Onchan - People's Pictures

ROUND THE ISLAND TRIP SIR?

From a resident in Alberta Drive comes this picture of a coach once a familiar sight in Onchan.  It is one of “Mac” Wightman’s Sunny Hours Motors coaches and remarkably the coach is still in existence and is currently being restored in the UK.

William Andrew  Wightman was of Scottish decent but he met Susanna Isabella Keig (known as Minnie) of Peel who he married and he came to the island to live.  He had been a footballer with Walsall Football Club but on the island he followed the trade of painter.  In 1899 Robert Skillicorn the Onchan builder completed the terrace of six cottages next to St Catherine’s House which he named St Catherine’s Terrace.  One of the first tenants was William Wightman and his wife and it was here that their son John William Andrew Wightman was born on 17 th January 1901.

The following year the family moved onto Main Road in the second of the tall houses at the junction of Victoria Avenue and Main Road.  The pair of houses were known as Fern Bank and this was Number 2.  It is possible that they took in visitors here which is what happened in a lot of houses at that time.  They weren’t here for too long however as in 1905 they had moved into one of Alex Gill’s red brick houses 3 Royal Drive which was nearer the promenade and attractions.  Five years later and they were in Gill’s recently built 22 Royal Avenue West which were purpose built boarding houses to deal with the ever increasing numbers of visitors coming to the island.  Mrs Wightman took over the tenancy following her husband’s death in 1930.

Their son John William Andrew Wightman, known to all as “Mac” in his youth played for Onchan Football Club which was formed in 1912.  Later he became a referee and it is understood he officiated at the first match to be played at The Bowl in Douglas.  When he left school he became an apprentice  at Gellings Foundry on South Quay to train as an engineer.  Gellings undertook a host of work covering anything in metal including marine engineering.

During the First World War the Foundry was requisitioned and became a munitions factory run by Vickers of Barrow-in-Furness.  Mac was too young to be called up and continued to work at the factory.  It was here that he met Alice Gertrude Black who was 16 at the time.  She became a munitions supervisor and in 1922 when Mac was 21 they married and spent their honeymoon in Port Erin.  A few years later he set up his own engineering business on South Quay in partnership with Harry Corteen as Corteen and Wightman.  Amongst their many jobs they worked on the slipways at both the Douglas and Port Erin Lifeboat Stations.  Mac and Alice took the tenancy of 28 Royal Avenue West in 1926 or 27 just a couple of doors away from his parents and this they also ran as a guesthouse.  From here he operated a taxi service but in 1937 they crossed over Port Jack Glen and became tenants of Mr Grandage in what at that time was 9 Royal Avenue.  In the 1951 renumbering it became Number 16.  In 1935 he embarked on a new career related to the tourist trade.  He purchased a Thornycroft charabanc MN 9999 from an operator in Morecambe where it was registered as TE 610. 

In 1937 he expanded his business by buying two more coaches, a Commer MAN 41 from J.W. Kneale of Derby Square who had bought it new two years earlier.  The other vehicle was a Dennis MN 7816 from J.R. Killip of Palace Road, Douglas.  It was new in 1932 but Mac sold it on to J. Gale of Peel in 1938.  It was in 1938 that Mac found suitable premises for his coaches.  L.L. Corkill had bought the Howstrake Farm and formed Howstrake Estate (1937) Limited.  The quadrangle of farm buildings on Harbour Road he divided into units for builders and others to rent.  A long cart shed at the side of the complex he reroofed but raised the height to provide an excellent chara garage about 100 feet long.

Here Mac kept his three “Sunny Hours” coaches.  The coach he sold to Gale’s of Peel in November 1938 was replaced by a new purchase in April 1939.  This was a 1935 Bedford WTL which is shown in the picture.  It started life as BXM 568 with Blunt of Mitcham but was brought to the Island in May 1938 by Mr B.B. Atkinson of 1 Belgravia Terrace, Onchan and he sold it to Mac 11 months later.  At the outbreak of the Second World War Mac had three coaches on the road.  The oldest, the Thornycroft he delicensed in June of 1940 and it was registered a year later in Liverpool having had its back removed and converted into a lorry for Edmundsons.

During the war Mac went to Liverpool and worked at Nappiers the aircraft manufacturers followed by a spell at Cammell Lairds.  His wife and family followed taking digs but having to go into air raid shelters on a regular basis wasn’t ideal and after nine months they returned back to Royal Avenue.  After the war Mac was back on the island and out came the coaches.  He also ran a taxi as the sign alongside his front door and at the garage proclaimed.  For a while he would spend his winter months working at Cammell Laird which gave him the opportunity to watch football matches in the English League.

In January 1949 Mac went into partnership with Ted Ranson.  He was born in Liverpool in 1903 but came to the island around 1924 as a driver for Happy Days coaches on Queens Promenade.  After a brief spell back in Liverpool he returned again to work for Manxland  buses.  Prior to the partnership Mac bought a brand new Bedford OB coach in October 1947.  This was one of the ubiquitous coaches seen in the island in the 1950s and now Protours has one as a vintage coach often used for weddings or special events.  In January 1949 to coincide with the partnership a 1937 Bedford WTB coach was bought bringing the fleet up to three.  As happens the partnership didn’t last and in May 1950 Mr Ranson left to set up Ranson’s Happy Ways coaches taking the 1937 coach with him. 

