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term 'Unadopted' means the council are not responsible for the
maintenance of the street. |
George
Harrison was born at 12 Arnold Grove, Wavertree, on 25th February
1943. He was the youngest of four children - one girl and three
boys. His father, Harold, was a former ship's steward with the White
Star Line, who came ashore in 1936 and found work 'on the buses':
firstly as a conductor, then as a driver.
His mother Louise (née French) came from a large, close-knit family
of Irish origin. She was a Roman Catholic, but Harold was not. Louise's
mother lived in Albert Grove, just around the corner from the Harrison's
house, and George recalled regularly slipping out of the back door
and along the 'jiggers' to visit his grandmother.
No.12
Arnold Grove was built in the 1890s as a two-up, two-down terraced
house, just off Wavertree High Street.
It was (and is) very small, yet Harold and Louise lived there with
their four children until George was about six years old.
The rent, they recalled, was ten shillings a week.
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| The
house where George grew up. |
George's
memories of the house will strike a chord with many others brought
up in the same era:
"The
front room was never used. It had the posh lino and a three-piece
suite, was freezing cold and no-one ever went in it. We huddled
together in the kitchen, where the fire was, with the kettle on,
and a little iron cooking stove"
The
family kept cockerels for a time, in the paved yard at the back.
It
also contained 'a one-foot-wide flowerbed' and, of course,
the toilet at the back and zinc bathtub hanging on the wall.
Harold
and Louise had been on Liverpool Corporation's re-housing list for
about 18 years when, in 1949, the opportunity came for them to move
to a brand new council house on the Speke estate: at 25 Upton Green.
George
continued to attend Dovedale Primary School, however, until progressing
to the Liverpool Institute. A
fellow pupil at Dovedale was John Lennon, though he and George were
unaware of one another owing to the two-and-a-half year age gap.
In
1965, having become rich and famous, George bought his parents a
bungalow in Appleton, outside Warrington.
Text
© COPYRIGHT
2002 Mike Chitty
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