A study of how World War 1 took its toll on the farming village of Lydiate, situated ten miles north of Liverpool - and how children today remember the 24

young men from their community who gave their lives fighting for freedom

Pamela Russell

LydiateÊs Great War1914 - 1918

The Fallen Portraits of the young men from Lydiate who gave their lives in WW1

Past Times LydiateÊs history goes back many centuries to Anglo Saxon days

War looms What was life like in the farming village of Lydiate 100 years ago?

Heritage The WW1 Lydiate project brought together people of all generations

Front cover: Pupils from Summerhill Primary School, Maghull, in World War 1 costumes

Back cover: Main photo shows soldiers from The KingÊs (Liverpool) Regiment in the trenches of northern France, 1918

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LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918 2

ÂPerhaps some

day the sun will

shine again⁄Ê

Contents

The 100th anniversary of World War 1 provided communities across Britain, indeed across the world, to reflect on the impact the war had on their own village, town or city.

Worldwide an estimated 16 million people died as a direct result of the war. Millions more were injured. Such figures are difficult to comprehend.

It is only when we study our everyday world that the full force of the Great War on a small community like Lydiate hits home.

Research has revealed that 24 young men from Lydiate (or with strong links to Lydiate) died while serving in World War 1. They ranged in age from 18 to 35.

Funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund has enabled the WW1 Lydiate project, led by Maghull and District Community of Schools (MADCOS), to work with children, historians and the community to capture the stories of the 24 servicemen for future generations.

To celebrate their lives. And to remember their sacrifice.

Never to be forgotten.

Kath Coyle

WW1 Lydiate project co-ordinator

George Allin - age 26

Ewan Blackledge - age 22

John Bond - age 21

Bruno Bradley - age 22

Herman Bradley - age 31

James Cheetham - age 20

Patrick Cox - age 27

Thomas Cox - age 27

John Culshaw - age 23

John Draper - age 18

Henry Fawcett - age 23

Herbert Finch - age 19

William Hampson - age 26

William Hodge - age 21

William Hunt - age unknown

George Lowe - age 21

George Norris - age 21

James Pye - age 22

Thomas Pye - age 35

Henry Rawlinson - age unknown

William Rothwell - age 24

Peter Sharrock - age 26

Edward Townsend - age 22

James White - age unknown

Roll of Honour

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There are a total of twenty-three names recorded on the two Lydiate war memorials for the Great War.

At Our LadyÊs Catholic Church, the memorial in the churchyard records nine names. At St ThomasÊ Church, the memorial inside the Memorial Chapel records fourteen names.

Herbert Finch, who was killed on 19th October 1917, was from Lydiate but he does not appear on either memorial.

Many of those who were killed were attached to The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool) - one of only four regiments in the British Army affiliated to a city.

George Allin

Age: 26. Died: 8th October 1918. George, a farm labourer, lived on Southport Road, Lydiate. His parents were George and Sarah Allin. He had three brothers and two sisters. Private Allin served with the 13th Battalion The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool). He is buried at Forenville Military Cemetery, France.

John Bond

Age: 21. Died: 27th May, 1917. John lived on Southport Road, Lydiate, and was the son of James Bond and Jane (nee Horrocks). He had three older brothers, one older sister and three younger sisters. Private Bond served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and The KingÊs

Regiment (Liverpool). He has no known grave but is commemorated at the Arras memorial, France.

Bruno Bradley

Age: 22. Died: 15th July 1917. Bruno Victor Bradley and his brother Herman were of Polish origin. Their parents were Joseph Stanislaus Bradley, who died in 1900, and Martha Trehne Bradley. The family lived at Pygons Hill, Lydiate, and Redcliffe, Aughton Park, attending Our LadyÊs Church, Lydiate. Bruno and Herman had five sisters and three other brothers. Bruno was a rifleman with the 6th Battalion The KingÊs (Liverpool Regiment). He is buried in Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery, Armentieres, France.

Herman Bradley

Age: 31. Died: 8th September 1918. Like his younger brother Bruno, Herman was a rifleman, serving with the 5th Battalion The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool). He is buried in Houchin British Cemetery, France.

James Cheetham

Age: 20. Died: 28th March 1918. Private Cheetham lived in a cottage on the canal bank in Fir Grove Lane (Bells Lane), Lydiate, and served with the 18th Battalion of The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool). He is commemorated at Pozieres memorial, France.

LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918

The FallenPortraits of LydiateÊs men who gave their lives

Lydiate-born Patrick CoxÊs index card from the New Jersey State Department archives. It shows he was living at 256 Sixth Street, Hoboken, New York, when he signed up for the US Army

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Patrick Cox Age: 27. Died: 7th October 1918. Patrick, born on 6th June 1891, was one of 12 children (seven brothers and five sisters) to Patrick and Ellen Cox who were from County Mayo, Ireland, but had moved to Liverpool by 1891, settling first on Hall Lane, then at the Canal Bank, Lydiate. Patrick emigrated to the United States prior to 1916 and was living in Hoboken, New York, working for a shipping line. He registered for the American Army in 1917. He died of pneumonia and influenza in a military hospital in New Jersey before seeing service overseas.

Thomas Cox Age: 27. Died: 31st July 1917. Thomas was working as a horseman at North End farm, Hightown, near Crosby, when the war began. He was the brother of Patrick Cox and was married to Elizabeth. He enlisted as a rifleman with the 5th Battalion of The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool) and is commemorated at the Ypres (Menin Gate) memorial, Belgium.

On the 18th October 1917 the London Gazette reported that Thomas Cox had been posthumously awarded the Military Medal for bravery by King George V.

John Culshaw Age: 23. Died: 9th May 1917. John was the son of John and Elizabeth Culshaw (nee Yates) and had four sisters and two brothers. Before the war he worked as a coachman and gardener in Maghull. Although his family lived in Lydiate, John lived with his widowed grandmother Mary Yates at The Wynt in Maghull. His family moved to West Derby, Liverpool, after the war. Private Culshaw served with the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders). He has no known grave but is commemorated at Doiran memorial, Greece.

John Draper Age: 18. Died: 4th August 1916. John Arthur Draper lived in Narrow Lane, Halsall. He was the son of John and Jane Draper and had two brothers. He was 16 in 1914 and joined the 12th Battalion The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool). Private Draper has no grave but he is commemorated at Thiepval memorial, Belgium.

13,726 This the number of World War 1 deaths in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database attributed to the Liverpool area including Lydiate. The youngest was Thomas Quinn, 14, who was working on the SS Lusitania passenger ship when she was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine off Ireland in 1915, killing 1,191 people, including many crew from Liverpool.

Harry Fawcett

Age: 23. Died 29th April 1918. Harry lived at Oak Hill Cottages, Lydiate, where he boarded with an elderly couple Joseph and Ellen Latham. He worked as a farm labourer before joining The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool). Private Fawcett transferred to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He is buried at Ypres Reservoir Cemetery, Belgium.

Herbert Finch

Age: 19. Died: 19th October 1917. Herbert Finch lived in Elm Cottage, Southport Road, Lydiate, with his brother John Finch. At the time of 1911 census he was 13 and working as a carter for a colliery company. He served as a private with the York and Lancaster Regiment. HerbertÊs name does not appear on either the Maghull or Lydiate memorials. The reason for this is not clear. He lived near the Maghull and Lydiate boundary so may have been overlooked by both villages. Herbert is commemorated at Tyne Cot memorial, Belgium.

William Hampson

Age: 26. Died: 7th October 1916. William lived on Southport Road, and was the son of John and Sarah. He enlisted in Ormskirk in The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool). Private Hampson is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial, France.

William Hodge

Age: 21. Died: 31st August 1918. William lived at Park View, Moss Lane, Lydiate. He was the son of Edward, a market gardener, and Jane Hodge. William had three brothers, including his twin Edward, and three sisters. William enlisted in The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool) as a private. He is buried at H.A.C Cemetery, Écoust-St-Mein, France.

William Hunt

Age: Unknown. Died: 5th October 1916. William Henry Hunt transferred to the 20th (County of London) Battalion (Blackheath and Woolwich) after enlisting in The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool). Private Hunt died of wounds sustained in the Battle of the Somme and is buried at Dernancourt Cemetery, France.

George Lowe

Age: 21. Died: 4th December 1917. George Singleton Lowe lived on Southport Road, Lydiate, and was working as a farm labourer when the war broke out. He was the son of Thomas and Isabella and had two brothers. He served as a lance corporal in the Rifle Brigade. He is commemorated at Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.

Christmas tins

In 1914 British soldiers received a gift from Princess Mary, daughter of King George and Queen Mary. It was a brass tin of pencils and either tobacco or sweets. The embossed tins were paid for by public donations. A card from Princess Mary read: ÂBest wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Victorious New YearÊ

6LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918

Sources: Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy. Each pen portrait has been researched using a range of sources including: Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Royal British Legion - Every Man Remembered; Merseyside Roll of Honour; wrecksite.eu; New Jersey Department of State; National Museums Liverpool; Lydiate Parish Council; Trinity Mirror Data Unit.