Mac had taken over Corkill’s Garage booking kiosk and stand at Port Jack which was opposite Ted Ranson’s booking office next to the chip shop.  Mac continued in business until the end of the 1961 season when he sold out to Louis Kneen of Victoria Terrace, Douglas who at that time was running Excelsior Motors.  Louis continued with Mac’s coaches still running under the Sunny Hours banner and using the Harbour Road garage, in fact in 1962 he added a one year old modern Bedford to the fleet in that name.

In 1968 Louis Kneen sold both his businesses to Corkills Garage of Main Road Onchan who also kept on the Harbour Road garage.  The coach in the picture had been sold off however in April 1962 and went to Kirkby of Anston, a dealer in coaches.  In April 1968 it was sold on to Arnold of Sheffield for preservation as a 33 year old coach.  In November 1971 it was sold on again for restoration to Pitt of Littleton and it had a number of other sales to potential restorers but in fact suffered damage at one of its homes when another coach collided with it.  Now it belongs to Lodges Coaches of High Easter in Essex who run a successful coach business but have three fully restored coaches covering the 1940s, 1950s, 1970s.  A picture of this 75 year old coach appears on their website www.lodgecoaches.co.uk in the vintage vehicles section.

CLASS 2N

Taken in October 1979, the Manx Government’s Millennium Year, this photograph of Mrs Nicholson’s class at Onchan School has been provided by Cathy Knowles.  The photograph was taken in the room used as a dining room in the school and forms part of the original building erected in 1876 to the designs of John Robinson the local architect. 

It comprised a series of classrooms divided by glazed sliding partitions so that three rooms could be opened up into one for special occasions.  In the early 1950s five new classrooms were added to the school and the classrooms in this section of the original building were converted into a large assembly hall and the end classroom was converted into the stage for the hall.  Later a folding door, as seen in the photograph, was inserted to divide the hall when needed, ironically reverting back to Robinson’s original scheme.

Back row: (left to right)  Mrs Nicholson, Ian Pilley, Peter Bridson, Andrew Tattersall, Debbie Campbell, Simone Haxby, David Humphrey, Mark Reid, Philip Price, Douglas Kenmore.

Middle row:  Claire Walmsley, Linda Johnson, Anna Skillicorn, Julie Peters, Julie Russell, Linda Keggin, Martin Rowe, John Christian, Jayne Kneen.

ONLY ONE CAREFUL OWNER

From a resident in Royal Avenue comes this picture of Corkill’s Garage in Main Road, taken around October 1979 when major work started on altering the complex .

The family business was started by T.H. Corkill who hailed from Bride but arrived in Onchan in the 1890s.  He ran a horse drawn hackney vehicle, particularly in the summer months, and stiff carts for haulage in the winter including contracting for the Onchan Village Commissioners’ ashbin emptying service.  In 1928 he was joined in business by his son Robert Corkill as T.H. Corkill and Son.  T.H. Corkill had moved into motorised transport in 1926 when he purchased a 16 seater Guy charabanc.  This was followed in 1931 by a one year old 14 seat Chevrolet but by a year later Robert H. Corkill had taken over and he ran the business under his own name.

During the early years of motor coaches they rented space from J.T. Skillicorn the builder in his building sat behind Queens Road and Sunnyside Terrace (Governors Road).  Here in the winter the backs of the charas would be lifted off and the vehicles would become lorries for haulage work.   In 1934 Mr Caley the blacksmith gave up his business which was run from 1 Main Road in premises very carefully designed and built by John Cowley for his cousin Charles Kaighen the blacksmith.  John Cowley built a terrace of four houses; two double fronted and two single fronted houses.  This was called Seaview Terrace after the large house beside it but set right back.  The first double house had two bay windows like its neighbouring No 3.  The door however didn’t have side lights but instead had a wide plain door for inside the whole of the ground floor was one open space and served as a smithy.  Externally it just looked like a house.

When Robert Corkill bought it he took away the left hand bay window and created a wider door through which a charabanc could pass.  Later this was extended further to incorporate the central door as well so a much wider opening was available for the increasing number of coaches.  The rear wall of the building was taken out and a corrugated metal curved roof building erected as an extension to the garage.  A garage for four coaches was also erected in the long rear garden at lane level.  Robert took his son, R.G. Corkill (Bert), into the business and in April 1950 a limited company, Corkill’s Garage was formed.

