Has anyone any info. about this? It was constructed in the 1930's to divert the stream & rainwater under the upper part of Borough Rd. because the lower part of Borough Rd, from about the library, used to flood. It started at the bottom of Everest Rd., by the Rovers ground & went under Everest Rd.& Victoria Park & into the river at a place which was called Gonnell's pool, which is about where Tranmere oil terminal is.

Very interesting
I haven't ?

I heard it used to get flooded, but I never knew there was an overflow tunnel

Pinzgauer & myself are interested (obsessed, some would say) in the Borough Rd. overflow tunnel, which was constructed in the 1930's to help with the drainage of Borough Rd., which was originally a stream. It ran from the Rovers' ground, under Everest Rd. & Victoria Park to the river at a place known as Gonnal's Pool. This does not appear on any map we have, but by lining up the route, which we know from manhole covers of a particular design, we think we know where it might be. Pinzgauer spotted the thread about the crane at Rock Ferry & when he looked at the Google Earth pic. in that thread, came up with the idea, with which I agree, that the location might be the rectangular basin just North of the start of the old Rock Ferry pier, at the bottom of Bedford Rd. East,& just North of 6 rusty looking tanks. The Lat. & Long. are: 53-22-28.94N, 3-00-09.09W. (there seems to be the shell of a small boat there). Because neither of us lives locally, we're hoping that someone can have a look & see if there's any evidence of an outflow there, & if there is, an idea of its size.
Grateful for any help.

Cheers, Chris.

Hmm if am right the drawrings i added on that picture below is where your talking about. If i pass by I'll try and get a picture of it or if anyone else goes by then i hope they would be greatful enough to help out.

this may help if indeed pomp is right about where u meant ping:

me and my mates used to hang about down there, rope swing in the wooded bit on the opposite side of the road from the boat yard bit... admiral along from that, then a little road to the works but i think it is all fenced off... used to be full of holes tho hence how we got in... theres an old building on the corner which we used to go in as well but it was really manky... then there's a load of this oil tank things... a big rectangle bath of oil which i believe u wouldnt want to fall in lol - it's not likely u would get caught tresspassing in there as nobody really goes down there anymore

Thanks, guys; yes, that's where I'm talking about & I would have expected the outfall to be in the wall that Pomp's single ended arrow points to, since the drain runs from the inland side, roughly parallel with Bedford Rd. East, but of course, when the Tranmere oil terminal was built, it might have been re-routed/extended if it originally came out on that site. Incidentally, the highest point along the line of the drain is on Everest Rd., about 10 Ft. East of the crossing with Ingleborough Rd.; 145 Ft. above sea level & the height at Borough Rd. is 128 Ft. That's a difference of 17 Ft., plus whatever the depth at Borough Rd. is. This means that it was tunnelled & not cut & cover. Davey; your 'load of shit' may be under water at high tide; anyway I'd expect the outfall to be above high water level, otherwise there would be a back flow.
Any further info. or pics. gratefully received.

Good work peeps

Right guys, all this stuff is at the bottom of my road. So when I get the time then I'll stroll down there and take some photographs for you all. I don't mind taking Photo's of anything really that you guy's are after down there. So if you want anything down the shore photographed then just let me know.
I will get down there this weekend and take some photographs and even see if I can do some research on the place.
Another thing thats just come to me is that I had a drain search completed when I bought my house. So I'll try and locate this drain search map and see if it is any use. Although I'm sure it only went down as far as the other side of that road.

I went to have a look here recently, but couldn't see anything. I'm sure the outfall is in this area. Has anyone got any contacts in the local canoe club? I think a little trip at high tide might reveal something.

Cheers, Chris.

