LIFELONG Lymm resident, Alan Taylor has always been interested in local history and was delighted to be reunited with a piece of history from his past – his childhood gas mask found in a loft in St Helens!
Now in his eighties he is still actively involved, researching and applying his photography skills to co-authoring books about Lymm’s heritage.
But a recent telephone call, out of the blue, turned the process on its head as history came to find him!
A former Lymm resident, June Crosby, now living in St Helens was clearing out her loft and stumbled across a child’s gas mask, still in its box.
On the outside of the box it was still just possible to make out the words “Alan Taylor, Canal Bank”.
The name immediately rang a bell as June had read a couple of Alan’s books. She tracked down his number via Lymm Heritage Centre and within a week was able to reunite Alan with his gasmask after almost eighty years!
“It was a strange experience to be holding the mask again after nearly eight decades” said Alan, “and I was immediately struck by how small it was”.
Quite how it ended up in that St Helen’s loft remains a mystery but the visit provided a trigger for some great reminiscing with June’s mother, Ruth Boyd, who grew up on Egerton farm on the site of what is now Egerton Road.
Gas masks were issued to all children during World War two as a precaution against attack by gas bombs.
The masks came in cardboard boxes, with a strap for carrying them on the shoulder.
Children were instructed to keep their masks with them at all times and were regularly used in gas mask drills in schools. Thankfully they were never needed.
