Clayton Street

Shops and sights

Walking down Clayton Street from the end of Ormskirk Road past the bottom  of Sandy Lane and the Town hall on your right we would first pass the Men’s urinals on the right (which smelt awful!), then the old Library on your right which was the old Fire Station previously, John Street on your left followed by the old Police Station, an alleyway then Barber’s milk (who ran a milk round) where you walked down the alleyway and round the back to get the milk. Next door was Cropper’s Sweet Shop, and then on the corner of Clegg Street also on the left was the old Welsh Methodist Chapel.

Across Clegg Street was Barmer’s Dry Cleaners (now an Optician’s) and continuing on down Clayton Street we come to Bennet’s Off License on the corner of Durham Street (- my Mum can remember my Great Auntie Polly Lewis going there with a jug to buy some draught ale for her Dad), and on the other side of Clayton Street are the old Gasometers, by these is Bennet’s Grocery Shop – yes, owned by the same Bennet’s, this was a lockup shop as they lived over the Off Licence, and a few doors down is Ritson’s Grocery Shop later owned by Margisons, and crossing the street again to the left we come to the corner of Stafford Street with Hodge’s Chip Shop later owned by Margison’s – again the same as the shop across the road – family concerns! The Chip shop is now Chiu’s Chippy.

Further on we pass Cardiff Street on the right (very small street) and at the end of Clayton Street we come to the Bethel Independant Methodist’s Church on the right set back supposedly to leave room to build a better one in front of it at a later date….when!! Clayton Street used to be a through road onto School Lane (Brookfield County Primary School at the end – originally a Secondary Modern School) but is now blocked off and only accesible from the Sandy Lane end as is Sandy Lane which was once the main road through to Wigan now blocked off near the top by the Shopping Centre.

Now here’s the Street’s article by Geoff Howard reproduced from the Advertiser April 30th – May 7th 1998

Vital cog in hub of the old town

Old chapel, cop shop and a ride on a Sunbeam!

It was the home of Phillipson, inventor of all things agricultural, and John Clayton, faraway traveller on his belt driven Sunbeam motorbike. This was the street where comedienne Beryl Reid once sat down to a fish and chip supper. Just a short distance away from the old chapel where Skelmersdale’s Welsh community raised the rafters with their singing. It is Clayton Street, one time home to Skem’s Police, Fire and Gas Services, an important cog in the hub of the old town. The man of the same name John Clayton, son of Clayton’s provisions store, was one of the streets great characters. He thought nothing of travelling to Bristol on his trusty Sunbeam motorbike, quite a venture in those days. And later in his life as a 60 odd year old, out would come the racing bicycle and off to Southport for lunch to charge up for the return journey. It’s well worth taking a walk down the Clayton Street of yesteryear with help from Sally Briscoe whose remarkable memory contains a mine of detail.

All manner of farm machinery

Of Webb’s, John Street with only three or four houses, Briscoe’s, Tommy Johnston the bicycle repairer, and Phillipson whose engineering workshop produced all manner of farm machinery. “On Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays people passing the Welsh Chapel would stop outside to hear the singing of the Jones’, Wrights, Foulkes and others,” Sally recalls. Entering Clayton Street from Sandy Lane, you’d already passed the Police Station and Sarah Cropper’s sweet shop by the time the Chapel was reached. Many of the police officers who served down the years Sally remembers. “There was Inspector Pendlebury, his son married Gertie Briscoe, sister of cricketer Billy Briscoe. For a short period we had Inspector Porter, then an Inspector Rigby, Sargeant Pitt who was promoted to Inspector, then “Bobby” Nuttall who became Sargeant.” “Bobby Bell lived in the Bickerstaffe police house by the Stanley Gate and Bobby Anderton in the Ormskirk Road police house next to the telephone exchange.” Bobby Riselow, Special Constable Harry Simmons, Sargeant Collier, Constables Andrews and Raw, Sally has seen them all come and go. And she makes a valid point, “When the Police Station was knocked down and moved to the Concourse area, we appeared to lose touch with the police coming and going.”

