If you click on a photograph, you can see an bigger version but it will probably take some time to download.  If you can fill in any of the missing information or dates, please let me know through the Guestbook.

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1 - Aerial view of village, showing the footings of Speke Hall Avenue and the Rootes (Dunlops) factory approx 1930's

2 - Aerial view cropped

3 - Aerial View of Speke Hall Avenue after completion and the new houses being built on the estate (Gerneth Road, School Way and Speke Church Road). You can just make out Greyhound Farm along Speke Church Road. 

4 - Prefabs in Rycot Road

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5 - The original airport when it was based in a farmhouse  on Banks Road

6 - A cottage in Oglet

7- Speke Town Lane looking towards Woodend Lane

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8 - Courtesy of Speke Hall, these three photographs are from their archives.  This one shows Home Farm cottages in Speke Hall in 1964

9 - Home Farm Cottages in 1965  

10 - Cottages in Oglet Lane in 1964.  At the time this photograph was taken Mr & Mrs D Leadbetter lived here in 49 Oglet Lane.

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11 - An aerial view of The Slades, the original vicarage of Speke parish on Woodend Avenue on the way to Hunts Cross

12 - The Magellan barque at the quayside of the shipbreaker's yard at the bottom of Dungeon Lane

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13 - 57 & 58 Oglet Lane with original thatched roof. Harold Spann tells me the last residents were Walter Southern in 57 and Alice Hartley in 58.

14 - Speke Hall from their archives with many thanks

15 - Speke Hall from their archives with many thanks

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16 - Greyhound Farmhouse, also known at an earlier time as The Greyhound Public House

17 - The sign from the Greyhound Pub on Speke Church Road

18 - This aerial photo show the village turning into the estate.  This is a copy of a copy of a copy so the quality isn't brilliant but is good to see how the estate took shape!  I have left the size quite big so you can see more detail.  At the top is the River Mersey and a barge towing containers behind it can be seen in the top right hand corner.  The block of trees near the top are Stockton Woods around Speke Hall and the Walk leading to Speke Hall Avenue and a big roundabout.  

To the left as you look at it, the road leads to the Rootes (later Dunlops) factory. Opposite the smaller unit is All Saints Church and from there you can see the beginnings of Speke Church Road, Blacklock Hall and Greyhound Farm Roads. You will also notice that Rycot Road, Bray Road, Gerneth Road, School Way and Gerneth Close are already built.  

The Metal Box factory is also being constructed on the new Speke Boulevard which is still being marked out. The surrounding fields are the different farms formerly belonging to Speke Hall.  In some of the fields are holes which some have mistaken for bomb craters but are in fact marl pits which farmers would dig out and use as fertilizer on the land.

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19 - Another aerial view of the emerging estate with the Metal Box Factory now built on the right hand side of the picture.  If you carry on up to the roundabout (now traffic lights at the top of Western Avenue), turn left and follow the road to a small wooded area and there is The Slades - the vicarage of All Saints Church.

20 - One for those of you who lived in the prefabs.  My Dad in the back garden of my first home, 60 Rycot Road opposite Evans Medical.

21 - Look at the roundabout in the middle of the bottom of this photo, the road leading to the left is Speke Boulevard, and to the right is Speke Hall Avenue.

22 - Liverpool Aerodrome being built with Hangar 1 already completed and Garston Tenements on Speke Road in the background in 1938.

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23 - Rootes (later known as Dunlops) near completion.  I think the farm in the bottom right hand corner was called Millbrook.

24 - Speke Boulevard is not yet here in 1938 but Bray Road, School Way, Gerneth Road, Gerneth Close, some of Speke Church Road, and the beginnings of Blacklock Hall can be seen.  Stocktonwood School's site is still a field as are most of the roads we know today.

25 - At the bottom of the picture is the edge of Suttonwood Road and at the top is the Metal Box circa 1940.

26 - Alderfield Drive in the 1950's.

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27 - Austin Rawlinson Swimming Baths - brrrr!

28 - The new estate creeps out across the fields.

29 - Is this bus going to Speke?  Well it's never said anything before!  (Sorry!)

