Victorian Hoylake

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.

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.

The complete 47 page version is now available as a fully searchable, free-to-download PDF document by clicking on the button below.

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.