Their two toned dark green coaches were a familiar sight for Sunday School picnics in Onchan as well as at their stands at Port Jack and Derby Road in Douglas.  In 1955 they bought their first modern coach of the streamlined variety TMN 489, a Bedford SB with 33 seats.  At that time it was three years old and was bought from Bowyer of Northwich.  This coach was cream with a light green flash on the side; this was to become the new livery for Corkill’s Coaches.  The problem was however the garage door wasn’t high enough for this coach to get in and it was a big job to raise the steel beam lintels.  The answer was to go down; J.T. Skillicorns came along, broke up the concrete both inside and outside the line of the round the corner doors and the bottom track was set at a lower level.  The doors were then extended by about a foot so the coach could get in and inside the garage the floor level was ramped up to meet the general level of the floor.  In 1957 Corkills bought a second modern coach, WMN 212 and this was brand new.  The following year they reseated TMN 489 to increase the capacity to 36.

In 1958 Corkills were able to purchase the adjoining property Seaview, a house set well back from the road with a long garden extending down to Main Road but full of trees.  This they had been looking at for many years but there was a setback on 27 th February 1958 when Robert Corkill was killed in the Winter Hill Disaster.  This saw the loss of many garage proprietors who were on a charter flight to visit a battery factory in England when the plane crashed in the mist.  In December 1958 Bert pushed forward and a planning application was made in principle to extend the garage by a single storey showroom, office and stores with a mechanical garage behind.  This was approved and a further detailed application was made in July 1959 which lengthened the garage section to provide space for coaches.  It was all to be built in brickwork with the external walls finished in white pebbledash.

Part of the original stone boundary wall was to be removed and the rest lowered but in the end most of the wall became hardcore, a red rustic brick wall was built instead and some of the stone was reused to build a windbreak on a bungalow at 25 The Park.  Only the single storey block was built at first with a new forecourt and additional petrol pumps.  The building had a showroom to the left where their most modern Vauxhall limousine was kept, in the centre was a toilet and store for paraffin and on the right was the stores and counter for paying for petrol.  The large garage behind was built a couple of years later but with a steel frame rather than in brickwork.  Both of these buildings show to the left of the picture.  The taller roller shutter door near the front of the portal frame section of the building was on the section which had the hydraulic lift for servicing coaches.

In 1979 there were plans to considerably alter the building again which saw the demolition of the original garage/smithy and its replacement with a car showroom set on an angle.  The single storey showroom and stores were also to be demolished and a further showroom and shop set within the first and second bay of the portal framed building.  Also in the scheme was the erection of the first Esso canopy over the forecourt. In this picture work has just started on stripping the roof of the original building in advance of the demolition.  The bay window to the right of the garage door was the office for the garage from 1934 to this time.  The photograph also shows the road junction of Summerhill Road and Main Road before the alterations to create the Lazy Corner Roundabout.

FAIR ENOUGH

Taken in December 1959 this photograph from a lady in Royal Avenue records the first Christmas Fair held by St Anthony’s Church in their new hall close to Strathallan Road.  The building wasn’t new however; it had started life as a pair of houses around 1852 in a new development called Strathallan Park.  When Dr Steele’s Academy burnt down close to the bottom of Summer Hill  in 1868 he took over both buildings and then extended them to provide two large classrooms on ground and first floor level. 

In 1883 the complex was bought and turned into a children’s home.  A covered playground, as it was called, was built but in reality it was in fact a large hall.  The complex was taken over by Joseph Cunningham and used as stores for his holiday camp after the childrens’ home moved to new premises in Glencrutchery Road thanks to the generosity of H.B. Noble. 

During the Second World War it was purchased by Mrs Cubbin who lived across the road and purposely wrecked so that it wouldn’t be requisitioned and put into regular use thus disturbing the quiet of Strathallan Road.  The elements saw to more damage over the next 18 years until 1957 when George Higgins paid £2,000 for the group of buildings and about four acres of land.  This he then gave to Father James McGrath who raised funds to renovate the buildings and land to provide a church hall for St Anthonys.

The complex provided a ballroom cum hall, a cafe and a cinema.  The official opening was performed by the Lieutenant Governor of the time Sir Ambrose Dundas Flux Dundas.  This was in 1959 and the first Christmas Fair was held in December of that year to raise money for the Hungarian Refugee Fund.  Not everyone on the photograph has been identified as yet.  All those standing are treated as the back row, those seated are the middle row and then those kneeling are the front row.  In each case people are named from left to right.

Back row:  Mrs Louise Askham (French parishioner), Louie Clarke (Belgravia Road), Joan Ratcliffe (in behind), Win Kelly (Governors Road), Nan Ball (Whitebridge Road), Mrs Kerruish (Government House), ??, ??, ??, Phyllis Byrne (Fr McGrath’s housekeeper), ??, Mrs Evans (Port Jack), Marie Gee (Alberta Drive), Rosalie Holland (Belgravia Road), Ethel Keys (Whitebridge Road), May Alcock (Central Drive), ??, Pat Heath (Royal Avenue).

Middle row:  Hettie Rees (Governors Road), Councillor Alana Griffiths (opener), Fr McGrath, Evelyn Boni, Maureen Evans (Port Jack), Ivy Barry (Third Avenue),.

Front row:  David Kelly and Peter Kelly (Governors Road), Michael Barry (Third Avenue), George Kendrick (Stanley Terrace/King Edward Road), Evelyn Eccles (Royal Avenue).

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