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Hi Jos and Geoff

The Bardy steps look very familiar and I recall us having to be careful going down, hanging onto the handrail, even as children. This would have been in the mid-late 70's and I imagine they have deteriorated since then. We would have been going from the Town Mission to the docks with nana and grandda (Nellie and Eddie Truett) with grandda pointing out the homes on the way. I always had the impression that someone in his family had lived there at some stage but have nothing yet to confirm this. Nana was taken in as a child by a childless aunt and uncle connected with the church after her father died in a mining accident at Ullcoats Mine in Egremont.

The Mount steps are also familiar but more from looking up from the docks and feel too big to be the steps in memory. I think these may have been renovated as part of the dockland redevelopment?

Even now I find it hard to believe that whole families lived in such small places.

Thanks again
Al

Hi

Have sent you a private message on this one.

Alison

I remember the town mission from when I was a child. My grandmother Nellie (Ellen Truett nee Jeffrey) was the organist there for many years. I believe that the steps we used to walk down are the Bardy steps (I think the small dwellings are still visible at each step) but I may be wrong. I'm sure grandad talked about having lived there but it doesn't fit with the whereabouts of the family according to birth records (see below).  I'll have to go and check out the area when I'm back in England. There is a beautiful picture of the organ on Flicker - I will look up the link.

Grandad was Eddie Truett. Nana and grandad lived at 2 Bleng Avenue, Corkickle for as long as I knew them but prior to that lived up on Basket Road where my mum Sally was born. Grandad was at sea for several years and then worked at the coal mine that went under Whitehaven Harbour. We would go to the coastguard house/s with grandad and probably met Jack and Tom then but I have no recollection of either (I think the coastguard hut moved from the pier to the old carpet warehouse when the docks were renovated and then again later to their current location at which point grandad was "retired" even from his role as the body to be rescued!).

Father was William Scott Truett (born Kelswick Lane) whose family lived variously at the following addresses (bmd records):

1881 lived at 15 Windmill Brow, Whitehaven where William Beck Truett was born (4 months after parents marriage record)
1981 lived at 3 Townsley Court, Queen Street, Whitehaven
1899 lived at 4 Bacons Court, Charles Street, Whitehaven
1901 lived at 3 Couson’s(?) Court, Peter Street, Whitehaven
1902 lived at 22 Albion Street, Whitehaven
1904, 1907 and 1910 lived at 1 Bacon Court, Charles Street, Whitehaven
1914 lived at 17 Foundry Road, Parton
1916 and 1918 lived at 127 Queen Street, Whitehaven

William Scott Truett is recorded as a coalminer by the birth of his second child (1901 - John Joseph) while his father John Truett was a mariner so it seems there was a history of switching between the two professions.

I will be starting to look at this again next year when my son goes to school and I have more time as there are lots of gaps in my research. Would love to keep in touch.

Thanks everyone. Looking at the old maps the steps adjacent to MacGarry's Buildings are certainly the area I am recalling. Now all I have to do is tie it into some actual records.....

Can anyone tell me the correct address for what my grandfather lovingly called the Whitehaven "slums". As children we would walk down from the Town Mission, down a series of steps with spaces that would have been the outlines of houses built into them, down to the docks. I believe my grandfather may have actually lived there as a child. Is it possible this is the Preston Quarter (as this also rings bells in my memory)? All very vague but it is years since I was there.

Also does anyone know which denomination the Town Mission is associated with? The one up on the hill overlooking the docks (Hensingham side?).