Latest News

An empty bank building in the centre of Rainhill has been put to temporary use by the Society to show the display boards used in last year's exhibition. The display is proving to be an interesting talking point for passers by, as well as giving plenty of publicity for the new book.

Although improvements to Rainhill Station are still under development, Northern Rail have recently provide a small garden, which has certainly brightened up the station for passengers and residents.

As usual, the Society will be holding a programme of talks throughout the autumn and winter. Following the book launch on 18th September, the October meeting will be the presentation to the winners of Rainhill in Bloom, after which there will be a talk on a garden related topic. The rest of the season's meetings are still being arranged.

The Society's eagerly awaited book based on last autumn's successful exhibition will be launched on September 18th, at an event in the St Ann's Millennium Centre. The book will be called "Rainhill's Past in Pictures" and it will also be available for sale on this web site. Look out for further details of the launch event.

At our AGM on 27th April, Gary Conley, one of the moving spirits behind St Helens's famous public art work, Dream, gave an interesting talk about the project's beginnings. As at all our recent meetings, there was a very large attendance. That was the final meeting of the season.

Grade II status has been awarded to Bourne’s Tunnel. This is a narrow tunnel underneath the railway, some distance from the village centre. In the 19th century,it carried a tramway which linked the Elton Head colliery in Sutton with a weighing machine and coal stockpile on the Liverpool-Warrington turnpike road, near to the present day Ex-Services club in Warrington Road. The tunnel is more than 100ft (30 metres) long and is at an angle to the railway, showing skewed stonework, like the more famous and much larger Skewed Bridge. It is not known who designed the tunnel, but it was constructed in the late 1820’s as part of the world’s first railway.

Derek Houghton, Chair of the Rainhill Railway and Heritage Society, and one of our committee members, has described it in the local paper as follows.: "When the Liverpool and Manchester line was built this tunnel was created to accommodate the tramway. Soon afterwards, the rail line took the coal instead, but it's still very good news that it's been listed. Simply because of its age it deserves to be listed because the tramway was there before the rail line."

On 23rd March, Dr Richard Barnes, a psychiatrist, spoke to the Society on a subject we've not covered before. Although his talk was centred around the long demolished Rainhill Hospital, once claimed to be the largest mental hospital in Europe, Dr Barnes gave a graphic description of the conditions prevailing in 19th century Liverpool private "lunatic asylums", before an act of Parliament established county asylums. He also showed that the very detailed records kept at Rainhill Hospital more than a hundred years ago enabled modern techniques to be used to diagnose accurately the conditions of patients at that time. In overall terms, the proportions of many mental conditions have hardly changed over the years. Fortunately, treatments have.

The Society has been in the running for awards recently. On 26th February, Anne Slater, a very long serving member, twice chairperson and one of the powers behind our sucessful exhibition, was one of the recipients of Rainhill Parish Council's Good Citizenship awards. The next evening, Anne and other committee members represented the Society at St Helens Council's Cultural Awards. Though nominated for the heritage section, unfortunately, they were not called upon to give any tearful acceptance speeches. The very impressive event was compered by Dianne Oxberry, a presenter on local television and addressed by Mike McCartney, photographer and performer, a man with a fairly famous brother.

Roy Medlicott really was the last lighthouse keeper, and on January 26th he gave a very absorbing talk about his time in the service. While shore-based lighthouses were relatively comfortable and convenient, those many miles out at sea were far from it. Banana shaped bunks, cramped space and primitive sanitation were common. Getting to and from work was no simple commute, even in good weather, and was impossible in a storm. A keeper had to be resourceful, patient and practical. The coming of automated lighthouses was inevitable, but brought some sadness at the end of a way of life.

After the presentation of the Rainhill in Bloom awards on October 27th, by Councillor Kelly, members and visitors were treated to a talk by Michael Murphy on "Famous Courtesans of the 18th to 20th century. We heard that these ladies were more than mere decoration and many played a crucial role in the politics of the times. Michael left us with the tantalising thought as to who are today's equivalents.

The exhibition of "Rainhill's Past in Pictures", held on the weekend of 12th and 13th September 2009, was a great success. Including those who went to a preview for Society members, the estimated attendance was in the region of 1500 people. One 80 year old ex-Rainhillian came from Sussex especially to see it and there were visitors from Canada and Australia. About 120 local school children visited the exhibition later and other schools expressed an interest. Although the Society is not in a position to satisfy the many requests for copies of the pictures, most of which were only loaned to us, we do intend to produce a book which will contain many of them.

Getting in touch
We now have a page on the site just for ex-Rainhillians to get in touch with each other. So many people have emailed us about their time in Rainhill that we thought we should have a contact page. You can go to it at Rainhill Remembered.

The Society's book "The Story of Rainhill" is available price £3.00 plus postage. It can be purchased in Rainhill from the Library or from the Millennium Centre. You can also find it on our Publications page

The book is a meticulously researched account of the development of Rainhill from the earliest times to the present day. It was written by Dr Robert and Mrs Florence Dickinson and first published by the Society in 1968. This new edition keeps the original text with a little updating and adds more pictures, colour and a new layout.

It is an ideal source of information for anyone interested in Rainhill itself or in seeing how a small community grew to include a mixture of agriculture, small industry, churches, schools and, of course, a world first in transport.