncle Jim did the delivering with horse and 'van', taking bread and buns to houses as well as shops. Uncle Jim had married my grandmother's sister, Auntie Lizzie, but I never knew her as she died before my time."

Jim Critchley right, photographed with some of his boys. Possibly they are in one of the Glens on the Isle of Man, having responded to his whistle. At a guess the boys are Jim in the centre, William on the left and George on the right.

Mary Ellen Critchley matriarch of the Homestead

 Mary Ellen Critchley, nee Melling, photographed in about 1922, reading a book. She is Mollie's grandmother and my great grandmother. Mary Ellen was a widow when Mollie was born. I have pictures of great grandfather James Critchley. He looks sad in them, or, it could be that he has quite a notable walrus moustache. In the picture below, James Critchley looks typically melancholy. Mollie's cousin Tom, sitting on Mary Ellen's lap looks angrily at his grandfather, whilst Tom's brother Ronald, sitting between them is looking at James Critchley with respect. Mollie wrote that she remembered Mary Ellen well. She wrote:

   "She was a kind sympathetic person with a sense of humour. My mother said she mellowed in her old age. I never saw her in any colour but black. She wore a long black skirt and black blouse, silk for Sundays. And black cardigan, which was old fashioned even in those days. I occasionally shared a bedroom with her and I'm still astonished at the number of petticoats she wore, all tied round the waist and knotted at the front."

   "When I first knew her she was living in the family home with her daughter Phoebe and Phoebe's husband Jim and two of her sons, another Jim and Seth. This house at 164 Knowsley Road was known as the "Homestead" had originally belonged to the one next door when it was occupied by the builder of the terrace. When the family took it over, a central division had been made, thus creating two houses, the larger, right hand one belonged to the Critchleys. Downstairs was a front parlour with a piano, and at the back a dining room facing on to the back yard. Under the stairs, there was a sort of small cellar with stairs leading down to it."

   "The kitchen had a large range and a table under the window, with a rag mat on the floor. This kitchen led to a kind of wash place with half a door like a stable door. Outside was a garden and greenhouse with a paved path. At one time my grandmother kept hens; her favourite cock would sit on her knee, but would attack any other family member who tried to feed it. Upstairs were the bedrooms and the bathroom."

   "My grandmother was passionately fond of Rugby League. On a Saturday afternoons, she would take a cushion and sit on the back bedroom windowsill to get a good view of the play on the St Helens field nearby. On Boxing Day St Helens always played Wigan on the local 'Derby' I remember her rushing out to stop the first spectators coming off the field to find out who had won. If it was St Helens, we had white and red crepe paper on the teatable. The occasion I remember well was when they lost and there was black paper round the doorway by the time the men of the family arrived home. My mother inherited this love of the game and watched St Helens on the television till her dying day. I must admit I often do the same.

    "When I was nine, my two cousins came from London to visit and we were staying at the same time. Together we produced an entertainment. My grandmother put curtains across the back room and behind this was our imagined stage. Both boys were in the scouts, so we included a few sketches from their 'Gang Show' I remember it was the first time I heard the old joke "Waiter, waiter, there's a fly in my soup" We ended with a murder play called "Ten minute Alibi" I didn't understand it, but it seemed to go down well and we were rewarded by grandmother with chocolates"

Mary Ellen Critchley nee Melling 1863 to 1937. Tom Critchley 1919 to 1991. Ronald Critchley 1917 to 1959 and James Critchley 1863 to 1923.

Introducing Mollie

Here is cousin Mollie. She was the recipient of some of my grandparents letters, written in the Blitz. More recently, I was staying with her in Hertfordshire, when she handed me a bundle of letters, written by my grandparents to her and her parents, which give a graphic account of the London Blitz. I started to put these letters on a blog nearly 13 years ago. Today, they have a world-wide audience. Together, Mollie and I tried to put together our shared Critchley ancestry.  Mollie lived in St Helens with the Critchleys until she was six. After she and her parents, Harry and Mary Platt, moved to Glasgow, they spent all their Christmases with the Critchleys in St Helens, Lancashire. This blog will share Mollie's memories, our joint research and family pictures. Here is a link to the war-time letters between two generations of Critchleys.

https://tomcritchleysletters1940to1941.blogspot.com/2010/10/tom-critchley-to-his-niece-molly-platt.html