Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral Now and Then Holt hill- cammel lairds ship yard

Holt hill
I do believe the ship being built is HMS Ark Royal.

Every time i see this photo the Ark gets whiter and whiter, I wasn't down the yard at that time and I'm pretty sure no white paint went near her, I'll stand corrected if it did, all the Navel vessels i have seen and worked on started off with many coats of red lead, many coats of grey undercoat and finished with battleship grey, which also adorned many fences, front doors and windows throughout Birkenhead. I even had a friend who had a old van painted in Battleship grey,thanks very much, HMS Liverpool.

great photo of holt hill!!

"This photograph shows the HMS Ark Royal, taken from the top of Holt Hill in Birkenhead. The ship had just been painted white, as part of preparations for its launch from the Cammell Laird shipyard by the Queen Mother"


http://www.mersey-gateway.org/server.php?show=ConNarrative.200&chapterId=1591

Is that you off to get your hovis Bert?

I used to walk up and down that hill four times a day, never did get any easier.

For your info that photo was taken by Chambre Hardman's

You can visit his old house and studio on Rodney Street Liverpool.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northwest/series6/chambre-hardman/index.shtml

The lost city of liverpool can be seen here

http://www.gorgeoux.com/2010/03/chambre-hardman-and-lost-city-of.html

ta

Pace

Please can someone put up a google map or satellite pic of where it was built - which dock or basin as I want to compare the view
with a pic in Tranmere Pool topic

Derek, it would have been built on the slipway, i assume pic1, which was a lot bigger before the construction hall was built, pic2 is Holt hill and slipways.

It was built on No 5 slipway, there where 6 slipways in the south yard prior to the yard been altered in the mid 60s when the 60 and 100 tons crains where put up.

I always thought this Hardman photo was some kind of composite of the big ship added to small Holt Hill. Adding to bert's post above, and using Street View, I was so wrong! That was a big ship in big shipyard!

A little bit of useless information. I was up in the Lake District a number of years back and got talking to some guy who lived there. He made models of various ships to a very high standard.

He was building a model of Ark Royal (Thirties one) and said he had written to Lairds to try and obtain some plans. He was told that the information was classified yet the ship had lain sunk in the Med since the second world war.

Perhaps they just couldn't be bothered? I doubt anything was classified after all that time unless I am missing something!

What i tried to do yesterday was superimpose the old photo over a street view photo of Holt Hill and get some idea of scale and size, it was a bugger to line up, perhaps someone with the ability and tools to do it can have a go. I can't find the height of the Ark Royal but it looks as if it would tower above the present day construction hall which is 107m high, 351 feet in old money.

Another picture of cammel lairds sheds.