The Early Days at Barnston
1950's and 1960's Trips, a new Church and Significant Events

In 1960 I was 3 years old, by 1970 I was 13, a teenager at last. Girls were starting to appear as if by magic!
I attended Barnston primary school, a very safe protected environment and I was very happy there, definitely shielded from the world. Barnston is a village surrounded by fields, so very much a country setting. We travelled to friends houses on foot or by bike and there was pretty much complete freedom as long as we were back for tea.In 1968 I passed my 11 plus exam and went to Calday Grammar in West Kirby.Where Barnston was small and protected, Calday was huge, you could easily vanish there and not everyone had enjoyed a kind and gentle childhood. It was quite a shock.
 Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticise
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'
Bob Dylan
I was born in December 1956 my parents had already lived at Barnston 3 years at that time. My recollections are very limited until the early 1960's, days when as Bob Dylan famously wrote 'the times they are a changin'. Looking back it seemed like the war days were ancient history and the late 1950's early 1960's only existed in black and white - in photographs, on tv and in reality.It was all about to change radically.

Football and music have always punctuated my life.

On the 24th March 1962 The Beatles, yes the actual Beatles, performed in Barnston WI Hall, across the road from my house. Mrs Prance who used to help my mother around The Vicarage managed their booking and remembered them well (unsurprisingly). Sadly I was 5 years old and fast asleep in bed not more than 500 yards away! I had to wait till December 2018, 58 years later, to see Paul and Ringo together in December 2018. (It was worth the wait though, as you can see and hear in the 2010 to 2020 section of this site)

12 months later, in March 1963, Please Please Me went to number 1. 

12 months later on 9th February 1964, the The Beatles performed live on the Ed Sullivan Show in front of 73 million people. Also in February 1963 The Beatles released Twist and Shout and then later in August 1964, She Loves You, a long way from Acker Bilk, Frank Ifield and Jim Reeves.Lil Leeman, my parents good friend bought me both of the Beatles records and I played them to death.In 1964 I went to watch Goldfinger, bought the Corgi Aston Martin, could life get any better? In 1965 another lifelong love arrived when Liverpool FC beat Leeds in the FA Cup final. 1966 saw England win the world cup! Batman and The Monkees burst onto the screen in vivid colour! Life was great.

 As Jurgen Klopp said after winning the Premier League in June 2020 -

"Liverpool (the city) is football and music, both are emotions and that's what you want.
Both are a good feeling and that's what you want.
Both are passion and that's what you want"

"and then there is the most dangerous risk of all, the risk of spending your life not doing what you want, on the bet that you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later"
R.Komisar (author and executive)
From my earliest memories, travel featured significantly in my childhood. Whether it was a family trip to North Wales to visit relatives, often at Easter or in the Summer holidays or Church trips to London, Lindisfarne, Switzerland, Austria, Africa and America.

Dad's number one passion was without a doubt was fly fishing for Trout so we frequently travelled up to Scotland for long breaks in the Summer.

Below are some of the significant events and trips in pictorial form.

1954 Geneva

1957 My Christening

1957 Meeting The Queen

Just five years into her reign, 11th July 1957, the young royal was in Chester to open the new County Hall, now the University of Chester's Riverside Campus. She was also lucky enough to shake hands with my dad at Chester Racecourse!
She visited the Chester Infirmary on City Walls Road, chatting to staff and patients on the wards during the same visit.

1958 to 1961 A New Church at Pensby

In 1958, just 5 years after they arrived at Barnston, my father commenced work on the building of a new sister church in Pensby, St Michael and All Angels. Along with a new church a church hall was also built. The original Church has now been extended to include a Parish Centre and the original foundation stone moved inside the building to accommodate the entrance. Dad and I attended the opening ceremony.

1962 Gussie Arrives

On the 24th July 1962 (4 months after the Beatles performance at the WI!) Dad bought Gussie (Augustus) from Miss Edith Tibits a lady in the parish.She had owned him since the 17th December 1948.He paid £50.She asked him never to take Gussie to Birkenhead as he had had a small bump there once and didn't want to go there again! We have owned him ever since through a variety of moves.Prior to our ownership he had two previous owners from new on the 28th March 1938

Scottish Trips

Summers in the early to mid sixties often involved circa three week trips in the caravan up to Scotland to places such as Mull, Loch Lomond, Loch Ness, Ben Nevis, Dumfries, Ullapool, John O'Groates, St Andrews etc. Apparently colour photography also arrived in our family during this period too !

