Do you remember when?
Do you have a storey to tell of days gone by in the picture?

Bidston Road - Just beside the water pump station
or Opposite the golf club.

As you read down this thread it has been realised that
this is not Bidston Road but the The Arno

hmm i aint having that one

the original reminds me of the arno lol

You will have to prove me wrong or right first

First one looks like the Arno to me too; looking down onto Storeton Rd. The houses are very different in those two photos.

Walked down Bidston Rd today and noticed two more of those lovely big red brick Victorian houses being demolished. They both belonged to Highfield School.

When I look at what's gone on there in the last 30 years I feel *very* sad. Beautiful houses replaced with Lego rubbish for first time buyers. Philistinism incarnate.

Someone on the council ought to be sacked and shot.

My first thought when seeing the pic. was that it was the Arno. Bidston Road did indeed have some fine houses very similar to those shown. Totally agree with philmch's comments ! Developers, solicitors, estate agents, council officials.... please form an orderly queue to be shot !! Back to topic.

Consider this..... look at the roof/gutter lines of the houses. They are on a gradient, downhill to right. Bidston Road is as flat as a fluke! The Arno has my vote !!

Where's the Arno ?
I see what you mean now guys, well i tried lol

The Arno is a public park & gardens. Up Storeton Road from Woodchurch Rd.lights. On LH side just before you get to the Queens Arms Hotel. I'm assuming it's still there. Many years since I've been in to the place. Maybe it's under bricks & mortar now. I hope not.

Anyone local confirm ??

Yep the Arno is still there just around the corner from me. Cycled through it the other night. Will try and get some frosty pictures of it sometime.

Thanks ghostly 1 !

Ahhhh got yu

Yes, that's the Arno. (anyone know why it got the name of an Italian river)?. It was a favourite place of my grandmother, who used to take me there when I was a child in the 1940's. Behind the photographer there's a lot of wooded area, quite wild, & an old quarry with a level floor which is now grassed & there's often families playing there. Also, though it's difficult to see now, because it's covered with ivy, is a nose of rock, only about 10 feet high, which I used to climb. Of course, it seemed a lot higher then. I often spend some time in the Arno when I come up; it holds happy memories for me.

Pictures of the Arno old and new

Thanks for those photos, Ghostly1. In the one of the path, you can still recognise the houses opposite when you compare with Mark's first pic. Do you have a date for the old one? I see the quarry was disused even then.

This is a game of Quotes which was popular at the time of this picture and the early one above. That is the only clue I have to date the picture. The game is taking place by the flag post you see in the previous picture. You play the game by throwing a horse shoe 20 yards towards a peg in the ground. The game lost following after bowls became more popular.

You win the Arno it is then lol

Thanks for sharing Ghostly1

The correct Now and then

I used to live in woodchurch lane and go to the arno often.

We used to climb up and walk around the top of the quarry wall, very dangerous looking back now but you tend to have no fear as a child!!.

We used to go to the same spot when it had been snowing and sledge down the hills!!.

Also behind where the Kwik save was there where fab hills to bike down i think these have also gone now

Fantastic fun, these pictures bring back lots of happy memories thanks

p.s is the sundial still there????

i live about ten mins walk from the arno and spent quite abit of my childhood up there wid me mates playin football and climbin the walls lol.

great pics guys

I remember that, don't know if it's still there though. Maybe someone could check. Oh, & I used to cycle up Woodchurch Lane & past the Arno on my way to school; pretty steep up by the Arno

Cheers, Chris.

A document dating from the reign of Edward III, dealing with an enquiry into the question of encroachments into the Forest of Wirral, treats with the occasion when Richard de Oxton was called to account for having in his possession a quarter of a rood of land in Oxton, near Arnehowe. At the period of this document, the use of the words erne, earn or arne, for eagle was quite common. Howe is well-known as a word for hill, so could it have been that the name for the Arno in medieval years was Eagle Hill?

Eagles on the wirral !!

Sounds like a reasonable explanation though.

interesting theory

Thanks, Colgo, that makes perfect sense; yet another example of how language changes over time.
Unless my memory if failing, a rood was a quarter of an acre, so the area in question was only 1/16th. of an acre, or about 253 square metres.

Cheers, Chris.

"p.s is the sundial still there???? "

Unless it's been fixed up in the last 10 years, it's still there but smashed to pieces and scattered accross the hillside.......

I was on a site today about the viking heritage in the wirral. You all know that the vikings first settled on the wirral?? Anyway the Arno is descended from old viking just like thingwall, bromboruogh,heswall, meols and more. Just Google Wirrals Vikings it is amazing how much there is on the subject.

