MEMORIES AND PHOTOS - 1960s

BEBINGTON STATION  c.1960  

This is a rare photo showing Bebington Station.  In this view, we are standing on what is today the Liverpool bound platform looking towards Rock Ferry.  In the 1960s there were 4 tracks passing through the station, and the platform in the middle had the ramp with the railings around it leading down to the tunnel underneath the tracks.  There were also TWO bridges over Bebington Road: the first to be built was the one that is now gone, the one nearest to the river. 

In the lower photo we are on the same platform looking in the opposite direction, back towards Chester.  Note that until 1974, the station was known as "Bebington & New Ferry".

At some stage in the late 19th century, with the high volume of trains passing through, the station had been extended towards Old Chester Road with 2 new tracks.  It is this "extension" part which survives today.  Not only has the oldest bridge gone, so has the most eastward platform, now replaced mostly with the station car park.

Note the passenger waiting buildings with their white wooden fascias.  The chimneys show that each of the three platforms had an enclosed waiting room where a warm fire would be crackling in cold winter months.  How different to the windswept, cold glass structures with us today (with one enclosed, heated, glass building on the Liverpool bound side that was added in the early 2000s).  You can see the canopies again in the photo of the station in the 1900s.

NEW FERRY BYPASS UNDER CONSTRUCTION  c.1960

Three very grainy photograph stills of some home movie footage filmed as the bypass was being built.  The houses seen in the lower photo are in Easton Road, whilst in the third photo, the bridge carrying New Ferry Road over the dual carriageway can be seen whilst still under construction.

The bypass was built to relieve congestion in New Ferry.  It went from the Bolton Road roundabout as far as Thorburn Road where there was another roundabout which let the traffic back onto New Chester Road.  This second roundabout disappeared when the bypass was extended through Rock Park to the Cammell Laird roundabout in 1976.

NEW FERRY SWIMMING BATHS  c.1959/60

And here we finally present some colour pictures of the much-loved New Ferry Swimming Baths, taken some time during the early late 1950s or early 1960s. 

This time, in the lower photo, we can see one of the metal water slides that was obviously very popular.  To the right are the changing rooms.

At the far end of the pool is a shelter, which had seating for people to sit in out of the sun.  If they were full, bathers had to go to the "park" area behind them where tall trees overhung the grass.  This is where many residents remember having picnics, sitting on towels.  The parkland area was surrounded by a fence, over which many claim to have climbed in order to get in without paying - or else hastily climbed out to avoid the swimming pool staff.

Don't be fooled by the sunny blue sky.  Even on a summer's day, the water could still feel icy cold when you first jumped into it.  But after two minutes you no longer noticed!

The images were taken from some old cine footage, which has now been uploaded onto YouTube along with footage of other Wirral outdoor pools.  (See below)

NEW FERRY SWIMMING BATHS  c.1964   

Text and photos submitted by Phil Summers, 8th November 2010

"These photos were taken in New Ferry swimming pool around 1964.  In the left photo is my uncle, Roy Quinney, kneeling in what became the 'small' / 'baby' pool with his son, Colin on his shoulders. Colin was born in 1962.  You can tell its the small pool as you can just see the ramp leading into the water in the background. (What was originally one large pool seen in the photos of earlier decades was later divided up into 2 or 3 smaller pools).  You can also see the changing rooms and the main entrance.  The main entrance was next to what is today the roundabout at the junction of Shorefields and Samaria Avenue.

"The other photo shows the wooden slide at the shallow end of the pool. Unfortunately I do not know who the boy is."

SHOREFIELDS  early 1960s

Text submitted by Christine Glover, 21st October 2009

"I remember going past the prefabs on Shorefields to get to the beach.....the shore was nice then with lovely sand!  There was a path that ran down the side of the prefabs to get there.  When I think back now it reminded me of a shanty town!

"When they all became empty we used to play in them and rip the paper off the walls.  That was our vandalism of the day.....just harmless!!  I don't remember them being pulled down.

"When I was younger, Mum always told me not to go down to the shore on my own because there were bad men down there.  But we still went, and I never saw any bad men!!!!

"I also remember New Ferry Baths....we used to bunk in through the side gate that revolved round and round.   When we got in we would run like hell to the park area incase someone saw us!!

"The smallpox hospital was behind the baths.  It was closed then, but you could see into the part that backed onto the baths - which must have been the kitchens, because you could see dishes piled up in the windows of the abandoned building."

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