I CAME across this fantastic photo of people having fun in boats on Taylor Park boating lake in the early 1960s.

Perhaps you recognise one of those enjoying a day out in the sunshine?

Taylor Park is the largest Victorian Park in St Helens and was created on land that was formerly part of the Eccleston Hall estate. It features two dams, a quarry garden, a rock garden and woodland walks. The park was opened in 1893 and added to over the early years of the 20th century.

Basil Thomas Eccleston constructed Big and Little Dam. The Big Dam, known at the time as the Great Dam, was man made more than 600 years ago. Evidence of its existence goes back to the year 1373. This dam provided the water for the pair of corn mills and a paper mill which was located at the rear of Holme Farm.

The original Eccleston Old Hall was an Elizabethan structure built around 1567 by Henry Eccleston on Holme Road. By 1662 it had 24 hearths (at the time people were taxed on their houses by how many hearths they had at one shilling per hearth. Income tax came much later.

The manor also included two water mills for grinding corn (as mentioned in the sales catalogue of 1799) one of which was at Mill Brow. This is an important part of the industrial heritage of St Helens because the rapidly growing town needed food.