Victorian Hoylake
Go to free download of 'Victorian Hoylake'
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During 1914-15 the Hoylake Free Press published a series of articles under the title 'Changes in the History of Hoylake in 50 years', written by Charles Roberts, described as 'a Native of the Place'.
At about the same time the articles were reprinted as a booklet, and on the front
cover Charles Roberts noted that 'These Articles were written and
appeared without proofs being submitted, hence slight errors, in
many instances, in Spelling, Wording etc'.
In 1985 a copy
of this booklet, belonging to a resident of Hoylake was discovered, and it was felt that the time was right for a
re-issue of the booklet and that it should be an exact reprint,
errors included. We published 'Victorian Hoylake' in 1985 based on the discovered typescript and although we investigated the possiblity of a reprint about 10 years ago, essentially the publication is now out of print.
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In late 2009 we suddenly had two separate email enquiries (on the same day!) relating to Charles Roberts' booklet which prompted us to look at ways of making this publication available once again.
Gordon Eve-Tatham has added a small addendum section to relate Victorian Hoylake as remembered in 1914-15 to the Hoylake of today and has re-indexed the document.
Then early in 2011 we had yet another email, this time from Carl Watson, now living in New Zealand. |
Photo of Charles Roberts (centre) with two of his sons
Thomas Percival Roberts (Percy) (left), William Ernest Roberts (right),
and taken around the period the articles were written. |
Incredibly, he was able to give us the following information about his mother, who was the person who did the original typing, and even about the actual typewriter! Carl wrote:
We lived at 56 Stanley Road, Hoylake, in the [nineteen]sixties, we migrated to New Zealand in 1973. I was a member of the Hoylake Photographic club, and a Mr Roberts, (I regret I cannot now remember his Christian name), also a member, had a whole sheaf of old notes and cuttings, from his father, Charles Jones [the change of surname remains unexplained] who had written the articles which were printed in the "Hoylake Free Press" paper, over a period of time, "way back when". My Mother, Nellie Watson, living with us, and having plenty of time on her hands, offered to type out the articles for Mr Roberts, as he was a bookbinder, and he wanted to make a book, for himself, as a record of his father's articles. [Thus the date of the typing is not clear – I originally dated it as being in the 1950’s but this indicates a much earlier date – it’s not critical!]
Mum typed out the whole booklet, laboriously, on my old little portable Olivetti Letterra 22, (which I still have, its a museum piece now), I think she did two carbon copies, Mr Robert's bound them all up, and he had the prime copy, and gave us the others. I still have one copy here, and as far as I recall, we sent one, in the early [19]80's, with a whole pile of other bits and photos, to a magazine that was at the time being published, a Wirral one, to a couple who I believe soon after, went out of production. I regret now I can't remember the name of the little magazine, nor exact details of what we cleared out.
This, or the copy Mr Roberts had, are presumably the source of your "Victorian Hoylake", as it is word for word, except for the additions you have made, the excellent index and addenda. [Yes, it must be, although there are probably a good few more modern photocopies around these days!]
The complete 47 page version is now available as a fully searchable, free-to-download PDF document by clicking on the button below. |
(PDF 106k) 
