It is opposite the woodyard, on the wall to the left of the driveway to a pair of bungalows and to the right of the bridge over the tunnel access road.
Google Earth co-ordinates
53 deg 24 min 47.23 sec N 3 deg 03 min 16.12 sec W
Last time I looked the plaque was hidden by vegetation hanging over from above. I am told the original stone memorial is in Earleston Library.
Incidentally, the site of the woodyard opposite was once occupied by a large house originally called The Slopes but later called Darley Dene. The original house was built by Monk and Newall for a Mr Brewley. In March 1941 the house was occupied by many soldiers from the Pioneer Corps when it received a direct bomb hit causing almost all to be killed. My mother was close by at the time and was one of the first on the scene.
Snodvan
5 Precepts of Buddhism seem appropriate. Refrain from taking life. Refrain from taking that which is not given. Refrain from misconduct. Refrain from lying. Refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness
I took some pics of the Boode Memorial in Breck Road Wallasey (opposite Huws Gray) and the actual needle memorial seems to have gone, with just a stone with a brass plate. Does anybody have any pics of this memorial intact?
Margaret Boode was killed here in 1827 acording to this website:
The memorial was erected in 1827, but moved from its original site in 1914 due to road widening. It was damaged in World War II, and may have been taken down and re-erected again after repairs. There is no indication in the available minutes as to the original location, or whether the current site is that of 1914. The existing plaque may not be the original, since a different inscription is reported by Smith, in his history of Wallasey: Near this spot / Mrs. Boode of Leasowe Castle was killed / By a fall from her pony carriage / April 21st 1826 / May ye who pass by / Respect this memorial of an awful dispensation / And the affectionate tribute of an only child / To Perpetuate the clever mother's memory / Beyond the existence of that breast / Which will never cease to cherish it / Ah, may the sad remembrance which attaches to this spot / Impress on everyone this salutary warning / "In the Midst of Life we are in Death" / Erected in 1827, mother-in-law of Colonel Cust of Leasowe Castle.(5)
Margaret Boode was the daughter of Rev. Thomas Danneth, rector of Liverpool.(1) She was the widow of a West Indian plantation owner, and took up residence in Mockbeggar Hall, Wallasey in 1802.(2) The building was renamed Leasowe Castle in 1802, and underwent considerable alterations.(3) Boode gained a reputation as a helper of shipwrecked sailors, many of whom were lured onto the dangerous rocks in the area by wreckers. The Castle provided an ideal place to aid such unfortunates, both in size and situation. Boode's daughter married Queen Victoria's Master of ceremonies, Colonel E. Cust in 1821.(4)
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
The needle doesn't seem to be there, as you can see daylight through the gorse bushes. The top was broken off, so maybe the council have removed it as it may have become unsafe.
Thanks for getting back on that ... don't know if its a good thing or bad that it can't be seen, reduces the chance of it being vandalised, I guess!
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
I remember my dad pointing this memorial out to me-as i have told/ shown my kids! I was fascinated at 7 or 8 years old. Goes to show...dont it. Strange tho-i recall this memorial at being more towards the breck? Obviously its where it is but whoah how your mind can play tricks?
Almost opposite was the house Darley Dene. That was bombed when it was occupied by a lot of (Canadian?) troops. At the time the bomb fell my mum was just the other side of the cross roads of Poulton Road/ Mill Lane and with others they ran to the house and were amongst teh first there. My mum still remembers the awful carnage - and that she lost her engagement ring while trying to rescue people from the damage
Snod
5 Precepts of Buddhism seem appropriate. Refrain from taking life. Refrain from taking that which is not given. Refrain from misconduct. Refrain from lying. Refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness
Does any one know where i can find any information on the troops that were hospitalised here, ? as my Mum's father was killed in this house during the bombing raid.
My Grand father was recovering from an injury here , all my mum knows that he was in the British Army when He died here, I have tried the usual army records, but unless you were an officer not much info was kept..
I just hope there are local news paper reports on the bombing but up to now I have not come across any, !
I do know it was a girls school being used my the Army during the war, and i have visited area of the site where there is a new girls school built now.
Does any one know where i can find any information on the troops that were hospitalised here, ? as my Mum's father was killed in this house during the bombing raid.
My Grand father was recovering from an injury here , all my mum knows that he was in the British Army when He died here, I have tried the usual army records, but unless you were an officer not much info was kept..
I just hope there are local news paper reports on the bombing but up to now I have not come across any, !
I do know it was a girls school being used my the Army during the war, and i have visited area of the site where there is a new girls school built now.
genlock
The new girl's school is much further West along Breck Road (towards the Village) than the location of Darley Dene. I am still looking for my maps to confirm but I think the house Darley Dene (previously The Slopes) was more or less where the car wash is now
Snod
5 Precepts of Buddhism seem appropriate. Refrain from taking life. Refrain from taking that which is not given. Refrain from misconduct. Refrain from lying. Refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness
The new girl's school is much further West along Breck Road (towards the Village) than the location of Darley Dene. I am still looking for my maps to confirm but I think the house Darley Dene (previously The Slopes) was more or less where the car wash is now
I put them "somewhere safe" - and you KNOW that means I can't find them. There is quite a packet of maps so they MUST be here somewhere.
Snod
5 Precepts of Buddhism seem appropriate. Refrain from taking life. Refrain from taking that which is not given. Refrain from misconduct. Refrain from lying. Refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness
Darley Dene was located where the "B" of the B5145 sign is on this.
Last edited by diggingdeeper; 10th May 20107:54pm.
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Wow ! Like the bus service, your waiting for one then a stack of them roll up
Thanks all !