Some of you may remember that months ago I asked if anyone knew anything about this: no-one did, so I researched it myself. Thanks to a very helpful lady at United Utilities, I eventually managed to see the plans on screen at the Council offices in Birkenhead, where they had access to the plans on United Utilities' computer. I wasn't able to get a copy, but I was able to make a lot of notes. With this information I was able to trace the route of the tunnel.
This tunnel was constructed in the 1930's to eliminate the flooding which used to happen in Borough Rd., the flooding sometimes reaching as far up as the library. Borough Rd. was originally a stream & was called the Happy Valley. My original reference to it came from the book "Sidelights on Tranmere" by J.E.Allison. This book is still available at the Wirral Museum & is a very useful book.
Attached are:
The e-mail with the dimensions & other information which I sent to Pinzgauer,
A plan of the route superimposed on Google maps,
Pictures of the manhole covers.
The pin marking 12A is because I missed it out on the original plans & added it later.
At one of the manholes in St. Paul's Rd. (can't remember which one) you can hear the flow of water. I think it must be falling over a weir.
There's no picture of No.16. It's in the middle of New Chester Rd. & has been so well worn there's no lettering left.
The one thing I've not been able to do is to find out where the new outfall is which has replaced the original at the Oil Terminal.
The last manholes, just before the oil terminal, are on private property; there's a car wash there.

The pics of the manhole covers is on the following page.
Hope some of you find this of interest.

Cheers, Chris.

Here's the original reference which sparked my interest, on page 13 of Mr.Allison's book.
Also, pics of the manhole covers so anyone who wants to follow the route can identify them.

I seem to have made the maps on page 1 a bit small to read. The route is:
From Borough Rd., follows the line of Everest Rd. to the top of Victoria Park, then goes through the park to Albany Rd, where it turns left to Well Lane, which it follows to Old Chester Rd., then follows the line of St.Paul's Rd. to the end.

Well done on collating all the info. Chris. When you get your teeth into a subject ......... !!

Glad you survived the various manhole cover shots. Standing in the middle of a busy road photographing a manhole cover does not lend itself to a long and happy life. A short and flat one maybe !

Don't recommend anyone "pops" any of the lids. If a No.64 bus doesn't get you, the sewer gas will. Failing that some of the shafts will be VERY deep. (Mind the first step - it's the big one !!)

What's the next project then ??

Well, fancy you remembering that the 64 bus went along Borough Rd.
Oh, and the pics of the manhole covers were taken on a Sunday.

grid 10 is near enough outside my sisters house. Good investigation Chris. do you think it would be possible to crawl the length of the tunnel?

Well, Wheels, I suppose it's possible, but I couldn't recommend it. I myself am particularly interested in the Borough Rd. end. As a child, I used to play on some spoil heaps in what was then waste ground, now part of Rovers' car park, next to the Shaftesbury playing field. I've got a strong feeling that this is where they started the tunnel, rather than disrupt Borough Rd. Only a look at the tunnel under Borough Rd. would confirm this, but I aint about to try.

Cheers, Chris.

pass me a light to strap to my head, i would go

I agree with Chris, I used to play i n Tranmere Rovers car park in the 60s & 70s - before they surfaced the car park. There were spoil heaps like embankments around the west and south sides (probably where they scraped the car park flat then local builders tipped rubbish there afterwards), there were streams which joined (and entered) at the southwest corner and ran into a concrete pipe somewhere along the south side (can't remember if west or east end, though I don't remember a stream running the length of the south side). I also remember vaguely that something changed here to do with the pipe - long before they re-did the car park.

I do remember there was some sort of concrete box towards the east end of the south side.

In the hawthorne bushes on these embankments were always some "magazines" and a few cans.

New outfall looks like it joins in with the surface water drains they put in for new-ferry bypass.

I would love to see what this valve looks like that can change the flow over - is it a big vane?

We knew about the happy valley and were always told there was an underground stream along the length of Borough road, they must have done something with the stream when they built Borough Road.

Anyway - excellent research and a good project - I was going to get back earlier but hoped to have something a bit more concrete than my vague memories of my cyclodrome.

Excellent research Chris, well done

Those spoil heaps were there in the 1940's, that's when I used to play on them. I think they may have been the spoil from the overflow tunnel.