Dave Miller

Is there Tunnels at the Arno Its hilly enough

No mate, your obsessed with tunnels !

He was a gerbil in a previous life - still looking for the toilet roll tube of destiny.

any body remember riding down the footpath at the top end of the arno which went down towards the playing feilds behind the shops on woodchurch road,there used to be a large tree root sticking out halfway down and if you were not carefull you would fly off your bike as it was quite steep and couldnt stop in time.

I vaguely remember behind the Kwiksave in Woodchurch Rd there used to be what we called the 'Quarries' where there seemed to be hills and hills of an orangey coloured clay.Any info on it
Also we used to make bows and arrows from Bamboo bought from a shop in Grange Road
How dangerous it must have been if you stuck a nail in as the arrowhead (sometimes you would put a nail on the railway lines
to get flattened by a train}
I remember there being a duck pond near there where we tried to hit water rats with the arrows until one of the lads turned up with an air pistol and everybody wanted to get one

And we survived! how, I can't imagine. Probably because the phrase "Health & Safety" had not yet been dreamed up.
BTW, although I don't know exactly where on Woodchurch Rd. Kwiksave is/was, I suspect your "quarries" were the brickworks, near the co-op dairy at the top of Swan Hill. (Oh, of course, that's not there any more either).

if you were looking dirctly from woodchurch road then the arno would be behind the land where the petrol station was(just up a bit from the halfway house pub) up at the top of the hill,chris,the kwik save was directly opposite osmaston road on woodchurch road,kwik save has now gone and it is a couple of large shops,"home and bargain" and "lidl".

just remembered but i think the road in between sainsburys and other shops is called duck pond lane,i dont remember the duck pond,must be too young lol.i am nearly 40, does anyone know when the shops were developed or more importantly when did the duck pond dissapear.

Thanks for that; I've known where the Arno is since 1940! It used to be one of my Gran's favourite places, so I got to know it at a young age. It was Kwiksave I didn't know. Now you've located it for me, I can confirm that Derekdwc's quarries were clay pits for the brickworks.

Cheers, Chris

There used to be two ponds by this lane, both towards the Woodchurch Road end, going from this end, one pond was on the left within the public area and the other was in a chicken farm on the right behind a fence that had a black steel corrugated panel fence with netting above. I think the farm also had ducks, this is going back to the 1960's before they smoothed over the fields to the west, which was done before 1972.

Mention of the destruction of what I presume is the first pond is at
http://attheriversmouth.blogspot.com/2006/07/ponds-on-wirral.html

thanks diggingdeeper,now my curiosity has got me again.after reading your link,the writer mentions a few pools,all of which i have heard of or know the area except for "the dungeon pool".any idea's????

The 2 ponds you are talking about, the one on the left was a natural pond, the one on the right which is where the alotments are behid sainsburies and farmfoods car parks was a MAN MADE DUCK POND. The only part of it which is still in exsistence is under the Steel manhole cover in the carpark at the back of Farmfoods

No real idea, Wirral SBI (special biological interest) state it is at Thurstatson.

There are a number of ponds around "The Dungeon" in Thurstaston just off the wirral way, but don't know of any being named.

These ponds continue in the area known as Heswall Fields which is most of the land between The Dungeon and Heswall Shore

http://www.wirral.gov.uk/LGCL/100006/200073/1008/content_0002158.html

http://www.wirral.gov.uk/LGCL/100006/200073/1008/content_0000988.html

In Thustaston down by the shore on the left which used to be a military camp I think but is where the Rangers? site is the ornamental pond with the bridge is where I caught my first carp .
Further along about 100 yards or so Heswall way there are some ponds we used to call the Seven sisters which were before you reached the Dungeons

thurstaston
Going along the cliff top towards West Kirby we used to fish in a pond that was only a few yards from the cliff edge.
The pond was only about a foot deep and was full of small 2 inch carp which we used to catch and sell to the pet shop in Grange Road Birkenhead.
Nearby was a pond on Caldy golf course where we could catch
Rudd or Roach?

my first ever fish was in that very same pool,with my dad when i was about six or seven,caught it on a bamboo stick with line tied to the end.my dad could not beleive it !....ice cream in one hand and stick in the other...aaahhh memories

Just thought I'd come back to this post as its very interesting. I took some pics the other day and may of found the sundial in question mentioned in one of the posts.

