A drawing claimed to be by John Lennon has come to light after it was found amongst a book of childhood drawings. The picture was found by David Ashton amongst his mother's effects after her recent death, David had been a childhood friend of John Lennon's. David Ashton and John Lennon both lived in Woolton which in the 1950's was a rural village surrounded by farmland. David Ashton's grandfather was a bee-keeper who worked for the Holt family. Living in Crestor Road, David Ashton was just up the hill from Menlove Avenue where John Lennon lived with his Aunti Mimi. The two boys where members of the local youth club and St Peter's Church choir and would play together in rafts on a lake at Newstead farm near to Vale Road and the back gate to Strawberry Field.  | | The drawing of the whale |
When a whale was stranded in the River Mersey in September 1953 the boys went to see it as David Ashton describes "I'm not quite sure when it was but there was whale stranded near Oglet, which is funnily enough near John Lennon Airport. Oglet was a place we used to walk to from Woolton it was a beautiful spot. It was at the point on the river where the tides went round. There was a whale stranded there and we went to see it. "We used to have meetings on a Friday night and a Saturday and I think it was on a Saturday morning that we drew the picture of the whale. I only found it in November when I was given by my sister my mum's drawing books. So I didn’t even know it existed. "We did use Indian ink for outline, there was a fashion for trying to get us to write properly. We used big chunky wax crayons so that's what it's painted with. "I wasn't very good at drawing figures as a kid, John had a very creative mind in that respect."  | | John Lennon's house on Menlove Avenue |
Two pilot whales were stranded in the River Mersey in September 1953. A picture in the Liverpool Daily Post shows the lighthouse keeper's wife Mrs Johnson standing on top of a whale, which was later shot. The other whale was stranded on the opposite side of the Mersey. John Lennon would have been almost thirteen years old at this time. The BBC showed the picture to Bryan Biggs, the Director of the Bluecoat Arts Centre, who said, “I’ve looked at the painting and I would say that the outline is drawn by the same hand, and that it is likely to be John Lennon’s. We know that John Lennon had a surreal quality to his work and this started from him listening to The Goon Show when he was young. This picture with the two clowns, the rope and the dancing dog has an element of circus about it and is keeping with that. | "Oglet was a place we used to walk to from Woolton it was a beautiful spot." | | David Ashton |
"In the Walls And Bridges album, there is a painting that John Lennon made of Red Indians on horseback in February 1952, and those figures are very much in the same style. The same can be said of the cartoons in his book, A Spaniard In The Works. It is pure conjecture of course, but I would say that this painting is well in keeping with the rest of John Lennon’s childhood work.” Eric Hardy who was Secretary of Merseyside Naturalists Association and later BBC Radio Merseyside's nature correspondent, visited the scene in 1953 when the whale was stranded. He told the Daily Post "When I got there the whales were still alive, blowing occasionally and thrashing from time to time their broad horizontal tails.  | | The hall where Lennon and McCartney met |
"Owing to the great weight of their bodies of several tons crushing their chests, there was nothing that could be done to save them and as with all whales stranded on beaches, they were slowly dying of suffocation." It isn't the only occasion that whales have been stranded in the river. In October 2001 a killer whale was washed up by Liverpool John Lennon Airport while in August 1998 a whale was rescued after beaching on low tide at Oglet Beach. In October 1942 a 21 foot Northern Bottlenose whale was washed up on Ainsdale beach, and in October 1856 a whale was run ashore by fishermen into an inlet between Speke and Hale.
Despite the sad circumstances, David Ashton is delighted that this picture has come to light. "I am not sure what I am going to do with it," he says, "but I certainly don't want to profit from my friendship with John Lennon. I would like it to be reproduced in some way for a children's charity, perhaps with the help of St Peter's Church." Listen to the full story with Spencer Leigh on BBC Radio Merseyside 95.8FM from 5.30pm on Saturday February 18th | 
