New sign at the Sutton Mill Dam entrance in Mill Lane
(photographed 07/07/08)

If there's been one blot on Sutton's landscape in recent years, it has to be the Sutton Mill Dam. It was opened in 1987 as a wildlife park by Prince Charles after community pressure prevented it from being turned into a dumping ground for industrial waste. However, over the last few years it's been allowed to considerably deteriorate. All types of rubbish have been deposited in the Dam's waters & woodland and vandals have burnt some of the fishing 'pegs' and attacked the wildlife. Over the last three years since Sutton Beauty & Heritage has been photographing the dam, I've been inundated with locals complaining about its decline. One elderly gentleman told me:

"Prince Charles wouldn't recognise it today if he returned".

Another explained how he'd challenged a man disassembling the Dam's railings so he could construct a garden swing for his kids out of them! The water in the lake has also not been looking so good over the past couple of years, seemingly enduring some discharges and it certainly did suffer from the bridge construction work in Walkers Lane last Spring, which badly affected the flow of the Pendlebury / Sutton Brook.

Wildfowl in abundance at the Sutton Mill Dam (photographed 07/07/08)

I think in total there were four letters of complaint to the St.Helens Star during 2007. One said "I went for a walk around Mill Dam in Sutton the other day and I can honestly say I would rather have walked in a sewer. The place is a disgrace." Another correspondent wrote:

"Over the last five years, Sutton Mill Dam has gone from a place to be proud of to a place that is anything but."
However, if you've visited the dam over the last few weeks you'll have noticed how much it's improved. A large-scale tree pruning exercise has taken place, the damaged fishing pegs have been repaired, footpaths have been resurfaced and the steps rebuilt. Plus a new sign has very recently been installed at the Mill Lane Fish Bar entrance replacing the vandalised one. Wildlife seems to be returning too. Standing on the west bridge a few days ago, I counted over fifty ducks, ducklings and moorhens.

A widescale tree pruning and removal programme took place earlier
this year at Sutton Mill Dam (photographed 22/02/08)

Over the last twelve months I've sent a dozen letters and emails to St.Helens Council's Parks & Gardens and the Sutton Ward Committee about Sutton Mill Dam, which have all largely been ignored. Or I've been made promises of responses that haven't been kept. However, Sutton councillor Brian Spencer, whose also the Leader of St.Helens Council, has found the time to respond to one of my letters to himself. He writes:

"The latest work of pruning and making good the footpaths is partly funded by the Woodland Trust and a contribution from the ward committee Environmental Fund which I set up after I became Leader. Further pruning work is scheduled for the future and comments have been nothing but positive up to now. People feel safer and more sunlight can get into the area which helps to keep it dry and walkable."

Rex watches the ducks in the lake before walking up
some of the new steps (photographed 18/05/08)

It's certainly much nicer at the Mill Dam now although it's a shame that the railings have not been replaced and that there's been rubbish dumped in the lake for some five months that's still waiting to be removed.
           
It's also disappointing that the Council can't be more open about the work that they're doing in our community and responsive to requests for information. A vociferous letter to the St. Helens Star last December complained rather unjustly about the work that was being undertaken at the Mill Dam. The programme had only just begun and it had left the place in rather a mess, albeit a temporary one. The author of the angry letter wasn't to know that, however, as there were no notices of the work programme on the site or elsewhere and I've discovered that writing or emailing the local authority is not a particularly rewarding experience. We really should be able to raise points of concern with council officials without being expected to attend regular two hour ward committee meetings. I raised this in a letter in May but that's also been ignored! There's a couple of lines about the work at the Sutton Mill Dam in this month's edition of St.Helens First magazine, but it's rather belated.

However, this website was not created to criticise or for personal rants. The Mill Dam has been considerably improved and ultimately that's all that matters. So congratulations to all concerned and hopefully St.Helens Council and its partners will be able to maintain and improve Sutton Mill Dam's present condition for the future benefit of all in our community.  SRW

Click any image above for a new 2008 Photo-album
(10 pictures)

  We need urgent help!!!!!!!! Please help us Sutton. We must object to this. 1) We would lose light to the right hand side of the building. 2) It would shake the poor old building to bits, within its foundations. 3) It just would not look right whatsoever, with a new building towering over our Welsh chapel. It is just simply not plausible. We need the power of Sutton behind us to object to this insane proposal. SUTTON HELP US!!!  

A planning application outside the Sutton Oak Welsh Chapel

The Routledge Group who own the former Hays Chemical site nearby have already raised an objection with St.Helens Council's Planning Department on health and safety grounds claiming that there are hazardous substances still on the Hays site which could put the residents of this new development at risk. The Health and Safety Executive have already, apparently, advised against planning permission being granted and the Environment Agency have also objected.