George Norris Age: 21. Died: 4th November 1918. George lived on Southport Road. He was the son of James and Ruth Norris and had four brothers and two sisters. He was a farm labourer who served as a private with the Lancashire Fusiliers. He is buried at Landrecies Cemetery, France.

James Pye Age: 22. Died: 3rd August 1917. James Pye was an only child and lived with his widowed mother Mary at Hall Lane, Lydiate, a local shopkeeper. His father had worked as a ÂteamsmanÊ on a farm. In 1914 James was a farm labourer. He served as a private with the Monmouthshire Regiment, attached to The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool). His death was reported in the Crosby Herald on 25th August 1917. He has no known grave but he is commemorated at the Ypres (Menin Gate) memorial, Belgium. James was the cousin of Thomas Pye.

Thomas Pye Age: 35. Died: 2nd September 1918. Thomas was born in 1883 and lived in Hall Lane, Lydiate, the son of George and Jane Pye. He had four brothers and a sister. In 1914 he was working as a farm labourer, aged 30. He served as a private with the 7th Battalion The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool), and was killed at Buissy, near Cambrai, France, just a few weeks before the end of the war.

Ewan Blackledge Age: 20. Died: 27th November 1917. Lieutenant Ewan Blackledge is perhaps the best known of those men from Lydiate who were killed in the Great War.

The Blackledge family were well-known Liverpool bakers with a factory and dozens of shops. The family business was founded by EwanÊs father James Blackledge in the 1840s.

Ewan lived at Rose Hill, Pygons Hill Lane with James and Lucy Blackledge and their two other sons and three daughters.

He was educated at Ampleforth boarding school in North Yorkshire, where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps.

He went to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Berkshire before joining The KingÊs (Liverpool) Regiment, later being transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. He was shot down on a reconnaissance flight on 27th November 1917.

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Henry Rawlinson

Age: Unknown. Died 12th September 1917. He was married to Mrs J. Rawlinson and they lived in Haskayne. Henry was a gunner with the Royal Garrison Artillery. He is buried in the Artillery Wood Cemetery, Belgium.

William Rothwell

Age: 24. Died: 4th April 1917. Able seaman William Rothwell served on board the SS City of Paris which was torpedoed by a German submarine off Nice, France, en route to Marseille and Liverpool. All 122 crew and passengers were killed. Born in Maghull, William of ÂHolden CottagesÊ on Southport Road, was the son of William and Alice Rothwell. He is commemorated at Tower Hill Memorial, London.

Peter Sharrock

Age: 26. Died: 26th August 1918. Peter Sharrock was born in Netherton in 1893, the son of Jeffrey Sharrock and Hannah Cookson. He was one of 13 children to the couple who ran several West Lancashire pubs including the Horse and Jockey, Melling, and the Three Crowns Hotel, Ormskirk. He served in several regiments including the KingÊs Own Scottish Borderers. He is commemorated at Vis-En-Artois memorial, France. The Evening Express reported on 17th September 1918: ÂMrs Sharrock (mother) has three other sons serving, whilst two more have been badly wounded.Ê After the war Mrs Sharrock, who was widowed in 1916, was proprietor of the Red Lion pub, Scarisbrick, near Ormskirk, until her death in 1936.

Edward Townsend

Age: 22. Died: 30th November 1917. Edward was the son of James and Margaret Townsend from Haskayne. In 1914, aged 18, he was working as a waggoner. He lived with his older brother, Thomas, a farmer and had five brothers and four sisters. He was a corporal in the 12th Battalion The KingÊs (Liverpool) Regiment, and is commemorated at Cambrai memorial, northern France.

James White

Age: Unknown. Died: 21st October 1915. James was married to Edith. He was a lance corporal with the 7th Battalion The KingÊs Regiment (Liverpool). He is one of two British soldiers from the Great War buried alongside each other in Ere Cemetery, Hainaut, Belgium. Each was from Liverpool and died on the same day.

LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918

Photos: Pierre Vandervelden

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Lydiate has its origins in Anglo-Saxon days before the Norman Conquest of 1066.

The name comes from the Old English word Âhlid-geatÊ or swing-gate, indicating that Lydiate was enclosed from a very early period to stop animals from straying onto the rich arable land.

The Domesday Book records that Lydiate was worth 64d, much more than many other Domesday valuations, because of its woodland Âone league wide and two leagues long.Ê

At the heart of the village was the Lydiate Hall estate, the rebuilt 16th century hall, the roofless chapel of St Catherine, known locally, but inaccurately, as Lydiate Abbey and the Scotch Piper Inn Âthe oldest inn in Lancashire.Ê

Lydiate Hall had been rebuilt in the first half of the 16th century by Lawrence Ireland II, who made considerable improvements to the estate.

