New Brighton Memories

I grew up in New Brighton between 1945 and 1964 when I was 19. To the person who asked about the convent, it was Maris Stella convent and I went there for my first year of school, before transferring to Vaughan Road School (and what a hellhole that was!) I was fascinated to read all the comments. I had completely forgotten about the illuminated animals in Vale Park, as well as the floral clock. My sister and I went to Nesta Bellis Dancing School for seven years and every year we were in a concert at the Floral Pavilion. Those were fantastic times! I married a boy from Ormiston Road (we lived on Dudley Road, just up from the Hotel Vic) and we moved to Ottawa, Canada.

I have been back home a few times since then. Five years ago I took my oldest son to see the flat we had grown up in. That felt very strange. My sister and I used to go to the Kraal all the time. We loved the all nighters! We also used to see the groups at the Tower Ballroom as well as going to the Cavern and the other Liverpool hotspots. I worked for one year at the Gordon Smith Institute for Seamen on Paradise Street in Liverpool and one day a German frigate called the Scharnhorst sailed in - with hundreds of young German sailors aboard! It was a seventeen year old girl's dream! I brought one of them home to meet my family, and show him New Brighton.

When I emigrated to Canada we sailed on the Empress of England from Liverpool to Montreal and I remember standing on the deck watching New Brighton slip away. I was excited but also very sad. However it seems as if we lived there during the "good old days", and that things started to deteriorate soon after we left. Thanks for the site and for the memories!