MEMORIES AND PHOTOS - 1990s

AERIAL VIEW OF BROMBOROUGH DOCK c.1990

We think this photo dates from just before the landfilling operations began.  The dock gates certainly look as if something has been tipped against them, but they would later become where the canalised River Dibbin flows into the Mersey.  The rest of the water is now gone.  To the right you can see the former silting ponds where silt was dumped after being dredged from the river and Albert Dock in the 1980s.  All of the silting ponds now sit underneath the landfill mountain. 

The River Dibbin can be seen snaking around the factories next to Bromborough Pool Village before passing underneath the A41 road bridge.  William Lever's ships could pass under the bridge to more wharfs closer to his soap factory on the other side of the road.

NEW CHESTER ROAD SCHOOL   c.1990

In August 1915 the school opened its doors for the education of children from the ages of 5 to 13.  However, in the 1920s, Grove Street School opened for primary school age and this school became a secondary, with separate entrances for boys and girls.  In 1969 a new school was built in Higher Bebington Road - where the girls relocated to.  The boys had to wait until July 1988 to move to the new school, when the school here - on New Chester Road, closed.  It was demolished in 1991 to be replaced with new houses (Portbury Close).

WIMPEY ESTATE PHASE 2 (SAMARIA AVENUE),   c.1990

The first phase of Wimpey's housing on the former site of the New Ferry Swimming Baths was constructed between 1987 and 1988.  With a slump in the housing market in the area at the time, Wimpey delayed building the second phase until two years later.  In this photo we are looking from Shorefields across the grassland area, originally part of the garden of Merseybank House (see Shorefields Nature Park), and subsequently where visitors to the swimming pool  would sit under the shady trees during the hot summer months (YES, they actually had hot summers in the mid 20th century!).  Many of the trees were planted in the garden of Merseybank House and survive to this day.  The houses we see are at the end of Samaria Avenue.
 

The houses in Beaconsfield Road and the adjoining streets of Poolbank Road, Elmbank Road and Willowbank Road were built by an enterprising developer who realised that people who had a little money would like to buy a home near the pretty setting of Port Sunlight Village.  He built these houses in the early 1930s using bricks made from the clay excavated from the pit at Mayfields right next to the site.  This kept his costs down and made these homes affordable to people on modest incomes.

The 1990s saw very little investment in New Ferry.  It was only at the start of the decade that some derelict shops on New Chester Road were pulled down and Kwik Save built their new store between New Chester Road and Woodhead Street car park.  Today, the store is a Co-op, but older residents still call it "The Kwiky". 

For some years before Kwik Save moved into their new building, their store was split between two other buildings on New Chester Road: frozen foods were sold from the building which is now Wetherspoons, whilst all other items were sold at the building today occupied by Iceland - some six shops apart, meaning that shoppers had to queue at the tills twice to do their normal shopping!

Where the trolleys are stacked is where stables used to stand for the horses that pulled the trams between Birkenhead and New Ferry prior to electrification in 1899/1900.

With some of the money which Kwik Save had to pay as part of the planning agreement to be able to build their store, Wirral Council spent it on pedestrianising the top end of Bebington Road, forcing traffic to detour around Boundary Road. Today, over 20 years later, certain taxi drivers have never acknowledged this fact and still drive down the precinct!!!

Mel Roberts was known locally as "The Butterfly Man".  Not a native of New Ferry, he settled here in the 1960s and grew to love the place.  He helped to set up the Butterfly Park in the early 1990s and worked both there and in New Ferry Regeneration Action Group's shop/drop in centre until he died in 2002.  Here he is seen in a photo in one of the local newpapers showing off a collection of mounted butterflies.

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