The Hall was very comfortable with many fireplaces and small wood-panelled rooms as well as a Great Hall.

Lydiate through the agesA rural village with roots beyond Domesday

An old postcard shows the ruins of Grade II* listed ÂLydiate AbbeyÊ as it known as locally

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Marriage links between the Irelands and the Norris family of Speke Hall, Liverpool, probably explain the similarity between the two buildings before Lydiate Hall fell into neglect.

Lydiate had for centuries had their lords of the manor - the de Lydiates, the Irelands, the Andertons and the Blundells.

From 1760 following the death of Francis Anderton, Lydiate had no resident lord of the manor.

Thomas Weld Blundell, who was confirmed as the new owner of the Lydiate estate in 1847 after a ten-year legal battle, did not sustain an interest in the estate or live at the Hall.

However, he did contribute most of the cost of building a Catholic church at Lydiate, dedicated to St Mary, and referred to as Our LadyÊs, Lydiate. The building cost £3,100 and was completed in 1854.

The parish church of St Thomas, Lydiate, was built in 1840 from local quarry stone and cost £1,500.

The main benefactor was Richard Bryan Smith, a local magistrate and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire who lived at Pygons Hill House.

He presented a medal to 61 farmers who had contributed their labourers, carts or horses to the achievement of this building that year.

So, by the end of the 19th century, two churches and two schools had been built. Changes in the village were taking place.

St ThomasÊ Church was built in 1840

The war memorial at St ThomasÊ Church, Lydiate

LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918

Lydiate Hall was rebuilt in the early 16th century

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By 1914, the people of Lydiate had

evolved a way of life that did not revolve

around Lydiate Hall and the absent family

who owned it.

Young men who volunteered to go to war

were not influenced, in this village, by

feudal loyalties as they were in some

other places in the country.

During the period leading up to 1914,

there had been changes in Lydiate; the

canal and turnpike roads had come to

Lydiate towards the end of the 18th

century.

The canal, with its two and a half mile

stretch meandering through Lydiate

brought wharves and landing-places, as

well as canal-side inns. Several inns no

longer exist, but the Running Horses, The

Scotch Piper and the Weld Blundell Arms

all survive.

The present inn, a cruck-framed building

with a thatched roof, recently redone, is

probably 16th century, but a strong oral

tradition supports the theory that there

had been earlier inns on this site.

In addition to the canal Lydiate had

relatively good transport links. The

Liverpool to Preston turnpike had come

through Lydiate in 1771, passing in a

north-easterly direction through the

southern end of the township and

bringing both traffic and outsiders.

The railway came to Lydiate in 1884 with

the Southport and Cheshire Lines

extension railway. Although the line was

designed to serve the growing numbers of

visitors to Southport, it was another link

between Lydiate and the surrounding

area.

Yet, despite the growing links with the

outside world, it is clear from the census

returns at the end of the 19th and the

beginning of the 20th centuries that the

main occupation for the vast majority of

Lydiate people was agriculture.

Lydiate life in 1914As the Great War loomed the village was changing

Southport Road, Lydiate, in the early 20th century

Lydiate railway station opened in 1884

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Many of the farmers were tenant farmers

renting from the Lydiate Hall (Weld

Blundell) estate.

There were a number of ÂgardenersÊ and

market gardeners, which may indicate a

move to a more specialised provision of

vegetables and flowers for an increasingly

selective population.

Lydiate farmers and gardeners were

supplying the markets of the increasingly

prosperous Liverpool.

The census returns also show that there

were an increasing number of people

who could be described as middle class

and high earners, such as corn and flour

merchants and dealers, living in the village

as well as a dentist, a stockbroker,

teachers and a magistrate, other

professional people and the gentry.

This social cross-section meant that the

village had sufficient people of wealth or

comfortable incomes necessary to sustain

a healthy local economy.

Those who were poor were likely to

benefit from the interest or support of

those who were more fortunate, or to be

employed or found employment by them.

The young men who enlisted in 1914, or

later as they reached a suitable age to do

so, were not motivated by lack of

employment or hardship as may have

been the case elsewhere.

Instead they were inspired by patriotism

and a sense of duty, as well as the natural

desire of young men for adventure, to be

at one with their peer group, and to

capture the mood of the times. They

were unaware, as was everyone, of the

grim reality that lay ahead.

Today Lydiate is home to around 7,000

people, compared to 1,000 in 1914. So

there are far more people living in many

more houses.

Lydiate is still a green and pleasant place

to live but a century ago, it was much

greener with many more fields where

there are now houses.

