My Family

The Early Years

I will need to rely on my older sisters for much of the early part of what is written here as my memories of very early childhood are few - my earliest memory I can recall is being in Crowwood Isolation Hospital with Scarlet Fever for the first time - I was two years old. I have a vivid picture of a large dark room with cots and beds, I was in a cot with iron sides and most of my vision was upwards - I assume because I was on my back most of the time I was there. I do remember someone visiting me, sitting at the side of the cot. That is the earliest but a vivid memory, and ironically I went to live in Crowwood later on and at the age of about 9 I contracted Scarlet Fever again and ended up in Peasley Cross, St. Helens Isolation Hospital - it was like travelling to another country.........

I remember well the life and times of growing up in number 8 Grenfell Street, in Simms Cross in a 2-up 2-down terrace where I and most of my siblings were born. The Simms Cross area, I have discovered, was the place where most of the Irish immigrants who came to work in the chemical industry settled, the Welsh settled in West Bank in the area where the industry predominated in it's early years. And so, as I discovered in the search for my family roots, my great grandfather, Bernard Joseph Keogh, lived at numbers 41 and 38 Grenfell Street and my Grandfather and his brothers were also born in Grenfell Street. My grandfather, Martin, later married and moved to Frederick Street, a stones throw from our Grenfell Street home, where my Dad and the other Keogh children were born.

The Simms Cross area was a typical, working class, northern industrial town, living quarters for the masses of workers employed in the once booming chemical industry - for those of you who don't know, West Bank (and Widnes) was the birthplace of the UK chemical industry and still suffers the blight of those early years in the legacy of the pollution left behind by the early industrialists. The other legacy is the worlds first Museum to the Chemical Industry called "Catalyst" - and as the chemical industry was born in Widnes so it is now dying here - to the cheers of many of the "younger residents" and outsiders who have failed to grasp the significance of our heritage.

Well, my Dad worked in the chemical industry for most of his working life - and in my later years I was to follow him into the industry but to follow a very different route to him.

Next Page >>>

My 60th Birthday party in Gullingen, Suldal, Norway - 25th December 2005

Our families are made up of the Keogh's (Dad's family), Evans's (Mum's family), Mercer's (Irene's Dad) and Griffiths (Irene's Mum) - so looking into the family histories is going to be a lengthy and ongoing process for quite some time - watch this space.

So far I am back to my Great Grandfather - who as you may have seen was also named Bernard Joseph Keogh - he was born in Galway in 1851 (or 1854 depending on where you look) - so I guess it means back over the water to Ireland to trace his family - hard work this genealogy (but the Guinness might help !!)

So to begin....Christmas Day 1945 was probably the most different Christmas Day for my Mum..... and 60 years later I experienced my most different Christmas Day of my life, (There will not be many photos of me as a child - I have found only 3 so far of my early years)

<< Previous Page