However, it is still possible that the Council could give these plans the green light and so Paul Jones is calling a meeting at the Welsh Chapel on Saturday July 12th at 2.30pm to explain the proposals and how they will impact on the historic building. All are invited to attend.

The plans can be viewed here where you are also able to comment on the application and raise an objection.

UPDATE 19/07/08 A second public meeting of local residents is being called for Saturday 9th August at 2.30pm. Local councillors are expected to be in attendance and the meeting will discuss a proposed protest march from Morrisons supermarket in Baxters Lane to the Welsh chapel.

The Catholic Herald's article on the Cause of Elizabeth Prout - Click to read

The Catholic Herald's report of June 20th describes how Elizabeth Prout will be one of only four English men and women whose Causes for sainthood are being considered by the Vatican. One of them is Fr. Ignatius Spencer a relative of Winston Churchill and great-great-great uncle of Diana, Princess of Wales. His Cause for ultimate Canonisation was opened by Archbishop Derek Worlock of Liverpool in 1992. So half of the English Causes set for scrutiny by Rome have their mortal remains in Sutton! Plus Blessed Dominic, of course. You can read more about the trio of prospective Sutton saints at St.Anne & Blessed Dominic's Website.

F.W. Free in his fabulous book "Our Heritage in Sutton and Bold" (1979) sums up the shrine far better than I ever could:

"So here in a lovely shrine, especially built for the purpose, are the mortal remains of the son of an Italian farmer, the son of a noble English family and the daughter of a good Protestant family. Their lives may have ended, but their inspiration lives on in those around them and in others farther afield who make pilgrimages to this sacred shrine to gather the faith, courage and hope that sustained these faithful three who now rest with with their Maker."

24/07/08 UPDATE  A month after this blog post, the St.Helens Star has today published a short news story on the Cause for Sainthood of Elizabeth Prout. Read it Here.

Last Saturday night (26th April) the chapel held its Titanic Night with the New Street Singers performing, which went down well (pun intended!). More badly needed funds were raised to help in the preservation of the historic building and Paul and Caroline have plenty more fund-raising ideas up their sleeves, including an extension of their refreshments service. The chapel has been open for visitors every Wednesday and Friday for a year or so now with teas and coffees served inside. Now tables and chairs have been obtained and soon visitors will be able to sit outside and enjoy their beverages whilst watching the Sutton Oak world go by. A bit like the street cafés of Amsterdam, if only a very little bit!

Plus Paul is close to finalising arrangements for the resumption of the Sunday services with a number of Welsh ministers all keen to conduct non-denominational services. As Paul says:

               The Welsh are back again in our chapel - great!!!

Chairman of Sutton Oak Welsh Chapel Preservation Society Paul Jones with Leo Fitzmaurice's mobile road sign 'Heaven'

Sutton Oak Welsh Chapel Visiting Hours:

Wednesday 10.30am - 4.30pm and Friday 9.30am - 4.30pm.
The Welsh Chapel Arts & Crafts Group meet every Friday at 6 - 8pm

UPDATE  An article on the Chapel has been published in Whalley's World in today's St.Helens Star. Read it HERE.

CLICK AN IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW

Sutton Beauty uncovers evidence of supersized moles at the Brickfields site!
11,000 tonnes of earth have been moved onto the site (photographed 15th March '08)

In May more mature trees will be planted in Brickfields, so that we won’t have to wait too long for a decent sized woodland when the work is completed early next year. A central avenue of English oaks is to be created along with some cherry trees and pines in order to provide variation for folk like me who tend to wander from one area of woodlands to another!

Simon Brown is the Works Supervisor for the Forestry Commission in the North West and says:

 It’s a real pleasure watching the site changing on an almost daily basis. When we’ve finished local people are going to be really pleased with the results. There will be plenty of opportunities for everyone to enjoy the outdoors, whether it’s walking the dog, cycling or running. The project also includes a 20-year management plan so people can be confident that this new woodland will be kept in good condition.

The latter is especially good news as it’s so easy for sites to deteriorate and become dumping grounds. Sutton Mill Dam is an unfortunate example. However, the Forestry Commission and their chums at Mersey Forest do have a good track record for keeping sites they manage in good nick. Completion of the project, by the way, is expected to be in March 2009. Sutton Beauty will be updating with regular progress reports.

CLICK AN IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW

Brickfields Community Woodland - Sutton Manor - St.Helens - Sutton Beauty

As Sutton Beauty in human form rested his weary bones on the bench in Sutton Park near the ice-age boulder on Saturday morning, he saw two twin girls dressed in matching pink having a whale of a time playing in a sea of daffodils, while their parents studied the splendid new noticeboard that the Friends of Sutton Park support group have recently had installed.

