THE makeshift 'ski slope' where he spent his early boyhood years is brought back into focus by former Saints half-back Peter Harvey in picking up on previous pieces about Carr Mill Dam and its adjoining Happy Valley area.

Carr Mill's Pleasureland area with its helter-skelter, rowing boats, roller-skating rink, miniature railway and funfair was in sharp contrast to the verdant Happy Valley, which was a steep-sided picnic area attracting local families in their droves during summer weekends.

Peter and his boyhood mates from Carr Mill used the steep sides of the valley for toboggan runs in snowy winters. This sort of fun continued in summer when the kids, squatting on small pieces of cardboard and squealing with excitement, hurtled down flattened grassy slopes to the valley floor below.

"Both these pursuits were very dangerous and it was quite easy to run straight into the concrete steps there," recalls Peter. Mind you, this was far less perilous than leaping aboard the makeshift rope-swing, strung high up on steel girders between towering brick pillars supporting the magnificent Happy Valley railway bridge.

"A ride on the swing was fantastic, but a fall from it would have proved fatal," says Peter, who is keen to dig into his family tree. He supplies a tragic little tale, concerning Happy Valley, in the hope of triggering off some response from other readers.

Peter reaches back in his researches to 1902 when a Michael Gormley married Catherine Harvey. The couple went to America in 1909, returning as recently as 1955 for a holiday and to meet up with relatives.

"They visited my father", Peter recalls, "and together they went to Happy Valley one beautiful Sunday afternoon in late summer". Michael, then 74, had brought his new camera with him and was happily taking shots of the Harvey family group seated on the grass. He then jumped down into the brick steps serving as the dam's overflow to get a better angle, but fell and broke his hip.

He was never to return to the USA again, dying from his injury in Providence Hospital, St Helens, on October 25, 1955. A misadventure verdict was recorded at the inquest, when Michael's address was given as being in New York.

Peter became 15 on the eve of the inquest. "I do not know which of the Gormley families, here in St Helens or over in America, are related to us", he says. "I know that your articles are read all over the world, via the Internet, so please publish this story and see if we can trace our lost families."

ANYONE able to help could drop a line to (or e-mail) Whalley's World at the Star; or contact Peter direct by e-mail on pikeplace13@hotmail.com