I can begin this posting about those Critchleys of St Helens, with my own memory of a visit. I was about the same age as the young man on the horse, who may be my grandfather, Tom Critchley. By the time of Mollie's reminiscences and my visit Critchley & Smith, Wholesale & Retail, Bakers & c. St Helens had a motor van for deliveries. I estimate the young man in the picture to be about four or five. Holding the horse is probably young Tom Critchley's uncle by marriage "Bread Uncle Jim" Smith.
Mum. dad, my sister and I visited St Helens after a long car journey and having to ask directions in Billinge. Dad never tired of imitating the accent of the local man who eventually understood his southern accent and answered: "Eee, ahh dorn't knorw... usk Ted ee 't shed." It was our first taste of the local vernacular. During our visit, I was to receive instruction from my great uncle Seth on the accent and language. To ensure the lessons were fully understood, he sketched cartoons and wrote little ditties under them. My favourite was "who powed thee?" I cherished these sketches and ditties so much, I still have them and will put them in later posts.
My sister at that time had a dolls house which had been made by grandpa, Tom Critchley and he and dad made a lot of the furniture for it. Whilst we visiting the Critchleys at St Helens we were helped to make "food" for the dolls house out of flour and water paste and plates and bowls out of papier maché. When they were dry we painted them. I particularly remember making "cottage" loaves, which were the easiest.
Two other memories stand out. Our trip to the Critchleys favourite resort, Southport, and walking through the streets of Liverpool holding my dad's hand. In 2015 after a wet walk through Liverpool, under dark clouds and pouring rain, I wrote:
"As a small child, with my Dad and an uncle from St Helens I remember walking along a building which seemed to have such a huge pediment, it was well above my height. I could not see any windows in it and it seemed to me at the time and in my memory of it to just be a huge stone building. What was it? It was not one of the "Three Graces" along the waterfront I walked round all of those. Walking back from the re-developed warehouses and docks for my tour to Port sunlight, I found my building. It was tucked behind one of the Three Graces. It was tall, built in the Art Deco style. I walked round it and found statue niches, a door, but few windows. But what was it? I would find out from the guide on my tour to Port Sunlight who gave me the answer to the question which had been puzzling me for years. The building housed the ventilation shaft for the Mersey Tunnel and was built in the 1930s in the Art Deco style."
And now to Mollie's account of the Critchley & Smith bakery.
"My grandfather, along with a certain James Smith (known as Bread Uncle Jim), had owned and run a bakery business in Crowther Street. He 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 married my grandmother's sister Auntie Lizzie, but she died before my time. James Critchley (Grannies Uncle Jim) never married. He was in charge of the bakery business when his father died. When Bread Uncle Jim's wife, Auntie Lizzie, was alive, they took Auntie Pe (Phoebe) on at least one holiday to Scotland. One one occasion, in Glencoe, when they came to a steep slope, they all had to get off the wagonette and walk, to allow the horses to get up with a lighter load. After Auntie Lizzie died Uncle Jim was invited to family occasions. After all he had been my grandfather's partner. He invariably brought a present of a box of chocolates, but unfortunately these were usually inedible as he had obviously hoarded them too long. At one time a curate from St Lukes and his wife and baby lodged with him in Horace Street."
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