Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request Crossing The Border To New Brighton

Was it just me, or back in those days did New Brighton (NB)seem like another nation entirely, compared to Birkenhead? I recall waiting to catch a bus, (was it a number 9?) to NB, did they still have those very pale cream buses in 1972/73? They were cleatrly very different, had a look of desert camouflage about them. May well have been travelling to Florence, apart from that city did not have Brummie holiday makers sitting on deck chairs surround by oil stained rocks looking at passing tankers saying 'grate ere aint it' Yes NB still attracted the tourists in those days.

I Remember when i was a kid they used to say if you dropped a
penny in Wallasey you had to kick it all the way home to
Birkenhead you could not bend down to pick it up as you were taking a chance ?

Unlikely anyone from Birkenhead dropping a penny cos we all know it would of hit them on the back of the head in their quickness to pick it up!!!

Not me, it had already been spent on McGowan's Highland toffee :)) now there's a memory.

..think it was a 9,10, or 11 bus that went up to New Brighton in those days - least ways over Duke St.

Don't know about comparisons with Florence. Venice, more like, seeing as the river used to smell so much! Much better now, of course.

Ah yes the Venice of the North, although Birmingham clais that too

So twas the Number 9/10, glad to know my fragmentary memory is holding up, just.

As to stinking rivers, surely you mean that one the Number 28 used to go over, en route to Bromborough, near Lever Brothers. What a foul aroma that kicked out, during those days.

I think the nr 9 went to Seacombe. Deffo 10 and 11 to NB. The Wallasey bus colour was billed as pea green I think.

Yellow.

That's Bromborough Pool. I agree about the smell but I don't think it was from the water, rather from Lever's factory. You usually smelled it there because of the prevailing westerly wind, but if the wind was from the East, you smelled it over Bebington.

The Mersey was an open sewer in those days. The rocks at New Brighton were more grey than green, and you took your life in your hands if you went in for as much as a paddle. I repeat - 'paddle', not piddle!!

At least you can walk on the beach now without having to wade through fat-balls. And by fat-balls I mean balls of fat, not swollen gonads...!

I seem to recall that water as being a bright toxic green colour, as seen from the top deck of the bus.

I definitely recall seeing coaches from the Midlands in NB and folks on deck-chairs taking in the view of passing tankers. Bondai Beach eat yer heart out

Great photo, that was the livery alright, they were amazing buses and hopping aboad definitely added to the sense of visiting a different land I think they changed their colour a touch, as I remember them as looking more like this http://www.flickr.com/photos/8050359@N07/3831403632/in/photostream/

Nude Brighton always was very popular, but things went a bit down hill after the tower grounds fire, and the pulling down of the pier.

You'll finds lots of stuff on old N.B, Erainn, just by looking at the history threads on Wiki. Although you know what they say about nostalgia don't you? It's not what it used to be...

As a young nipper I used to paddle in the Mersey by the pier. One time I came across a condom which I thought was balloon and yes ( remember I said I was very young ) I tried to blow it up. Etched in my memory.