"I am trying to trace my family tree and have got a lot of info from my mother who is 90 and was born in Wavertree. Her grandfather was William Henry Crook and he had a bakery in Wellington Road, in sight of the railway. I have now found a photo of my great grandfather standing outside his shop and note that it is on the corner of a street called Wimbledon Street. There is also a photo of my grandfather, Harold Crook (William Henry, the Baker's son). He is standing with three other boys and the photo is headed 'September 1897, Liverpool Elementary Schools Gala' and underneath it says 'St Bridget's School, Wavertree Swimming Squadron'. It names the four boys as H. Crook (my grandfather), J.W. Bird, W.J. Farquhar and E.J. Fox. I thought maybe there might be someone who would recognise one of the other names as a relative or someone known. Apparently my grandfather was a very good swimmer and during the First World War was a Submarine Miner working at the mouth of the Mersey.

"Regarding the photo of Crook's Bakery, my Mum tells me that as far as she remembers her grandfather employed 2 bakers, and possibly a servant, and owned 2 horses. The bakery was next to and behind the shop and local people used to bring unbaked bread, hotpots, or other meals, put a tally on to denote to whom the food belonged, pay a small fee (1d or whatever) and the food was then baked in the ovens of the Bakery. Mum says the horses were stabled across the road from the Bakery (in Wimbledon St) down an alley. She used to visit her grandparents with her elder brother and they were given a gold sovereign when they left. Her father had two other brothers Willie and Herbert and two sisters Florrie and Amy. Herbert and his family lived (I think) at the Bakery, Florrie and Amy lived next door to each other across the Mystery which Mum remembers as being opposite the shop. Florrie married Bertie Harwood, a ?ships provisioner/chandler, who came from a big, well to do family, something to do with the Bibby Line whoe ships were named after counties and sailed into Liverpool Docks. Amy married Albert Kelly. Willie married Edith Bradbury whose father was Medical Officer for Lancashire at some time."

JANET ENGLAND
East Yorkshire

March 2002

(The photographs are reproduced by courtesy of Mrs Marjorie Osborn, nee Crook)