I answer so much info, here and via site e-mails, that sometimes I miss some questions relating to Wallasey. A reminder in a post to bring it back to the attention of forum members is required sometimes (as well as a prod with a stick to the ribs!!)
This is the bomb damage that was caused to Darley Dene in March 1941. The house was then used for fire-fighting exercises and then demolished..
Darley Dene wasn't completely demolished after the war. For some unknown reason the remnants of the front porch were left standing alongside the road for many years; they were only pulled down when Breck Road was widened in early 1960...
Darley Dene was used by the Cheshires. My grandmother lived at 25 Breck Rod. The soldiers would enter her garden at the back and sneak out through her front gate to avaoid their own sentries. They would go to the Pool Inn pub and leave her beer and crisps on the way back. My mother's first husband was on leave from the army and in 25 Breck Road the night Darley Dene was hit. Itg was a heavy raid and indendaries were buring everywhere. He ran over to Butlers Garage to get a stirrup pump but they had let them all out and suggested he went to Darley Dene. He ran over to the middle of the road and saw the land mine come down on a parachute. He thrwe himself flat. The comb in his breat pocket was reduced to dust bt the shock wave. When he lookmed up most of Darley Dene was gone as wasd the roof of 25 Breck Road. The damage to the memorial was caused at this time. Incidentially them memorial was moved again in the early seventies when the new bridge was built . It was west of where it is now. Maybe twenty foot. The dead soliders were laid out in a field at the back of 26 Breck Road. They are buried in Landican cemetery (turn left as you enter and you will see a small military cemetery). two of them are Royal Artillery. They were prisoners un der escort and were lodged by the military police for the night at Darley Dene. Anolther casuality was my mother's cat who used to visit the soldiers. He was never found again.
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Thanks for that information tigertiger1953, I passed it on to my Mother some days ago.
My Grandfather was buried in Ford cemetery in private grave with and Army Cross as a head stone, I have visited it in the past and hope to take my 5 Grandsons to see it when the time is right.
Thanks to all that have contributed to this post, we know a little more about it now, I am sorry if I have hijacked the post about the Boode Memorial, it was not my intention.
I made a few errors in typing (how do I edit?) I said that the soldiers were laid out in the field at the back of 26 Breck Road. That should have been 25/27 which was the old Plough Inn but by the date of the air strike on Darley Dene (12/13th march 1941) it had been converted into two separate dwellings 25 and 27. 25 was the original building and is around the side/back and 27 is the Victorian frontage built onto the pub. In recent years 25 has been converted into two flats. Prior to that it had hardly been touched by the 20th century and still had no bathroom and an outside toilet. It also had a history that a former landlord took his own life their around the 1890/s - 1900s. It ceased to be a pub around 1920. It was haunted (maybe still is?) by a large black dog like creature, unexplained pillars of smoke and starnge lights. It had been exorcised a n umber of times in the 1950's.
This memorial is actually quite clear to see at the moment, went the other day, trees are thinning out and not much obstruction. I would say about 75% visible at mo!!
When I was little in the '50s there was a local legend that the memorial used to grow! If it's correct it must be very slow growth, or maybe losing its tip may have stopped it. We all new, correctly, that it was the memorial to a Lady who fell from her coach.
We lived in the hiouse directly opposite Darley Denenat 40 Breck Road from just after the war until August 1956. During that time Darley Dene was a a bombsite - very weird as nothing had been cleared - so there was even an old stripey mattress hanging over the edge of a shattered first floor. As you faced it there was a field to the left sloping down btween Breck Place and Darley Dene and from there the site could be accessed through a battered barbed wire fence next to which was a bomb hole. The Boode Memorial at that time was set back from the road next to our side garden fence but a friend sent me a photo just over 5 years ago and it has now been moved, still next to our old house but also adjacent to the pavement still on the rough overgrown area we used to call "The Rocks" I think it lokked as though the message/inscriptio had been changed from when we lived there and the old memorial may have been lacking its top. Clearly it had been renovated.
I'll post my photo of the Boode Memorial sent to me by my old school friend who used to live opposite what would have been the Plough Inn. I'll need to work out how to upload a photo to this site
The original "needle" memorial was right next to the fence of our side garden at 40 Breck Road when were ther from 1945 to 1956 and I think the top was missing. Carved in to the base stone was an inscription which said, "Near this spot a lady fell from her horse...." can't remember the rest. In around 2005, an old friend sent me a photo of the restored memorial which, by then had been moved nearer to the road so it could be seen from the pavement. I'll try and find that photo as the area was not overgrown at that time. I read somewhere on this site that it has now gone and is in a local library (Earleston?) I've been in Australia for 38 years so can't go exploring myself!! I'm searching for info on Darley Dene which was in ruins opposite our house in the 1950's after the bombing in 1941 which damaged the Boode Memorial.
Looks like someone has cleaned it up? (Kudos to whomever!)
Err a bit guilty there. last year the gorse and ivy were hanging all over the plaque and I "just happened" to be passing with an empty trailer and a set of long handles pruning shears so I thought .........
I was looking again last week and though maybe it is time for another trim.
S.
5 Precepts of Buddhism seem appropriate. Refrain from taking life. Refrain from taking that which is not given. Refrain from misconduct. Refrain from lying. Refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness
Looks like someone has cleaned it up? (Kudos to whomever!)
Err a bit guilty there. last year the gorse and ivy were hanging all over the plaque and I "just happened" to be passing with an empty trailer and a set of long handles pruning shears so I thought .........
I was looking again last week and though maybe it is time for another trim.
There is about 3 tons mix of soil with concrete blocks on the pavement against the wall of the Boode Memorial, is this a bad case of fly tipping or some work is to take place?. The memorial has been cleared recently but the wall doesn't show any obvious weakness unless the base of the wall is frail.
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
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