Apollo Roller Rink
195 Pasture Road
Moreton
Wirral, CH46 4TH
Operating as the Palais De Danse, during the 1920s, the hall was built in the early 1900s on Pasture Road using two former army huts.
Over the years the dance hall has been used for many different purposes including a skating rink, a community food hall during WW2, and the Labour Party club.
“Ma Oburn’s Skating Rink”
In the early 1960s this was the Apollo Roller Rink, owned by Mrs Sarah Oburn, known locally to all as Ma Oburn. She was persuaded by two local promoters, Tony Booth* and Derek Holmes to hold Rock and Twist nights at the venue on Monday evenings.
Reportedly Ma Oburn was a formidable character, not averse to striking customers or group members with her walking stick if they upset her!
The Rock nights soon proved to be very popular with the girls who were employed at the Cadbury’s Chocolate factory on the nearby Pasture Lane industrial estate.
Many Merseybeat era bands appeared at the Apollo including the Beatles on 26 March 1962.
Very little is known about their appearance here, indeed there is no mention of it at all in Mark Lewisohn’s “The Beatles Live!” book or his subsequent “The Beatles Chronicle”.
The previous weekend the Beatles had been on the Wirral playing at the Barnston Women’s Institute in Heswall on the Saturday (24 March) and back in Liverpool for the Sunday night performing at the Casbah Club – Pete Best’s home in West Derby. That Monday the Beatles had a lunchtime session at the Cavern Club before driving over to Moreton for this evening’s performance at the Rink for which they received £20. The pay on the door admission fee was four shillings.
For the last 35 or so year the building has been the home of the Apollo Dance Club which is run by the Merralls Dance Academy and is little changed. Mrs Oburn’s house, a former farm cottage which was adjacent to the rink (as seen in the photo earlier in this post) was demolished in the 1960s.
Pasture Road in the direction of the beach front and Lingham Road (on left). Leasowe Lighthouse is visible on the horizon behind the Apollo Dance Club.
Just past the Apollo towards the beach on the left hand side is Lingham Road leading into Lingham park. Here you will find Leasowe Lighthouse which was built in 1763 and is the oldest brick-built lighthouse in Britain. It has been restored and is open to the public at times – unfortunately not on the two occasions we visited – but you can still walk around the outside of it.
The lighthouse stands 33 metres high with walls over a metre thick. It fell into disrepair when the final lighthouse keeper died in 1935.
Originally two were built – the second lighthouse was a quarter of a mile out to sea but was washed away during a storm in 1769.