WESTERN APPROACHES MUSEUM - 12th SEPTEMBER 2022
A special evening opening was arranged to visit the “secret” wartime bunker. We all assembled in a large room used for school parties. The “housekeeping” briefing was interesting, you know, they tell you where the fire exits are. Well. slightly different here, we were told we were practically bomb proof (the concrete walls are three feet thick). and at one time could withstand a gas attack! We should not worry too much. Our host, a fully uniformed “imagineer” called Jack, took us around. Some of the rooms have been discovered by accident and they still think there are more to find!
The present lessees took over in 2017 and have invested three-quarters of a million pounds in preserving and improving the place. They’ve made a particular point of recording “aural histories” from anyone who worked there before it is too late. The Battle of the Atlantic was so important for the survival of our Island.
Jack had learned his script very well and told us about rationing, one egg every two weeks. 66 coupons for clothes a year, an overcoat cost 20 coupons. 5 million troops transited Liverpool in WW2! In our membership there were those who remembered such things!
We were on “information overload”, too much to take in!
Did you know that one hundred warships were launched, and two thousand ships repaired at Cammell Lairds? 80% of the personnel employed at the bunker were women and it had been visited by Churchill. A great evening and nice buffet provided by our hosts. Thank you to Dean Paton and his team at Western Approaches to for taking time out and looking after us!
A special evening opening was arranged to visit the “secret” wartime bunker. We all assembled in a large room used for school parties. The “housekeeping” briefing was interesting, you know, they tell you where the fire exits are. Well. slightly different here, we were told we were practically bomb proof (the concrete walls are three feet thick). and at one time could withstand a gas attack! We should not worry too much. Our host, a fully uniformed “imagineer” called Jack, took us around. Some of the rooms have been discovered by accident and they still think there are more to find!
The present lessees took over in 2017 and have invested three-quarters of a million pounds in preserving and improving the place. They’ve made a particular point of recording “aural histories” from anyone who worked there before it is too late. The Battle of the Atlantic was so important for the survival of our Island.
Jack had learned his script very well and told us about rationing, one egg every two weeks. 66 coupons for clothes a year, an overcoat cost 20 coupons. 5 million troops transited Liverpool in WW2! In our membership there were those who remembered such things!
We were on “information overload”, too much to take in!
Did you know that one hundred warships were launched, and two thousand ships repaired at Cammell Lairds? 80% of the personnel employed at the bunker were women and it had been visited by Churchill. A great evening and nice buffet provided by our hosts. Thank you to Dean Paton and his team at Western Approaches to for taking time out and looking after us!
EDGE HILL ENGINE STATION & MOORISH ARCH - 31st August 2022
A large selection of photographs of the Edge Hill visit can be seen on your web master's own web site - click here
On Wednesday, 31st August, a few MIHS committee members enjoyed a visit to Wapping Cutting. We were there at the invitation of Eric Shenton, of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway Trust, who had negotiated access with Network Rail. The L&MR team were celebrating their achievement of Scheduled Monument status for the cutting, putting it (as Eric said) on the same footing as Stonehenge. Eric had been on BBC TV local news two nights earlier explaining the importance of the cutting and its vital place in Liverpool history. Our approach was down a long, sloping ramp on the north wall of the cutting. At the bottom we found ourselves on a heavily overgrown path leading to the mouth of the 1829 Crown Street tunnel, one of three visible at the end of the cutting, the others being the Wapping Tunnel (also 1829) in the centre and the 1846 tunnel, still in railway use, on the left. Crown Street was, of course, the location of the L&MR passenger terminal, Wapping Dock the goods one, with trains initially being rope hauled up to the cutting, where a locomotive was attached.
The path took us past the foundations of the Moorish Arch, demolished in the 1860s, but Eric was able to point out stucco rendering still adhering to some residual brickwork. The walls of the cutting contain numerous substantial cut-out rooms for boilers, stables, crew spaces, etc.
