A small community of families lived on the island up until the 1980s
Stanlow Island is located just off Ellesmere Port and it is cut off from the mainland by the Manchester Ship Canal. The island is now effectively part of the massive Essar oil refinery complex, itself secretive and fenced off to deter casual sightseers.
Dorothy, whose maiden name was Roberts, recalled having an amazing childhood growing up on the island, from having picnics on the rocks to swimming in the reservoir where the ships used to empty their boiler water. But she said it wasn't for everyone and remembers her mum finding it lonely living there as a housewife.
"She used to get the boat over the canal and then cycle the three miles to Ellesmere Port to go shopping. There used to be a milkman who used to leave the milk on the Ellesmere Port side of the canal and someone from one of the families would go over and bring it back." "She had to go across the canal in her wedding dress and keeping her dress lifted off the floor. Not long after she moved her mum and dad moved off the island as well.
"We took it back to my dad and said 'do you think this could be one of the monks?' He said 'don't be silly,' - it was from one of the cattle on the island that must have died."Pat said there were no public facilities on the island but a couple called the Hardcastles set up a small sweet shop where you could buy sweets, chocolate and cigarettes. She added: "That was the only problem with living there - that it was really isolated.
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