Does anyone know about the grassed area behind The Swinging Arm pub near Woodside? It's fenced off and appears to be a bit of a dumping ground for people who can't be bothered to go to the tip, but I wondered what used to be there? On the river walls at the bottom it looks like there might have been an old entrance to a dock perhaps, and there are some really old street lamps in situ but I haven't really got a clue.

Graving Docks

Some pictures on a thread starting HERE

some info clicky

Cheers for that, knew I would get what I was after on here. Really amazed that the wall at the bow of the dock wall is still there.

I'm going to say a park type of thing I have a photo I've just taken I'll upload in next 20 mins if I can be clever enough to do it lol

full pic

zoomed pic

closeup
it is only a copy of an original that we had reproduced

Fantastic!!

Lived on Church Street 25 years ago.The Swinging Arm was The Royal Hotel. The bar customers were all from that area,plus some scousers who worked at Lairds.Some of the crew of the Navy Ships coming into Lairds lived in the hotel.It was a great place to live.

When i was a kid about 7 in {1967} i went to pilgrim street school, and in the play ground down one side was a big fence and in certain spots it was broken so i could stick my head through and i could see down a big cutting the railway track below. cheers mike...

Hi everyone,I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the houses in Rose Brae would have been like, and would it probably been the people that worked in the docks that lived there....Very curious as my daughter goes to the gym that is right opposite were Rose Brae would have been. I believe the gym was a bakery, and before that I have no idea. Would ideally like to build up a picture of the area to be displayed in the gym. If anyone can help, what did the gym start out as, what else has it been over the years, would it have serviced a purpose for the docks??

Any help would be much appreciated!!

Maisie

Been meaning to ask about the big building, but couldn't find the picture
Is it possible on the picture to say whether the word hotel is on it
possibly
ADELPHI HOTEl,1, Rose brae
Old Post office Hotel, Rose Brae & 8, Church street
FERRY Inn, Rose brae, Woodside

I don't think there were any houses on Rose Brae, one side had sheds for the Iron Works and the other was the end of the gardens from the properties on Church St.

Gym was the Shaftesbury Boys Club

1843 Mortimer & Harwood
ROSEBRAE.
Walley Thomas
Briscoe Rev. Allen
Sowerby Peter
Bradley Ellen
M'Donald James
Carmichael John
Trivett Mary


1861Mawdsley
Carnall Thomas, Old Post-office Hotel and restaurant, Rose brae, and 3, Church st
" commercial dining-rooms, 5, Church street
Carps John, warehouseman, Trafalgar place, Lower Bebington


Devalve William, shipsmitk, (S. * W. D.) Ferry Inn, Rose brae

Dixon Edward, victualler, Ferry Inn, 6, Rose brae, Wpodside

PLUS OTHERS

Now why did I not realise that, that they wouldn't be houses duh!!

And I never in a million years expected you to tell me the was the Shaftesbury Boys Club, thanks for that DD

Administrative history:
Founded by William Arthur Norrish as the "Shaftsbury Street Boys Club", later the "Shaftsbury Club for Street Boys and Working Lads" (until 1914). Opened in January 1886 in rooms leased from the Chester Street Mission Sunday School; the club later moved to a former Baptist chapel in Jackson Street, and in 1911 to purpose-built premises between Jackson Street and Thomas Street. New club headquarters were opened in Mendip Road, Prenton, in 1971. The Official History is: "The Shafties" by C.L. Bibby (1974). The majority of the present records were deposited at the Merseyside County Archives in May 1978 (Acc. 1978-15, Class D/SB), but were transferred to the Wirral Archives Service in January 1987


Are there any maps showing this mission

At least one house in Rose Brae was domestic. My school mate, Brian, lived there and I think his Dad was some kind of security for the yard. I'm refering to the 1950s and I think there was a gate across adjacent to the house. Looking down from the house windows on the dock side there was a huge drop to the level of the bottom of the dock!
I thought it was No.1 Rose Brae and this may well have been the Adelphi Hotel, being quite large. Would it have been the last of the properties on that side of the road to have remained after the shipyard development?
Bri

Found another view showing there was a gate across Rose Brae, next to No.1.

Here's a picture of the model in Birkenhead Town Hall

Beautifully done! There it is!

Thanks for posting this.
I've seen this picture a few times before but without the caption underneath. When I saw it without the caption I had difficulty believing that it was of Birkenhead because of that large hotel on the right. If the shipyard is Clovers which it appears that it is then the hotel looks to be about where the Woodside Hotel would be but it clearly isn't the Woodside Hotel. It's also not the Birkenhead Hotel in Mersey Street which would have been to the left of the picture. Anybody know what hotel it could have been? A hotel that size doesn't appear on any old maps of the area that I have except for one that shows an Adelphi Hotel cnr Rosebrae, Chester Street. Would that be the Hotel in the picture? Incidentally I visited Birkenhead recently and was very disappointed to find that the Woodside Hotel is now a car park.

Can you tell me where the framed picture you have posted is actually hanging?

Thanks

There's more info about the picture here and here. It was printed in 1857 to celebrate the official opening of Laird's new shipyard at Monks' Ferry, and shows the Monks' Ferry Hotel at right.