Heswall – The Green Hut

This was a holiday home on Heswall shore in an area known as The looms at the bottom of Banks Road – in a lane opposite what is now the car park. The Council tried to have these huts demolished in 1939 but the Ministry of health decided they were fit for use as holiday homes.  Which is how we came to use them.  These photos are from around 1947 but we also had a holiuday there in my lifetime.

We knew it as the Green Hut and pictured here are Mum, GB, Nana and Grandpa.

I’m not sure who the other boy is that is playing with GB or who appears on these other photos – including one with Dad, Mum, Aunty Maude and Grandpa.

In the foreground of this photo are Mum’s office colleague Joney and the unidentified boy.

Heswall shore

During the last few hundred years the River Dee has silted up and nowhere is this more obvious than along the stretch from Burton to Heswall. At one time boats would sail from Burton, Parkgate and Heswall – some going as far as Ireland, others simply fishing in the estuary.

Within my lifetime the ‘shore’ at Heswall has gone from being a shell strewn beach with a long sandy shelf out to the main channel of the Dee to a grassy marsh with just one deep channel that boats can navigate at the highest tides.

Strewn around the shore on the grass are lots of boats. some of these have been abandoned for good whilst others are in working order and presumably used when the tide is right.