Off Clayton Street can be found links with the arrival in the early years of this century of imported miners, Cardiff Street and Durham Street among them. Sam Smith is one of them, born in Clayton Street 87 years ago and “married from there” to a Welsh girl Hilda whose father came up from the Rhondda. “I was working down Blaguegate Colliery at 15, and then I went to Bickerstaffe pitt. It was on my birthday, December 12 that it caught fire back in 1932.” One Clayton Street couple, James Carlisle and his wife Theresa have been married 63 years, both born in the immediate area. James, now 86 came from School Lane, Theresa (83) from Field Street. They have lived in their present terraced home this past 23 years: “always liked it, never any bother.” Can’t ask for more than that.

Turned into a cul de sac

Clayton Street used to be a main thoroughfare from Ormskirk Road before it was blocked off at the School Lane end and turned into a cul de sac. At that juncture stands Bethel Independent Methodist Church, opened 109 years ago to the accompaniment of great pomp from Skelmersdale Old Brass Band. But why is it set so well back from the road? The answer to this along with a host of other memories you will find in next week’s Advertiser as we continue our stroll down Clayton Street.

Dedicated to the memory of Sarah

With a washing basket filled to the brim, Clayton Street’s May Alice Mason and Mrs Hesketh brought pleasure to young and old at Easter time. It was then that they walked to local farms and smallholdings collecting eggs, making sure that each child had one. Any leftover were given to the aged and infirm … it was their gesture to make like a bit more tolerable during the two coal strikes of the 1920’s.

This, our second stroll down Clayton Street must be dedicated to the memory of Sarah Mason, nee Briscoe, who sadly passed away only last week. It’s many of her impressions of life in the street, where uncle John Willie worked as a clog maker, which have proved of immense interest. Along with more of Walter Oakley’s superlative collection of photographs from old Skem. Sarah told – in last Thursday’s Part 1 – of the Welsh Chapel where people would gather outside to listen to the singing. Olwen Orritt and her husband Harry, who now live in Bromilow Road, were the first couple to be married there, 44 years ago. “The singing WAS wonderful. Everyone had their part to take,” said Olwen. It was a sad day when it had to close in about 1960.

Brierley’s, who had connections with the Chapel House pit, lived at the Clegg Street-Clayton Street corner. Sarah recalled just a short time before she died. “Each day between 11.30 and 12 noon someone would take lunch up to the colliery for Mr Brierley. Next door lived the Grady’s who once worked as newsagents. “Mason’s were dressmakers and stocking makers, then Yates’, Laithwaites and Bennets off-licence. There was Fairhurst’s fish and chip shop, later known as Bill Hodge’s and Margison’s.” It was here that comedienne Beryl Reid once dined in the back room after attending a function at the nearby council offices. There was hardly a Clayton Street family Sarah didn’t remember, Williams, Charlie Bennet, Mark Bennet, and Taylors who moved to keep the Tawd Bridge Inn ‘over the brook’, and Singletons, Jeffreys, Jacksons, Fosters, and ‘Professor’ Lockett the librarian. Mrs Hampson, who lived in Clayton Street, combined an unusual dual role in her capacity as a cleaner. For years she kept St Paul’s Church spic and span and also ‘did’ for the Chapel House Inn where she whitened the steps until they glistened.

Sarah listed families too many to mention here, Mrs Donald the local midwife, Gale’s grocery store which changed hands to Bennet’s, Hollands, Ritsons, Margisons and Singleton’s. There have been vast changes in Clayton Street. Where the Police Station once stood is now Victoria Court, the Welsh Chapel is now demolished. The former off-license is now an optician’s, bungalows and houses have been built on the site of the gas works and town hall. But the Independant Methodist Church is still there. It has played an important role in Clayton Street life since 1889. A faithful congregation of around 25 Sunday morning and evening are led by Stan Price and his wife Doris, who is president. The building was set well back so that a much larger one could be erected in front at a later date, but that’s a hope which hasn’t been realised. If Stan spots a small figure with thumbs upraised at the back of his congregation, he knows it’s been a good day for Skem United. For their most loyal supporter Billy Croft now worships there. One up to United and another winner for Street of the Week!