Barnston School and the Cubs

1965 April The Wedding of Lil Leeman and Ray Morris

Lil and Ray were great friends of mum and dad. Dad married them in April 1965.
This video does a very nice job of bringing Barnston in the 1960s back to life. It features many familiar faces from the church, me as a boy, my mother, our cat and even Gussie the Austin 7!

1966 Switzerland - Mont Blanc, Chateu du Chinon Geneva, Augusta Raurica, Basle, Rhine Falls Zurich, Schwellbrunn, Herisau, Lake Constance, Lake Lucerne 

In the Summer of 1966, following England's defeat of Germany in the World Cup Final we rather bravely decided to leave the UK together for the first time and travel by road to Switzerland (via Germany on the return journey!) Our destination was first to Basle and then onto Schwellbrunn.
My parents were  good friends with the Vollmy family who lived in Basle and owned a family cottage in Schwellbrunn. We camped on the way there and back, including one very wet night as can be seen below.I had no idea at the time but I believe it was relatively rare in those days to travel outside of the UK for holidays, so quite an adventure. Mum and Dad had become friends with the Vollmy family during their first trip to Geneva in 1954.Their son and his wife stayed with us at Barnston while touring on their honeymoon in the 1970s  and I also revisited Schwellbruun in the 1980s. My parents exchanged Christmas cards with them for the rest of their lives.

1967 Dad was appointed Rural Dean for Wirral North

He was responsible for Bebington, Frankby, Heswall, Upton, Thurstaston, West Kirby and Hilbre.


His role included -

Sharing in the Episcope (to set forward or teach publicly a creed or doctrine) of the Bishop including - Knowledge of and care for the life of the parishes. Pastoral care for clergy and their families. Expression of the unity of the Diocese of which the Bishop is the focus. Adviser to the Bishop on the needs of individual clergy or parishes. Reporting of irregularities.Representative of the Archdeacon.Channel of Communication.Convenor of the Chapter.Chairman of Deanery Synod Managing Vacancy periods. Liaising with Institutions and Licensing




September 1968 and off to Calday Grange Grammar School for Boys

 1969 The Cruise - Estoril and Benfica, Lisbon, Portgal. Malaga, Spain. Ceuta, Spanish Morocco. Santa Cruz, Tenerife Canary Islands. Dakar Senegal.

In February 1969 Dad was offered an opportunity to  act as Chaplain  on a cruise to Africa.For the rest of our lives together it was known as 'The Cruise' looking back it was an amazing opportunity to see parts of the world outside England. 

Off to Estadio da Luiz  to see Eusebio play..

One of the highlights of the Cruise for a twelve year old boy was going to see Eusebio play for Benfica while we were in port in Estoril. Eusebio was the leading goal scorer in the 1966 World Cup with 9 goals so had a very high profile at the time
Click here to see Eusebio's 9 Goals !




The 1960's came to a quite sad ending. On New Years Eve 1969 my Taid (Mum's Father) passed away.



He had celebrated his 80th birthday on the 28th September (pictured)
Click here to go to Mum's Family
What was changing in the world at this time ??
  • 1952:Queen Elizabeth II becomes Monarch of the Commonwealth realms. Bonn–Paris convention ends allied occupation of West Germany. Detonation of the hydrogen bomb. First scheduled flight by commercial jet. Development of the first effective polio vaccine by Jonas Salk. 
  •  Discovery of DNA. First ascent of Mount Everest; Death of Joseph Stalin. Elvis Presley's musical career is launched.
  • 1954: Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets, brings rock and roll to the mainstream. 
  • 1957: Launch of Sputnik 1 and the beginning of the Space Age. Harold Macmillan becomes British Prime Minister.
  • (CND) founded. CND's symbol, the peace sign, is first used. Invention of the optical disc and the cassette tape.
  • 1959: Cuban Revolution.First documented AIDS cases. Beginning of the Vietnam War. First images of the far side of the Moon. Richie Valens, Buddy Holly die in a plane crash. World population reaches 3 billion.
  • 1960: The Beatles form in Liverpool. Muhammad Ali wins gold medal in Rome.
  • 1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall; first human spaceflight.
  • 1962: Cuban missile crisis; The Beatles' first record 'Love me do' is released on 5 October.
  • 1963: Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers "I Have a Dream" at the March on Washington. Assassination of JFK               
  • 1964:First close-up images of Mars.
  • 1965: Deaths of Winston Churchill and Malcolm X.
  • 1967: Summer of Love; Six Day War.
  • 1968: Assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy.  The Troubles begin in Northern Ireland.
  • 1969: Moon landings; Woodstock festival; creation of ARPANET, the earliest incarnation of the Internet. 

Click here to be transported to the 1970s!
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