In the hawthorne bushes on these embankments were always some "magazines" and a few cans. That's something that you don't see anymore "specialist mags" left lying about!

I'm guessing that if this is a diversion of the stream that was under Borough road that there is a dry culvert underneath the road past the library - another prject perhaps?

I'm not sure whether it's a complete diversion or just for when the flow is great. Unfortunately there are no details on the plans of the arrangement under Borough Rd. For instance, if the tunnel was started from the Rovers' car park (which I suspect) there will be evidence of a blocked up passage. Don't suppose we'll ever know.

Great work Chris, we know you have been chasing this one for a while now and i'm sure a few thought your were going mad too lol.

Well documented and a good bit of History Preserved

Excellent work

I remember the "humps" around Rovers Carpark. I used to play footbal on there(not the humps) When I was at Temple Rd Secondary(early 60's) that is where we used to go for our fights.

Dave Miller

Glad you remember the humps. (Pinzgauer went to Temple Road).

Wow - just read the thread - marvellous! Knew it was a river and called happy valley - always wondered how they managed to redirect it under the road - must tell my mum - she lived on Holt Rd and has mentioned it a few times as well as donkey town etc. She lived at no.3 - sadly its gone now but I managed to get a photo of it in 2000 before they got rid.

I wonder if the Overflow was responsible for the Borough Road flash flood in June 2008?

Here is a Youtube (with nice music - Ryhthm Acupuncture)
[youtube]sjMbac1szBc[/youtube]

Nice video, notice the lifted manhole cover at 4'03". I think that without the presence of the overflow tunnel, it would have been a lot worse. The tunnel starts about 1/2 mile further on from the end of the video, at the Rovers' ground. The diameter of the tunnel there is 4ft. which is probably a lot greater than the drain down Borough Rd. so it would have taken most or all of the water from the South of there. Remember, Borough Rd. is in a valley; a lot of the water would have come down the streets on the East of Borough Rd. from Tranmere ridge & a lot more from Singleton Ave. & the roads towards Oxton. Thanks for posting that.

brill video , I remember coming home and Seeing that grid up on the road and thinking how the hell it got there. I never knew how bad that flloods was and I live just off it.

its fascinating seeing places you see so often completely transformed by the elements. I hope that kid had wellies on at 3'24"!

This Topic continues Click me

I remeber it used to run along side the basement of the old Shaftsbury Boys club. When rain eas bad the basement flooded.

was the basement in the old SBC called The Madhouse where a game of football consisted of just kicking the ball at anyone you could.
Any remember the Shafts (on the Haymarket)and the camps at
Penmamawr

Here's a map, mid 1950's, showing the Shafts.

I do remember a public house called the "happy valley" on borough road, sort of 50yds down on the left passed wilmer/balls rd east heading towards town ... now i know where its name came from

In the late 50s-early 60s, the roadway along Waterloo Place/ Blackpool Street underneath the old Birkenhead-Chester line railway bridge regularly flooded to a depth of a few feet. These floods disrupted traffic (it was then a through road) and stopped pedestrians, who had to divert via Grange Street. However, it was a bonus for the local kids, some of whom would get their cozzies on and use the flooded roadway as a swimming pool. This roadway follows the line of the old Tranmere Pool inlet into which the 'Happy Valley' stream once drained from the Borough Road area. Obviously, in wet weather the run-off water from the roads tried to follow the old course of the stream - and hence the flooding. Blackpool Street is the lowest geographical point in Birkenhead, so water was bound to accumulate there. Last time I looked, the railway bridge was still there, but I don't know if the roadway still floods. This seems to be the same reason that the basement of the Shafts flooded - even though the Shafts is situated slightly higher than Blackpool Street. The basement of the Shafts on Jackson Street was called The Rough House - and it was where all the hard knocks used to meet to have fights.