Fully kitted out in safety gear, the MIHS people were looking forward to going into the Crown Street tunnel, but, with an apology, Eric turned us away. As he explained in an email: It was not possible to take you into the little tunnel as it has not been assessed for safety and, indeed, we found parts of it were quite treacherous as the track bed had been lifted, probably in the 1980`s, and left in a very uneven state. There were lots of hollows where the sleepers had been removed. Lots of bricks, footballs, buckets, and other odd items scattered around. However, if you visit the LMRT Twitter or Facebook pages we have placed a lot of photos of the tunnel there, with some impressive stalactites at the Crown Street end. Especially for those new to the cutting, this was a fascinating visit, although, of course, it was far from being the first by MIHS. As our Guide to the Industrial Heritage of Merseyside reminds us (see page 54), society members excavated and recorded the site extensively between 1977 and 1980. Those involved included present-day members Roy Forshaw, Adrian Jarvis and Paul Rees.
A large selection of photographs of the Edge Hill visit can be seen on your web master's own web site - click here
On Wednesday, 31st August, a few MIHS committee members enjoyed a visit to Wapping Cutting. We were there at the invitation of Eric Shenton, of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway Trust, who had negotiated access with Network Rail. The L&MR team were celebrating their achievement of Scheduled Monument status for the cutting, putting it (as Eric said) on the same footing as Stonehenge. Eric had been on BBC TV local news two nights earlier explaining the importance of the cutting and its vital place in Liverpool history. Our approach was down a long, sloping ramp on the north wall of the cutting. At the bottom we found ourselves on a heavily overgrown path leading to the mouth of the 1829 Crown Street tunnel, one of three visible at the end of the cutting, the others being the Wapping Tunnel (also 1829) in the centre and the 1846 tunnel, still in railway use, on the left. Crown Street was, of course, the location of the L&MR passenger terminal, Wapping Dock the goods one, with trains initially being rope hauled up to the cutting, where a locomotive was attached.
The path took us past the foundations of the Moorish Arch, demolished in the 1860s, but Eric was able to point out stucco rendering still adhering to some residual brickwork. The walls of the cutting contain numerous substantial cut-out rooms for boilers, stables, crew spaces, etc.
Fully kitted out in safety gear, the MIHS people were looking forward to going into the Crown Street tunnel, but, with an apology, Eric turned us away. As he explained in an email: It was not possible to take you into the little tunnel as it has not been assessed for safety and, indeed, we found parts of it were quite treacherous as the track bed had been lifted, probably in the 1980`s, and left in a very uneven state. There were lots of hollows where the sleepers had been removed. Lots of bricks, footballs, buckets, and other odd items scattered around. However, if you visit the LMRT Twitter or Facebook pages we have placed a lot of photos of the tunnel there, with some impressive stalactites at the Crown Street end. Especially for those new to the cutting, this was a fascinating visit, although, of course, it was far from being the first by MIHS. As our Guide to the Industrial Heritage of Merseyside reminds us (see page 54), society members excavated and recorded the site extensively between 1977 and 1980. Those involved included present-day members Roy Forshaw, Adrian Jarvis and Paul Rees.
FIELD TRIP - THE HELSBY/FRODSHAM AREA - 14th May 2022
A selection of photographs of the Helsby visit can be seen on your web master's own web site - click here
We met our guide, eminent local historian, Sue Lorimer, at Helsby Quarry. She explained that Helsby Sandstone is the acknowledged type-name for the local hard, red, Jurassic sandstone, about 220 million years old. Confusingly, Helsby Sandstone can also be found at Runcorn and other locations, but Sue has researched a list of some 28 buildings known to have been built with stone from this quarry. One was the magnificent Liverpool Customs House, built on the site of the Old Dock, bombed in 1941 and demolished after the war.
