Hickson Genealogy

Liverpool

There is a point where Old Thomas Lane meets up with the new Thomas Lane. When the latter was built, creating a bend opposite Seymour Road, it was unfortunate, to say the least, that a beautiful thatched cottage possibly built in the late 17th or early 18th century - was demolished to make way for it. Herbert Hickson, a gardener, once lived there (paying 1 / -d per week rent) and his daughter and her husband Alexander Evans, brought up three girls (including Joan, better known as "girlie") and three boys (one of whom was Doug) in the years after the turn of the century. Its grounds once contained two greenhouses, a vegetable garden, rose garden and fruit trees. The cottage, consisting only of a living-room, parlour, kitchen and two bedrooms, had an archway of wisteria and there was a hedge made up of white lilac. All went well until the return, after marriage, of the eldest daughter, Trixie, with her two children and the cramped conditions which ensued were the reason for the family leaving its delightful home. They left in about 1924 on the Dodd's (Knotty Ash) coal cart and, believe it or not, went to live in a flat above a butcher's shop in Lodge Lane! The cottage used to be on the south side of number 209 - a turn of the century house which is still occupied and on the Knotty Ash side were several sandstone, Victorian houses of which only one (number 203 - once Alva, a commercial hotel) is standing today, modern houses and flats having replaced the others. One of them used to be owned by Joseph Jones, a member of the family which owned the Knotty Ash brewery.

This late 17th / early 18th century thatched cottage in Thomas Lane, opposite Seymour Road. was once the home of the Evans family. It was pulled down prior to the building of the 'new' Thomas Lane, but the adjacent turn-of-the-century house (No. 209) still stands.