Lydiate’s Great War 1914 - 1918
A study of the impact of World War 1 on the farming village of Lydiate, and how children today are remembering the young men from their community who gave their lives fighting for freedom
Pamela Russell
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LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918
Contents 4
The Fallen
Portraits of the young men from Lydiate who gave their lives in WW1
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Past Times
Lydiate’s history goes back many centuries to Anglo Saxon days
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War Looms
What was life like in the farming village of Lydiate 100 years ago?
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Heritage
The WW1 Lydiate project brought together people of all generations Front cover: Pupils from St Thomas’ Primary School, Lydiate, in World War 1 costumes Back cover: Main photo shows soldiers from The King’s (Liverpool) Regiment in the trenches of northern France, 1918
‘Perhaps some day the sun will shine again…’ 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. Researchers have 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 to work with children, historians and the community to share the stories of those men for future generations. To celebrate their lives. And to remember their sacrifice. Never to be forgotten.
Kath Coyle WW1 Lydiate project co-ordinator
Roll of Honour 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
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LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918
The Fallen Portraits of Lydiate’s men who gave their lives There are a total of twenty-three names recorded on the two Lydiate war memorials for the Great War.
Regiment (Liverpool). He has no known grave but is commemorated at the Arras memorial, France.
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.
Bruno Bradley
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: 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.
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.
Herman Bradley
John Bond
James Cheetham
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
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.
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.
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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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918
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
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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.
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.
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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LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918
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.
Photos: Pierre Vandervelden
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Lydiate through the ages A rural village with roots beyond Domesday
An old postcard shows the ruins of Grade II* listed ÂLydiate AbbeyÊ as it known as locally
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.
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LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918
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.
Lydiate Hall was rebuilt in the early 16th century
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.
St ThomasÊ Church was built in 1840
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.
The war memorial at St ThomasÊ Church, Lydiate
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Lydiate life in 1914 As the Great War loomed the village was changing 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.
designed to serve the growing numbers of visitors to Southport, it was another link between Lydiate and the surrounding area.
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.
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.
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.
Southport Road, Lydiate, in the early 20th century
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
Lydiate railway station opened in 1884
LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918
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.
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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
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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
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LydiateÊs Great War 1914 - 1918
WW1 Lydiate project Schools 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.
They also researched Lydiate using old maps and microfiche records of old newspapers such as the Bootle Times and Ormskirk Advertiser.
The project was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Sefton Libraries, local historians and Lydiate schools.
Families shared stories of loved ones who served in the war, and pupils brought memorabilia to school, such as medals.
The initial phase ran from the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War. In 2018 a second phase saw even more children involved.
A website was launched as part of the collaboration. Viewers can see photographs from all the events, including the workshops and also a memorial service held at St GregoryÊs Catholic Church, Lydiate, in November 2018.
This featured three primary schools: St ThomasÊ Church of England Primary School, St GregoryÊs Catholic Primary School and Lydiate Primary School. The collaborative partnership included digital research workshops run by Sefton Libraries staff at Crosby Library.
The service marked the 100th anniversary of the end of the war. The names of LydiateÊs 24 young men who were killed were read out, and pupils lit candles for each of them. They are not forgotten.
Pupils learned how to access online resources such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database.
Learn more at: ww1lydiate.org.uk
Perhaps by 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 is reproduced for educational purposes from The First World War Poetry Digital Archive, University of Oxford; Š McMaster University, Mills Memorial Library, The William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections
Designed and published by Š Tick Media 2019 peterharvey@tick-media.co.uk 07825 886809 (m)
The KingĂŠs (Liverpool) Regiment, France, 1918
Lydiatete Piper, ,Lydia ScotchhPiper Scotc