Sue has identified John Southern as a principal supplier of stone for this project. He owned the quarry and a horse-drawn tramway which took the stone about 2½ miles to Ince Pier. From there it was taken to Dukes Dock, Liverpool, adjacent to the construction site. Southern sold up in 1842 and in 1850 the tramway link was severed by the Chester to Warrington railway. The tramway was only restored in 1887 when a stone dressing yard was opened, served by a railway siding. At the same time the tramway was brought into the centre of the quarry via a tunnel. A pleasing reminder of the tramway is a length of rail poking out of the undergrowth.
After returning to the top of the quarry, Sue led the more fit and able up some steep inclines and over to the eastern side of Helsby Hill where, in the relatively compact Harmers Wood, there were four small quarries. Carting the stone away from these quarries was not easy, involved either a twisting 1 in 10 descent towards Frodsham or a climb back over the hill, negotiating a narrow defile chiselled out of the rock and a very steep descent towards the larger Helsby Quarry.
After a pub lunch that was supposed to be quick but wasn’t, Malcolm led us to Frodsham Bridge. Until the building of the M56 this was the last road crossing of the River Weaver before it joined the Mersey. There is clear evidence for a “port” at Frodsham from 1280, and, with rock salt being extracted in the Northwich area from early times, the river was an obvious route to market. A works to refine Northwich rock salt was established at Frodsham in the 18th century. There were two problems with this trade: the bridge at Frodsham was always too low to allow the passage of vessels of any size, and the tidal nature of the river resulted in boats stranding on sandbanks.
In 1721 a parliamentary act allowed the river to be turned into a navigation. This gave a great boost to traffic, which rose to 118,000 tons by 1773. However, despite further improvements the problem of the low bridge remained. In 1807 a further act of parliament permitted the construction of the Weston Canal, bypassing Frodsham Bridge entirely. This started the slow decline of the port of Frodsham. We saw the site of the former salt works, now a wilderness with access barred. Another business on the left bank was Ashworth’s bone works, which was producing fertilisers until 1973. Almost all trace has now gone.
On the opposite bank were Sutton Mills, powered using water from a still visible leat taking water from the river higher up. The mills produced flour into the 1970s from grain brought from Liverpool by barge. When the mills closed, barge traffic continued, with grain being taken on by road from Frodsham to Kelloggs at Trafford Park. This was a day in glorious early summer weather, looking at a variety of extinct industries. My thanks go to all who supported the event, and especially to Sue Lorimer for her guiding, as well as to Maurice Handley and John Luxton for their photos .
FIELD TRIP - RAF BURTONWOOD HERITAGE CENTRE - 29th April 2022
The Burtonwood Heritage Centre is on the Gulliver’s World site, (“a place of entertainment for youngsters, m’lud”). The museum was provided free of charge by the owners of Gulliver’s World as a nod to nostalgia, history, and heritage. Inside they have a mini cinema where you can watch a superb film of how it was when the Americans ran Burtonwood. Building of the airfield commenced in 1938 and it gradually developed into a huge base. It was officially always called RAF Burtonwood and was home to 1250 GI’s. (Conflicting data given, later in our tour we were told there were 18,000 GI’s and 2,000 “civilians”). But we get the idea, it was big.
This was the biggest American military store outside the USA. In the 1950’s it had the largest warehouse in Europe (although this would now be dwarfed by warehouses built locally for such companies as Amazon). The area has now been completely razed to the ground, with very little surviving. Just a few local street names, such as Carolina Road, Kentucky Close, Nashville Drive etc. remind us of what once existed. Some of the famous people who transited through Burtonwood were mentioned, names I recognised: - Joe Louis, Dwight D Eisenhower, Glenn Miller, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Nat King Cole, James Doolittle, etc. At one time there were 13 giant hangars and a 10,000ft runway. During the Berlin Airlift (1948) a new control tower was built (later demolished by Fred Dibnah).
