The Prescotian

Ray Hubbard	It was speech day evening in November 1967- I was a cool 15 studying hard (??) for "O" levels. After a series of exciting speeches in the new "Spencer Davis hall" we went hotfoot to the Kings Arms (now the Fusilier). my two pals ("Jacko"-Dave Jackson and Pete Bellard) seemed more familiar with pubs and I was loaned a cravat (well-it was the swinging sixties) to hide my obvious youthfulness and told to sit in the corner so the bar man couldn't see me. I was provided with a pint of double diamond for just under two bob (10p these days)and I recall wondering what all the fuss was about--I soon returned to my then favourite tipple of hayes and connings' cream soda. Happy and innocent days!!!

Sean Connor	My first pint in Prescot was taken at the Deanes House, probably around 1979. I would have been around 16 at the time ( a late starter !). Myself and Tony McClennan boldly marched up to the bar and ordered two pints of "Best Bitter". We were rewarded with two glasses of frothy brown Greenhall's which we proceeded to down in a suitably manly fashion (or so we thought). Later on that year the management changed and on one visit we were marched straight through and out the back door ! Does anybody remember the odd taps at The Deanes that swept out each half pint through a glass cylinder ? Bitter was around 45p a pint I seem to remember, with Mild at 38p. Later on (sixth form) "The Welly" was the venue of choice becoming almost the sixth form common room. We'd start at around 8.00pm (Friday) and would finally be turfed out just before midnight ! The landlord at the time had a rather despotic son who used to imagine that he ruled the place. He would ban us on a fairly regular basis for the smallest of sins. Anybody remember the infamous "Pool Cue" incident ?

Paul Gerrard	My first pint in a pub was at Maggie Sharkies in Rainhill, a.k.a The Black Horse, now known as The Rocket. It was a grubby little old pub in those days, just after my 15th birthday, so that's November 1969, and they weren't too particular about your age. We marched in, three or four of us I think, including Chris Trimnell from PGS, all stood at the bar and ordered, separately, in squeaky voices, "Brown bitter please!" Price 2s 6d. Bitter was 2s, mild 1s 10d, Grunhalle (be still my aching guts!) 2s 9d. One of our team naively ordered a "Macardi and coke". I used to go out with a quid, get smashed in Maggies (about three pints), chicken and chips from Livesey's chippie on the way home, jump the bus, and still have change! Happy days!

Trevor Powell	First pint[1968] at the old, long gone Kings Arms.... 1/8 for bitter BUT 1/10 for Double Diamond. [For you whippersnappers, the Kings Arms stood where the Fusillier is now!] In 1998, I went into a pub in Brixham that was in a time warp. It was selling draft Double Diamond. I thought for old times sake I would have a pint of this nectar. Yukkk.. it was like drinking neat sugar!

Paul Carey	I distinctly remember that at the start of my drinking career, about 1969/70, you could buy Burtonwood bitter for 2/6 (i.e. 12.5p) a pint in the Childwall Abbey pub. We used to drink there because they were not fussy (= didn't give a monkey's) about how old you were. When I was down because my motorbike wouldn't work or or some reason like that, my mum would give me a £1 note, which was sufficient to become absolutely rat-arsed in said establishment. A couple of years later hyper-inflation was just starting up. When the price of a pint of Tetleys in Leeds Uni Student Union leapt from 12p to 16p a pint in one go, there was panic, confusion, tears and threats of a boycott. And you tell that to young people nowadays ....

Mick Howarth	Yeah - I remember when I was a student (64-67) buying lager for 1/10 a pint in central London. Wasn't the same money though - I remember living quite well on a full County Grant of about £350 a year topped up with a PGS scholarship of ?£25 a year and a Ford scolarship of ?£40 a year. Ford actually insisted on me taking the train out to Dagenham once a year to account for how I was spending their money! Here in France I don't go to pubs (sniff!)and bars aren't the same thing. Last beer I bought was a six pack of 1664 lager - a litre and a half for 4€ 35 - the mathematically minded can convert that to pounds per pint!

Jeff Easthope	Amazing how the price of liquid refreshment can elicit such an interest. Yes Mick when I was a student I worked as a barman on the weekends at the Queens in Huyton, next to the train station. A pint of Walkers best bitter was 1 shilling and twopence in the Bar, and 1 shilling and fourpence in the "posher" lounge. I just came back from England and was in "sticker shock" at most of the prices...

