Proud past of forgotten gem Seaforth
Jan 28 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post
Proud past of forgotten gem Seaforth
A brilliant writer and scholar, whose many works included his Life of Arnold (the reforming headmaster at Rugby), he became Dean of Westminster.
It is fine to have famous and revered figures in your community, but Brenda, 84, yearns for the Seaforth she remembers as a girl.
She was the fourth of five children born to John McElroy, a warehouse manager, and his wife, Sarah.
After attending Seafield Convent, she went to Liverpool University, graduating with a BA in social sciences.
She married Wilfred Murray, who would become headmaster of Gilmoss School, Liverpool. They had three children, Julia, Nicholas and Philip.
A widow since 1997, Brenda devotes much of her considerable zest to local history as a committee member on the Liverpool History Society and as treasurer of the South Sefton History Forum.
She lives in nearby Crosby, but remembers with great fondness, her upbringing in a large semi, built on the site of St Thomas’s vicarage, on Lime Grove, Seaforth.
“I remember it as a very happy village, which my family enjoyed living in and so did everybody else,” she says.
“It was attractive in many ways with its parks and fine buildings.
“In the past few years, I have noticed its decline and I have been trying to get other people interested in restoring it. My hope is that people who come to the exhibition will become as enthusiastic as I am.
“When I was little, there was so little traffic that you could play in the middle of the street. I remember cycling up and down, hopscotch, and walking along the top of a curved wall, which I sometimes fell off. There were so many games.
“I don’t think that people were particularly aware of the part played by the Gladstone family, but I became interested in them as an historian and I have enjoyed reading Gladstone’s diaries.
“He kept a diary for over 70 years and it was extremely interesting.”
What happened to Seaforth, village of romance and charm? Why are people so ignorant of its past. Is it snobbery?
“I think so,” she says, “because people naturally move away from a certain place into a place a little farther away, which seems to have better housing and better shops.
“But, in the early 19th century, Seaforth was the best place to live in. It was better than Crosby.”
What about Bootle?
“Well, Bootle was very fine in those early days as well,” says Brenda, whose family home was bombed in 1941, leading to the move to Crosby.
After bringing up her children, Brenda became an English and history teacher.
“Our house in Seaforth was three storeys with two big gardens,” she says.
“The one at the back was in an L-shape.
“We had chickens at the bottom and flowers, vegetables and pear trees. I was very happy living there.”
* INFORMATION about the Seaforth Exhibition, at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, on February 9, is available on 0151 924 2541.