There were 47 acres of warehouses in addition to the one mentioned. The area was highly mechanised for its job of regular aircraft servicing, it became known as “Little Detroit”, In the 1950’s, once the “Cold War” got going, Burtonwood became a V bomber base with planes stationed for immediate action (dare I say the word “scrambled”?). This was one of the locations of the UK nuclear deterrent. The dispersal (soon picked up the jargon) was located where the present M & S store is. Next time you are there, think of the V bombers parked and ready to go! In 1967 the deterrent moved from land-based planes to the more secretive sea by using submarines and the V bomber base was closed.
The US Air Base continued until the early 1970’s. An interesting remark by one of our guides caught my attention. In 1957 there was a shortage of dollars in the UK and we couldn’t pay for the tobacco that we needed. A trade-off occurred, and houses were built around Burtonwood by the UK for use by the Americans and the houses “exchanged” in lieu of paying for tobacco from USA. I was particularly intrigued at this scheme, and this is what Jackie and Anna found out for me on investigating the subject: “Yes, the info is correct; the USAF was expanding rapidly in the UK in the 1950’s and needed married quarters for the families. A form of prefabricated bungalow was designed jointly between the Americans and British which gave good accommodation but was reasonably cheap to build and could provide American style facilities and accommodation. They had to be built in the UK and, oddly, the agreement was reached that they would be paid for in American tobacco. 127 were built at Burtonwood, 126 semi-detached and one detached for the commander.
Once the US Army vacated Burtonwood in 1993 they were taken over and used by the British Army until demolition. However, they were by no means exclusive to Burtonwood. They were built at many USAF bases across Britain, including Sealand, near Chester. They still exist at Sealand but have been clad in brick or rendered so are not quite so obvious. Many exist on other bases, but they are being slowly demolished due to their age and condition. The ones at Burtonwood were demolished about eight years ago”.
A selection of photographs of the Helsby visit can be seen on your web master's own web site - click here
We met our guide, eminent local historian, Sue Lorimer, at Helsby Quarry. She explained that Helsby Sandstone is the acknowledged type-name for the local hard, red, Jurassic sandstone, about 220 million years old. Confusingly, Helsby Sandstone can also be found at Runcorn and other locations, but Sue has researched a list of some 28 buildings known to have been built with stone from this quarry. One was the magnificent Liverpool Customs House, built on the site of the Old Dock, bombed in 1941 and demolished after the war.
Sue has identified John Southern as a principal supplier of stone for this project. He owned the quarry and a horse-drawn tramway which took the stone about 2½ miles to Ince Pier. From there it was taken to Dukes Dock, Liverpool, adjacent to the construction site. Southern sold up in 1842 and in 1850 the tramway link was severed by the Chester to Warrington railway. The tramway was only restored in 1887 when a stone dressing yard was opened, served by a railway siding. At the same time the tramway was brought into the centre of the quarry via a tunnel. A pleasing reminder of the tramway is a length of rail poking out of the undergrowth.
After returning to the top of the quarry, Sue led the more fit and able up some steep inclines and over to the eastern side of Helsby Hill where, in the relatively compact Harmers Wood, there were four small quarries. Carting the stone away from these quarries was not easy, involved either a twisting 1 in 10 descent towards Frodsham or a climb back over the hill, negotiating a narrow defile chiselled out of the rock and a very steep descent towards the larger Helsby Quarry.
After a pub lunch that was supposed to be quick but wasn’t, Malcolm led us to Frodsham Bridge. Until the building of the M56 this was the last road crossing of the River Weaver before it joined the Mersey. There is clear evidence for a “port” at Frodsham from 1280, and, with rock salt being extracted in the Northwich area from early times, the river was an obvious route to market. A works to refine Northwich rock salt was established at Frodsham in the 18th century. There were two problems with this trade: the bridge at Frodsham was always too low to allow the passage of vessels of any size, and the tidal nature of the river resulted in boats stranding on sandbanks.
In 1721 a parliamentary act allowed the river to be turned into a navigation. This gave a great boost to traffic, which rose to 118,000 tons by 1773. However, despite further improvements the problem of the low bridge remained. In 1807 a further act of parliament permitted the construction of the Weston Canal, bypassing Frodsham Bridge entirely. This started the slow decline of the port of Frodsham. We saw the site of the former salt works, now a wilderness with access barred. Another business on the left bank was Ashworth’s bone works, which was producing fertilisers until 1973. Almost all trace has now gone.