The whole area of todayÊs Silver Birch

estate, built in the 1920s by speculating

builders or on individual plots when the

Weld Blundell lands were largely sold off,

was still fields a century ago.

None of the West Lancashire Rural

District Council houses on Moss Lane or

Southport Road existed. The Coronation

Road estate was built in the 1950s as

were the houses on the Haigh Crescent

estate.

At this time Lydiate Primary School was

built. In Liverpool Road, from the

crossroads of Kenyons Lane and

Lambshear Lane, looking north, there

were a few cottages and the windmill.

Looking south, there was no St GregoryÊs

church, no bowling green, no shops and

only one or two houses and cottages.

Looking towards Northway from the

same crossroads, there was no school, no

dairy and no ambulance station.

In the 1970s the Roseland Close and

Mallory Avenue estates were built and

during the 1980s and 1990s up to the

present day, there were other small

pockets of housing springing up

throughout Lydiate.

If we want to imagine how Lydiate was in

1914, we have to see all these areas as

farmland and small-holdings with

LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918

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footpaths between them, many of which

still survive.

Now they are a pleasant stroll. Then they

were the means of getting from one place

to another.

So, despite the fact that from the middle

of the 19th century more of the

population of England lived in towns than

lived and worked in the countryside,

Lydiate was still a predominantly

agricultural community, with some of the

best arable land in the country.

Indeed, Lydiate was playing an important

part in feeding the people of the steadily

growing city of Liverpool.

Children in the playground of Lydiate

School, later St ThomasÊ School, on

Southport Road where the Sheiling

stands today, would hear the clip-clop of

horsesÊ hooves and crowd to the railings

to see the wagons go past on their way to

Liverpool, piled with vegetables or

rhubarb in season.

The men driving the horses would wave

to them and were often their fathers,

uncles or older brothers!

Source: ÂDomesday Book: Cheshire including

Lancashire, Cumbria and Wales History from the

SourcesÊ General Editor: John Morris, Phillimore

Press, 1978

Posters were used to recruit young men from across

the Liverpool and West Lancashire area to The

KingÊs (Liverpool) Regiment. By the end of the war

the regiment had suffered almost 14,000 casualties

Learn more at: madcos.org.uk

Watch our film at: vimeo.com/tickmedia

Listen to our audio snippets at: audioboom.com/WW1Lydiate

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WW1 Lydiate projectSchools and community working together

The aim of the WW1 Lydiate project was to share knowledge of the warÊs impact on Lydiate, while remembering those who were killed.

Thanks to support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, schoolchildren took part in WW1 cookery, singing, drama and research workshops.

St GregoryÊs set up an after-school Heritage Club to learn more about local history and research methods.

It met over several weeks. Club members brought along family members to share their knowledge, while learning about research techniques and ways of presenting the past.

In addition to workshops, several events were held. The most important of these was a ÂRemembrance in Poetry and SongÊ service was held at St GregoryÊs Catholic Church, Lydiate, in November 2015.

Pupils from local schools united to remember those who died in WW1.

Schools taking part were St GregoryÊs Catholic Primary School and St Thomas Church of England School. Other schools that supported the project were Green Park Primary School, Summerhill Primary School, Maghull High School, Deyes High School and Maricourt High School.

St ThomasÊ also held a community event featuring a local history talk and displays of WW1 memorabilia.

Perhaps Vera Brittain

Perhaps some day the sun will shine again,

And I shall see that still the skies are blue,

And feel once more I do not live in vain,

Although bereft of you.

Perhaps the golden meadows at my feet

Will make the sunny hours of spring seem gay,

And I shall find the white May blossoms sweet,

Though you have passed away.

Perhaps the summer woods will shimmer bright,

And crimson roses once again be fair,

And autumn harvest fields a rich delight,

Although you are not there.

Perhaps some day I shall not shrink in pain

To watch the passing of the dying years,

And listen to the Christmas songs again,

Although you cannot hear.

But though kind Time may many joys renew,

There is one greatest joy I shall not know

Again, because my heart for loss of you

Was broken, long ago.

Perhaps by Vera Brittain was recited at the WW1 Lydiate commemoration service by school nurses Karen Thornhill and Ruth

Swanson. The poem is reproduced for educational purposes from The First World War Poetry Digital Archive, University of Oxford;

© McMaster University, Mills Memorial Library, The William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections

Designed and published by © Tick Media 2016 peterharvey@tick-media.co.uk 07825 886809 (m) tick-media.co.uk

Scotch Piper, Lydiate

The KingÊs (Liverpool) Regiment, France, 1918

Scotch Piper, Lydiate