30 -  Ganworth or Conleach Road flats where it bends around the parade.  The top two floors of these were taken off in the 1990's and they were made into lovely little bungalows.

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31 - Evans Medical being built.  You can see the prefabs in Rycot Road on this picture and if you look close, you can see me playing in my back garden.....  Well I know which one it is!

32 - Ganworth Road, now bungalows

33 - Gerneth Road - no chewy, no dog muck, no litter..... no people!

34 - Hale Road where the posh people were given houses with garages......

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35 - Planes waiting for the airport to be built!

36 - School Way

37 - The 'new' Speke Parade lasted until 2007 when the shops moved to a brand new site on the old Speke Park.

38 - Speke Station was on Woodend Avenue from Speke to Hunts Cross.  The road still narrows now to go over the bridge where the station was.

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39 - Bray Road and Gerneth Road - With thanks to Mavis Smith who sent these 3 photos in, taken by her father in approximately 1937

40 - Bray Road & School Way - as above

41 - Bray Road

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42  - Thanks to Alan Blackmore for this painting taken from the next photograph of the cottages before the Crescent was built. 

43 - This is the merged photograph of two pictures and the above painting is taken from this.  Thanks to Ian Mowat for this and his friend Alan for the painting.

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44  - Speke's original Fire Station

45 - Rycot Road Prefabs

46 - Speke Church Road before the new houses were built looking from the shops back towards All Saints.

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47 - 49 - 5 & 6 Speke Town Lane, a much photographed property!  Thanks to Bob Hogg for his contribution! 

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50 - New houses in Speke Town Lane go in round the cottages. 

51 - Mr Charles Cartwright lent his farm lorry to the Speke Townswomen's Guild for a float at the Speke Carnival in 1969.

52 - Bill Johnson and Jack Rogers leading the team on one of Mr Citchley's farms, near the cottages in Old Hutte Lane.

A big thank you to Jennifer Spann for these next 8 photographs, taken around the 1960's.  All of these names are frequently mentioned in the history of Speke as it turned from a village into the estate and it's lovely to put faces to names and residents to farms and cottages.

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53 - Billy Hulme taking the reaping binder out of the barn at Oglet Farm (still there today but converted into houses) in preparation to cut the corn into sheaves.  

54 - Richard and Dick Leadbetter with Robert Hulme carting in the stooked sheaves to store in the barn on Yew Tree Farm in Oglet Lane.  The farmhouse is still lived in today.

55 - Frank Spann, Terence Gaven at back, Dick Leadbetter holding the cat, Harold Spann at back and Richard Leadbetter in one of the farm buildings opposite Oglet Farm. 

56 - Charlie Cartwright, last farmer at Yew Tree Farm in Oglet Lane and lifelong supporter of All Saints Church.

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57 - Bert Southern of 51 Oglet Lane tending the crops.

58 - Joseph Spann who lived in 55 Oglet Lane with one of his pigeons.

59 - Joseph Spann and his son Harold in 1956.

60 - Maria Southern of 51 Oglet Lane in October 1969 in her cottage.  

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61 - This beautiful painting was given to me by Brian Reynolds and is called From Speke to Garston Before a Thunderstorm. It was painted in 1926 by G H Warr who was an Exhibitor at the Walker Art Gallery and the Royal Academy in London.  Brian believes the painting shows the view from Speke Boulevard by the Metal Box (before the road or the factory was built obviously!) looking towards Garston. If you look at Photo 19 above you can get an idea where Mr Warr was working from.  Many thanks to Brian for sharing this lovely, unique painting.

62 - I can't remember where I got this photo from but I believe it is Speke Quarry.  If you sent it in, please let me know!

63 - I've included this photo from Tony Sweeney not only to show his brother Ron's car, (the only one in the road by the look of it!) but also to show the immaculate houses at the bottom end of Bray Road in 1961.  Notice how pristine the privet hedges are too.

64 - Old Hutte Farmhouse on the edge of Speke and Halewood.  It was demolished when the Ford factory was built.

NEW!

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Thanks to Joan Broley whose father took these two photos.

65 - The old Speke Airport

66 - Speke Parade

Thank you everyone for your contributions! You are keeping Speke village alive.

Please keep checking the News page for updates.

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