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Walking around Fairfield a few days ago, I noted that is is looking quite shabby. Although the Council has demolished many of the old housing stock which fronted Prescot Road with Newsham Park at the rear, there is still one occupied house, in the last row of the large houses on the Road.
Whilst walking down, I popped into the pedestrian entrance of Newsham Park opposite Holland St. to take a quick photo of of one of the large old Victorian properties which face the park, simply to capture it before it falls down by itself. I cant understand why it is still standing, as it must be a possible death-trap to local kids, and us saying they shouldn’t be in it, is just passing the buck… as kids have always played in derelict houses (eg WW2 bombed out properties) Will it really take a death to demolish this property?
Whilst I was walking down Prescot Rd. past Green Lane, I happened upon Edwards the Pawnbrokers. I remember this shop as a boy, getting the bus with my father into town, and in the years since…
Whilst I was photographing the building… A man approached me and asked me why I was taking photos of the building… I simply said that I was walking Prescot Rd. taking photos as I go, because how often do we travel a route, but never get to know the buildings on the route. I also said that its rare to see a shop, that goes back generations these days, which is still successful.
It turned out that the gentleman was the current owner of the Pawnbrokers, which was started in the early 1900’s by his two Great Aunts, moved ownership to his father, in the the middle part of the 1900’s and is now owned and managed by himself. This gentleman is another example of the great Social History we have as a City…