To his right, to the park's northern corner, two lads were fully occupied climbing a tree. "Hope they don't fall ", Sutton Beauty thought, remembering that St.Helens Hospital was, fortuitously, only yards away! It was, however, a pleasant scene which summed up what green open space is all about.

(Click an image for a larger view)

Inside Sutton Oak Welsh chapel are the original yellow pine pews

There's plans to resume Sunday services in April. It's simply too cold to hold them in winter as there's no heating. A heritage lottery grant will be made before too long and it will be needed. There's plenty of work still to be done but what they've achieved so far is quite remarkable. In the meantime Paul is looking at other fundraising ventures, including a car washing service outside the chapel!

Paul tells me that he met Caroline in Manchester at a Titanic exhibition. Consequenty after last year's success, April is once again Titanic Month in Lancots Lane! All kinds of memorabilia connected to the ship and the 1997 film will be on show from Wednesday April 9th, including a glass-shaped dolphin necklace with jiblets of real coal from the actual ship. The New Street Singers have been pencilled in to perform at the Welsh Chapel again on April 26th. Eighty-five people turned up to hear them last year. They're expected to not just sing the hymns that were sung on board the Titanic shortly before it foundered, but they will also perform their own version of Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On.

Banner outside the Lancots Lane building - the dragon is back!

The chapel is currently open all day Wednesdays and Fridays. Why not drop in for a visit and cup of tea or coffee? You're guaranteed a warm welcome. Donations to their coffers are always welcome too!

Edit 22/3/08

The Sutton Oak Welsh Chapel Preservation Society are looking for volunteers to help out at their chapel, anytime on Wednesdays or Fridays. You can help by polishing the church pews, clearing up, gardening, brushing up or simply by meeting and greeting visitors or making a decent brew! Also the team are looking for help when their Sunday services start. Contact chairman Paul Jones on 07861117678 or by email.           

CLICK AN IMAGE ABOVE FOR A SUTTON OAK WELSH CHAPEL PHOTO-ALBUM
(Point at each image for the 'Next' button)

I'm indebted to Martin Gauckwin, who describes himself as "born and raised in Sutton", who has kindly forwarded two photographs taken from St.Nicholas church tower during the 1960s. The picture above was taken in April 1964, just a few weeks after Bob Dylan had released his third album entitled 'The Times They Are A-Changin'. I expect that Mr. Zimmerman wasn't necessarily thinking of house building in St.Helens, but he could well have been as Martin's extraordinary pictures remind us of how much the area has been developed in such a short span of time.

As you can see in the photograph (above) which looks north / north-west of the New Street church - with Marshalls Cross Road and Sherdley Park in the background - there's nothing but fields past St. Nick's graveyard and the burnt out cub huts in the foreground. Sherdley Park's old entrance gates can just about be made out at the top of the picture. In the days prior to St.Helens Corporation acquiring the park in the late '40s, these were locked at night by the Hughes family.

If memory serves (I need to check this with the local history library) the land was sold in 1966 for around £250,000. Apart from Sutton Cricket Club and Sutton Park at the picture's top right, the fields have all now gone, metamorphising into Balmoral Avenue, Stathmore Grove and Sandringham Drive etc. In fact if you click on the pictures you'll see Google Earth's impression of how the area looks today.

Looking south towards Mill Lane - Sutton Manor Colliery in the distance.

In the second photograph taken in July 1963, which is a southerly view towards Mill Lane, there is a similarly desolate landscape, apart from the houses on one side of Mill Lane and with Sutton Manor Colliery in the far distance.

The pit was then in its heyday, annually outputting over 300,000 tons of coal with over 1,000 miners and ancillary workers employed. Within a couple of years it would undergo a recruitment drive but despite the National Coal Board's adverts in the St.Helens Reporter in 1966 promising "permanent employment and a secure future", it would close 25 years later. I suspect that many who lost their jobs felt that another track on Dylan's seminal album from 1964, "Only a Pawn In Their Game", would also apply to them!

Sutton Oak Welsh Chapel in Lancots Lane, Sutton

Paul is also planning a "massive revivalist meeting" in the welsh chapel. He's inviting people from St.Helens who are Welsh, or descendants of Welsh families, to come forward. "We are tracing our history back with the chapel you see, they had a big Welsh meeting back in 1904" writes Paul.

Paul and his partner Caroline can be contacted on 07861117678 or 07975586018 or by email. Happy birthday to the Sutton Oak Welsh Chapel Society!