Sandy Lane by Geoff Howard

 Sandy Lane

Here’s the Sandy Lane article by Geoff Howard which appeared in the Skelmersdale advertiser in 1998

Bright side of life!

Sandy Lane it is, but Sandy “Lawn” it will always be in that inimitable old Skelmersdale dialect. It is one of the renowned thoroughfares, as important to old Skem as Moor Street is to Ormskirk. Clinging to vestiges of its former status maybe, yet still the heart of the indigenous population. Just don’t mention THAT ramp to them, the cast iron obstruction which continues to spark controversy years after it was erected. More of the ramp later, but in Walter Oakley’s Sandy Lane home just a couple of hundred yards away can be found all the evidence of a grander past. In response to many debates and inquiries, Walter drew up a list which reveals there were once 54 businesses prospering in Sandy Lane. But let Ethel, Walter’s wife of 50 years, speak her peace. “At one time we could buy everything we wanted in the lane, you needn’t go out of it.. On a Friday morning we’d watch them go walking past, from Westhead, Up Holland, Crawford, some from Ormskirk.” Born 74 years ago in adjoining Smith Street, Ethel remembers Sandy Lane in it’s heyday with five fish and chip shops, Pheasant, Davies, Bunting, Blackledge and Hulme. Piping hot pies on a Tuesday morning from Taskers, and Huttons with it’s rows of rabbits, and codfish beneath the counter.

It was during the war that word got around of the arrival of a box of plums at Hattons. Ethel’s mother sent her to queue for what was a luxury at that time. “I waited for an hour and a half, and all I got was three plums.” Her hubby’s inventory of yesteryear contains quaint names such as Belva Garner the greengrocer, Lizzie Close clothier, Madge Dewson hairdresser. Not to mention Millie Tootle cakes, Lily Whalley chandler, Nancy Hart clothier and Polly Eccleston with her milk bar. It also lists five public houses in the lane, the Victoria, Market Gate, Plough Inn, Brown Cow and (unbeknown to most people) the Straker Arms.

Sandy Lane’s oldest resident Annie Tootle, 99 next week, hails from a famous Skelmersdale family, her brother in law Jim former landlord of the Horseshoe in Liverpool Road. She lives with her daughter Mildred who joins Ethel and others in bemoaning the passing of “every variety of shop”. The decline can be attributed to a number of factors, the advent of Skem New Town with it’s Concourse and the general demise of corner shops everywhere among them. Yet in Sandy Lane and it’s small shopping centre some shops continue to thrive. In fact there are fewer better experiences than to stand in Bickerstaffe’s butchers queue listening to the banter of those waiting for pristine meatstuffs. And two local young men made good, David Orritt and Steve Popely run Sandy Lane’s largest firm, Survey Operations. Formed 12 years ago with an appearance on television’s Flying Start to boot, they conduct land and building surveys throughout the United Kingdom. David’s parents Olwen and Harry Orritt held their wedding reception at the old Swift’s cafe. Little did they suspect that years later their son would be based on that very same site, transformed though it is now.

But THAT ramp leading to a handful of first floor Sandy Lane Centre businesses is no laughing matter. It effectively divides the lane into two, cars and buses have to take a half mile detour to travel what would be a mere matter of yards. “Plans to change the design or replace the ramp have been shelved,” a spokesman for WLDC said this week.So for the present, Sandy Lane is lumbered with it, even though there is ample room for alternate access to be constructed. Before reorganisation, the lane was home to Skelmersdale Town Hall and the centre of local government for Skem. It was there I once attempted to report one of the classic council debates of it’s time. It centred on ways and means of brightening up Coronation Park adjoining Sandy Lane. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s have a pagoda,” suggested one. It went completely over most heads simply because they hadn’t an inkling what a pagoda was. Ten minutes later an elderly council member was on his feet. “I’ve got a better idea, let’s have two pagodas and breed off ’em!” Ramp or no ramp, the brighter side of life is never far from the surface when you’re in Sandy Lane.