Tom Storrow	A great thread - bound to conjure up all manner of nostalgia, though we should all beware of it developing along the lines of the Monty Python four Yorkshiremen! My first time out for a drink (rather than filched bottles on the quiet) was with my dad and grandad - honest! I was 15, so it must have been 1971. They were going for a pint to the working mens club in Haydock where my grandad was chairman and I was taken along - rites of passage and all that. I was allowed halves to their pints and I'm pretty sure that it was 2/6 or 12.5 pence (can't remember whether it was just before or after decimalisation day!)

Matt O'Hove	First beer drinking took place on trips to Dent or walking the Pennine Way. Newcastle Brown was the favoured beer. It seemed to have iconic status in the early 70's. Later on we would also drink in the Queens and awful places in town, such as the Star & Garter. I do remember pints at around 12 "new" pence. Interestingly, in the mid-70's the lads (about 16-years-old)would drink brown bitter. This was just before lager became the beer of choice for children. By the late-70's we hankered after Skol Special. Now we are all grown up and drink real ale or Guinness (virtually £3 in Brighton).

Alan Higham	My first attempt to be really really grown up, a venture into the world of spirits. The Victoria (aka The Long Pull, although I thought that happened when you got into bed later on...)and a drink I wouldnt be seen dead with now. Can you still buy it? This was summer of '77, just before my 16th birthday, when I graduated to my Suzuki AP50 (WTU 456R, where are you now?)and immediately found that the freedom of the open road allowed me to visit such far flung exotic outposts as Rainhill, where the women were much classier, as all of their tattoos were spelt correctly. The Manor Farm, what class... and my first taste of Burtonwood Bitter. Good times.. surpassed only when the car licence came, allowing unaccompanied piloting of my dads 4 wheeled mobile shagging boudoir,(me, not him..) an s plate pale blue mk 4 Cortina. What style! £1.10 in the Fusilier (The Kings Arms, in old money...) all day until 5pm or 7pm depending on the day of the week.And the bonus of being back close to yer roots...follow it up with a Rays pie or a Greek bag of Chips!

David Bowen	I recollect a PSG school trip to a Liverpool cinema/thaeatre to view a film version of Macbeth (or was it Hamlet?) The highlight of the trip was the bar! The teacher to pupil ratio was low, the chance of a pint without being caught was high so the interval saw a manic rush to down a beer before being spotted. This was my first chance to grab a pint of beer and, in all honesty, I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. It was only in later life that I began to appreciate the qualities of well brewed beer. The unnervering part of the event was after the evening finished. Someone who obviously couldn't hold their beer decided to regurgiate at the top of the staircross as we were leaving. I have a (thankfully) faint recollection of vomit dribling down the bannister!

Alan Brooks	I first remember drinking at the tender age of about 15 (circa 1959) in a tiny little Greenall Whitley pub, called the Stanley Arms, out in the country about half way between Eccleston, where I lived, and Prescot. Beer was 1s.3d a pint in old money. They had an outside chemical toilet and I remember being sick there once and losing my false teeth into the toilet. Fortunately, when I looked into the toilet, they were still sitting on top of the decomposing pile of human waste and I managed to rescue them, wash them, and put them back in, to avoid having to explain to my mother how I'd lost them. This instilled in me a reflex action to instinctively remove my false teeth first whenever I am sick. I later "graduated" to, I think it was the Seven Stars, on the other side of Eccleston village, where I first saw the pumps mentioned by Sean Connor which dispensed half a pint at a time through a horizontal glass cylinder. In my final couple of years I played Hockey, as a schoolboy member (subscription 5s a year and they called you up whenever they were short) for Liverpool Sefton H.C. which at the time played in Huyton. Des Roberts was the first team captain there, so on Saturdays I was drinking in the bar with "Des" and on Mondays it was back to "Sir" (does anybody remember the left-hand drive Mercedes he brought over from Germany with him when he first joined the school ?).

James Hobson	My first pint was very late-I was almost not underage. It was the summer of 1976 and the German group were on an evening trip to Manchester to see some Brecht play. Afterwards we all went into a ghastly Bass Charrington pub in a precinct in Oxford Road, near the University. I remember Dave Tilley being there-is he still about?- I went to the bar and a half of carling cost me 14p.It was dreadful. More or less 12 months later I was at University swilling beer in bucketloads. I blame this on my sheltered time at PGS.