You're right OxtonMac. It was the Happy Valley, my and my Mum and Dads old local. It was nearly opposite the corner of the Central Library, right near the bus stops. Memories of an age long gone.......

yeah! I must of been 17-18 years old then, went a couple of times with the in laws

yeah! I must of been 17-18 years old then, went a couple of times with the in laws

That is funny I was about the same age when I started to go there

yerr tunnels

we need pics of inside

bump

Chris not sure if this is the same thing but it mentions the Borough Road Stream?

The first pic is of the Hind Street where they're building a sewer to redirect the Bourough road stream and second pic is of the continuation of the sewer scheme.

Thanks, Ghostly; those pics are much further down Borough Rd. & not connected with the overflow tunnel. Haven't seen that second picture before; thanks.

what is the name of the book you have taken those pics from,looks like one that i would like to add to my collection.

The stream that ran down what is now Borough Road was called the Rubicon.

Pics are from a book called Birkenhead- A Pictorial History by Ian Boumphrey

oh thanks,have not got that one yet,i will look out for it.i have a few of ian's books,they are good arnt they,and he is a real nice guy.

I have a couple of comments on the original topic of the sewer overflow.

I remember that the manhole chambers around the top of Everest Rd / Victoria Park were amongst the deepest on Wirral - unfortunately I can't precisely recall the depths, but I think they are 15m+.

This whole area was modelled on a computer in the early 1990s which required an accurate idea of pipe sizes, manhole depths, catchment areas etc. The accuracy of the computer model was verified by collecting actual flow measurements in the various pipes during heavy rainfall, together with rain gauge information collected from several nearby roofs (one was on the Crosville Depot on New Chester Road).

The reason for the modelling was the design of a new "interceptor" sewer to carry flows from the end of St Paul's Road next to the roundabout and then south beneath the Rock Ferry / New Ferry bypass to the pumping station at The Dell. This scheme was called "Beaconsfield North Interceptor Sewer" and was part of the MEPAS (Mersey Estuary Pollution Alleviation Scheme) initiative to clean up the river Mersey.

Other schemes on the Wirral side (in chronological order) were Wallasey Interceptor Sewer, Green Lane IS (Birkenhead), and Beaconsfied South IS (which took flows down to Dock Road South in Bromborough).
As for Beaconsfield North, I can't remember what happened to the flows after they left The Dell pumping station (may have gone to Beaconsfield South outfall off the end of Dock Road South?). The outfalls at Tranmere and the Dell (extended to mean low water spring tides) were retained as overflows in case the system was 'beaten' during rain storms. I think all the drainage from the Rock Park frontage may have been picked up (previously it just went out part way across the foreshore to discharge)and taken via tunnel back to the main Interceptor Tunnel under the by-pass.

That was how the design was being progressed but I don't know what was finally actually constructed, but I suspect it wasn't too different.

I Remember when Dock Road south was being done. They had all the new sewer pipes lined end to end on the grass next to the walk path. I used to walked the whole of dock road south inside the pipes on my way to primary school (Bromborough Pool). They also dug up a lot of the Park on Port causeway and stored all the new concrete pipes and sections (I got caught short and did a poo in one). It was a great alternative to our park with loads of hiding places.

Also at the same time they dug the biggest hole I ever saw in our field were we used to collect conca's just next to the Dock Road. It was very similar to the one that was dug at new Brighton a couple of years ago and I thinks the pipes lead to it.

The location and size of hole:


The new Brighton one




I know this is maybe not connected but still loosely relevant to the overflow tunnels.

That chamber/hole down Dock Road South was for one (or maybe two) "Stormking" combined sewer overflow devices - designed to only allow forward a certain amount of flow and allow the rest to overflow.

Storm King Overflows

the site calls them "advanced hydrodynamic vortex separators" but it's really a glorified weir arrangement iirc.