On the opposite bank were Sutton Mills, powered using water from a still visible leat taking water from the river higher up. The mills produced flour into the 1970s from grain brought from Liverpool by barge. When the mills closed, barge traffic continued, with grain being taken on by road from Frodsham to Kelloggs at Trafford Park. This was a day in glorious early summer weather, looking at a variety of extinct industries. My thanks go to all who supported the event, and especially to Sue Lorimer for her guiding, as well as to Maurice Handley and John Luxton for their photos .
FIELD TRIP - RAF BURTONWOOD HERITAGE CENTRE - 29th April 2022
The Burtonwood Heritage Centre is on the Gulliver’s World site, (“a place of entertainment for youngsters, m’lud”). The museum was provided free of charge by the owners of Gulliver’s World as a nod to nostalgia, history, and heritage. Inside they have a mini cinema where you can watch a superb film of how it was when the Americans ran Burtonwood. Building of the airfield commenced in 1938 and it gradually developed into a huge base. It was officially always called RAF Burtonwood and was home to 1250 GI’s. (Conflicting data given, later in our tour we were told there were 18,000 GI’s and 2,000 “civilians”). But we get the idea, it was big.
This was the biggest American military store outside the USA. In the 1950’s it had the largest warehouse in Europe (although this would now be dwarfed by warehouses built locally for such companies as Amazon). The area has now been completely razed to the ground, with very little surviving. Just a few local street names, such as Carolina Road, Kentucky Close, Nashville Drive etc. remind us of what once existed. Some of the famous people who transited through Burtonwood were mentioned, names I recognised: - Joe Louis, Dwight D Eisenhower, Glenn Miller, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Nat King Cole, James Doolittle, etc. At one time there were 13 giant hangars and a 10,000ft runway. During the Berlin Airlift (1948) a new control tower was built (later demolished by Fred Dibnah).
There were 47 acres of warehouses in addition to the one mentioned. The area was highly mechanised for its job of regular aircraft servicing, it became known as “Little Detroit”, In the 1950’s, once the “Cold War” got going, Burtonwood became a V bomber base with planes stationed for immediate action (dare I say the word “scrambled”?). This was one of the locations of the UK nuclear deterrent. The dispersal (soon picked up the jargon) was located where the present M & S store is. Next time you are there, think of the V bombers parked and ready to go! In 1967 the deterrent moved from land-based planes to the more secretive sea by using submarines and the V bomber base was closed.
The US Air Base continued until the early 1970’s. An interesting remark by one of our guides caught my attention. In 1957 there was a shortage of dollars in the UK and we couldn’t pay for the tobacco that we needed. A trade-off occurred, and houses were built around Burtonwood by the UK for use by the Americans and the houses “exchanged” in lieu of paying for tobacco from USA. I was particularly intrigued at this scheme, and this is what Jackie and Anna found out for me on investigating the subject: “Yes, the info is correct; the USAF was expanding rapidly in the UK in the 1950’s and needed married quarters for the families. A form of prefabricated bungalow was designed jointly between the Americans and British which gave good accommodation but was reasonably cheap to build and could provide American style facilities and accommodation. They had to be built in the UK and, oddly, the agreement was reached that they would be paid for in American tobacco. 127 were built at Burtonwood, 126 semi-detached and one detached for the commander.
Once the US Army vacated Burtonwood in 1993 they were taken over and used by the British Army until demolition. However, they were by no means exclusive to Burtonwood. They were built at many USAF bases across Britain, including Sealand, near Chester. They still exist at Sealand but have been clad in brick or rendered so are not quite so obvious. Many exist on other bases, but they are being slowly demolished due to their age and condition. The ones at Burtonwood were demolished about eight years ago”.