I remember the sundial. The first pic. looks like 1940's/50's. The view is towards Woodchurch Rd. when all the land between the Arno & Woodchurch Rd. was allotments. Comparing rooflines, the road at right angles to Woodchurch Rd. is Curzon Rd.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=sww1ttgrcmg9&scene=29155369&lvl=1&sty=b

Interesting about the allotments - a couple of my late Grandfathers brothers were listed on the 1911 census as 'Market Gardeners - The Arno' so maybe this was private land. Another brother was a Greengrocer on Conway Street in 1909 - presume this was related and a very early joined-up supply chain in modern business-speak !.

Yes, I think you're right. In times gone by, vegetables would not have been moved very far. On the attached map, 1890's, although there's nothing shown at that time at the Arno, I can find at least 3 large nurseries marked. I'm sure these would have been for growing produce & could just as easily have been called market gardens.

It interesting you mention there where allotements all the way up to the arno from Woodchurch Road that might explain why there is a terrace on the field at the back of the current allotments which is great for rolling or cycling down!
I think the Arno didnt open as a public garden until 1912 so probably just marked as a quarry and open land on maps before then??

Here's an enlarged section of the map showing the Arno. Unfortunately it doesn't go as far as Woodchurch Rd. but it shows 2 old Quarries in the Arno & South of that is a property called the Hermitage, with glasshouses in the grounds, then just fields. The access to the Hermitage appears to be from the top of Holm Lane. There's 5 or 6 properties there now, but with a different access.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=swwhwhgrcdfg&scene=29158088&lvl=1&sty=b

It's been a while since the last post here but I've only just come across this forum so here are a few recollections.

I lived on Temple Road and went to Birkenhead School so passed the Arno every day. I used to love playing there as you could go down from the formal gardens area into the old quarry (down the path that's visible in the game of quoits). With its rock walls and various hillocks it was great for playing soldiers as well as rock climbing. You could also get in the back way from where the school playing fields were if you didn't mind a couple of fences. There was also a very small public garden in the triangle where Ingestre Road bends to the right (150 on the map) which was called the Little Arno - not sure if that was the official name.

I often went home from school down Duckpond Lane which we also called The Cinder Path. I remember the duckpond being at the bottom on the left (heading towards Woodchurch Road) behind the Rootes car showroom (which was called Kirby's, I think). I don't remember whether there were actually any ducks. My recollection is that there several ponds in the field on the other side of the Cinder Path where we used to fish for sticklebacks - but never caught anything other than fat wormy things that we thought were leeches.

Welcome to wikiwirral JohnnyG, from another old Birkonian. What years were you at the School? I lived not far from you; Ben Nevis Rd. Hope you'll find lots here to interest you.

Hi Chris. I was at the prep from 53 to 58 and then the seniors till 65. Seems like we're both typical OBs, having moved away from the Wirral.

I left in 1952 & left Wirral in 1956. Still like to visit though.

I went to St Saviours Primary School, the old one that was right next to the Arno. We used to go into it every lunch break to play . It seemed like a huge quarry, with rugged terrain to us small children. We didn't play in the beautiful gardens at the front, we went around to the back of it. It was a great place to play. Must say, we were very lucky to have been able to do this. If it was nowadays we wouldn't be allowed to.Probably be against Health and Safety regulations.

Hi, Lyn; it was an old quarry. I loved to play there. Last time I was there, a few months ago, there was no sign of any restrictions, thank goodness; it does our kids no good at all to wrap them in cotton wool.

Hi Chris, I could't agree more.I think kids need to let of steam and play. I don't mean go crazy or anything.I honestly don't remember anyone injuring themselves, other than a grazed knee or elbow.I think the worst thing I seemed to do was get scratched on the yellow gorse bushes that seemed to be all over the place!

1) I seem to recall that the plot marked 150 in the triangle formed by Holm Lane/Mill Hill was also a public garden lots of rhodedenrons (?) some benches etc it was maintained as well as the Arno. Sorry didn't read all the posts - yes I think it as called the Little Arno, bit it may have been some sort of memorial garden.

2) The entrance to the Hermitage I think was opposite Point of Air. It had big sandstone gateposts. One of the sites that got blitzed.

3) Was St Saviour's parish hall somewhere near the Arno ?

This is my old stamping ground lived at the top of Townfield Lane where Townfield Court now stands.

St Saviours Parish Hall was further on up the road from the Arno. It was next door to my old primary school,St Saviours Church of England Primary School.We used the Parish hall for lunch time,school concerts and country dancing.
The school was demolished , not sure if the Parish hall is still there.
Lyn.

RE Masterbun's question about the St Saviour's Parish Hall.
The Parish Hall is no longer there, it is a car park.
There is no trace of any of the lovely buildings that used to stand there.
Lyn.

I went to St Saviours School too, and I remember alot of happy times playing in the Arno on our dinner breaks happy days, and fond memories.