A Tour of Onchan
Straight down the middle.
David Land (Car Sales)
Alongside Beech House the gable of a very plain building can be seen. This was the subject of a planning application in January 1949 by Rowe Bros. Co. Ltd ironmongers of Liverpool. Their application was described as both a prototype building and an agricultural store shed. It is constructed of a simple concrete frame with steel roof trusses supporting a corrugated asbestos sheet roof. The same material has been used in conjunction with sand lime bricks from Lezayre for the wall panels.
When it was built it was further away from the road and partly screened by planting in a small garden alongside the war memorial. Road widening in the early 1980s resulted in the austere appearance of the supporting structure beneath it. On the Elm Tree Road side there was a steel gantry for unloading heavy crates. The property was purchased in the mid 1950s by J.T. Skillicorn Ltd the builders who used the building for storage before its present use.
Onchan Pensioners Social Club (Morton Hall)
Prior to the erection of this building the site was occupied by a wooden hut set within a grass plot with a wooden fence all around.
The hut was built in the early 1920s by Mr W. Quiggin the painter for use by his nephew as a butcher’s shop. Later it was used by the commissioners to store the fire brigade equipment of handcart, hoses, stand pipes and buckets.
Later it was used as a store by Mr Quiggin’s son Teddy Quiggin who was also a painter and decorator.
The Onchan Pensioners Social Club purchased the site and their funds were greatly boosted by a donation from Mr Morton of The Fairway, Onchan who made a similar donation to the residents of Castletown hence there are two buildings named after him. This building is a concrete panel pre-fabricated structure
made by Mantis of Jurby. It was set on top of a foundation which
provided for a single store room at a lower level. |
Onchan War Memorial before it
was moved for road widening. Behind it is the Onchan Pensioners
Club and the building now occupied as a car salesroom. |
School Master’s Lane
The narrow passageway leads down to the back of a house called The Rowans which was built in the mid 1840s as a house for the village school master. Even when the old school in The Butt was replaced by Onchan School in 1876 the house continued to be occupied by the headmaster. Also down this lane is a house called Inglenook which has been altered much over the years but has been in this location since the early 1850s.
40 Main Road and adjoining shop/house
This group of properties have been part of Onchan for a long time.
No 40 was the home of the Skillicorn family who were “the builders of Onchan” despite residing in a modest cottage. Note that there was a second small cottage at the rear which now forms part of this property.
The house and shop alongside was for many years the property of John Lewin and together with the yard behind went by the name of Gara-na-Gheberagh in Manx. Translated this means “Roughland around the well” and indeed there was a well here. Its location was more or less where the pavement curves around from Main Road into Royal Avenue and was outside Thomas Barber’s smithy. Mr Lewin ran a post office in his house for many years. For a period of time this house had the name of Forrest View
which of course related to the nursery gardens opposite. John
Skillicorn bought an old cottage on this site in December 1798. |
Robert Skillicorn's house 40 Main Road and Mr Lewin's property alongside that was Onchan's first post office. Beyond is Kenyon's Cafe which was Onchan's first bank. |
On to Kenyon’s Café and Wesley Terrace
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