The New Brighton hole was about 20m deep by 20 or 25m diameter and is basically an offline storage chamber for storm water to stop the Wallasey Interceptor Sewer getting overloaded - when the pumping station at New Brighton couldn't cope with flows entering it, the excess would dischare through the nearby outfall on the foreshore; now it goes to the new large storage chamber instead and reduces the number of spills on the foreshore. A sensor detects when there's enough capacity in the main tunnel under the promenade after the storm flows have gone, and the stored water from the new prom chamber is pumped back to the New Brighton Pumping Station and then from there along the prom (or rather in the pipe underneath it) eventually ending up at Scotts Field treatment works (I think).

Fancy defecating in a sewer pipe - other people have to use them too you know

According to a vid on you tube, some of the overflow floods underneath the palace funfair at New Brighton, its a good clip.

It's good to have this extra info. According to the plans I've seen,(details in first post),the depth at the top of Victoria Park is 21 metres. It's unfortunate that the plans held by United Utilities don't give any details of the arrangement at Borough Rd. i.e. is the overflow taking all of the water which used to go down Borough Rd. or just the excess when the flow reaches a certain volume. In particular, we still don't know how the overflow was dug at the Borough Rd end. My suspicion is that it was started in what was waste ground next to the Rovers' ground, which is now car park.

Up until a few years ago I had access to A0 size linen original "OS" plans of Wirral from about 1900 on which had been inked in all sewer lines, pipe sizes, invert and cover levels etc. I could have looked at these and maybe given a more definitive response but I do seem to recall the bottom of Everest Road/Borough Road being important - there may have been a weir/overflow there with excess flows diverted towards the Mersey via the Everest Rd/Victoria Park/St.Pauls Road route (your first photo in your first post)- I remember someone going down that manhole and the safety rope on the harness nearly ran out (deeper than thought); unfortunately I can't recall precise details of the findings.

I used to have a nice coloured drawing on linen of a sewer vent along Borough Road (looked like a cast iron lamp column, but the top was open to the atmosphere) - I think some of the vents are still in-situ.

21 metres depth wouldn't surprise me, I thought I'd better under- rather than over-estimate the depth in my original post. I remember a flow monitor going in to that deep manhole to record storm flows - this of course resulted in one of the driest spells for a long time, and when it did rain all the equipment got washed away (and probably out under Tranmere Oil Terminal outfall).

Thanks for the extra info. Which manhole was it where the rope nearly ran out? Not Borough Rd. surely?
The reason I think the work may have started in what is now Rovers' car park is that it would have minimised disruption in Borough Rd. Also, the presence of the 2 quite tall banks of spoil there which several of us used to play on (1940's/50's). There are still quite a few of the tall vent pipes around, many in the Prenton area; there's a few pics in the thread Old Wirral Street Furniture. What a pity you haven't still got those original plans!

Yes I think it was in Borough Road at the bottom of Everest Road - the thing was it was a straight drop, top to bottom, whereas the deeper ones (further up Everest Road and in the park) tend to have intermediate landings.

I know where the original plans went to, if I get a chance in the next couple of weeks I'll try and see if they're retrievable.

That would be great.

I believe that at the end of the bypass, the flow is normally diverted to a sump at the bottom of the dell, behind the car park. Three large pumps then pump it up New Ferry Road to the Beaconsfield sewage works.

I suspect where the original tunnel was intercepted - behind KFC - a weir will have been constructed so that excessive flows can go through the original tunnel. This flows through and under the oil terminal and runs under the jetty which runs out to where the tankers are discharged. At low tide, you can see the end of this tunnel from the river.

I can't recall where I saw this, but I think the tunnel intercepted the old borough road tunnel further down Borough roud. Somewhere about the junction of Parkside Road or even further down. (I have heard North Road mentioned as the interception point) From there it flows back under Borough road to Everest Road, where it follows the route described.

Sadly I can't offer any confirmation of this rather vague memory. Perhaps someone can confirm or deny it. There is a degree of plausibility in the story in that if you are going to build an overflow tunnel, it makes sense to catch as much flow as you can, and the further down Borough Rd you intercept the sewer, the better. From North road, the contribution from Singleton Avenue would also be included. The elevation at North road ia 5 metres lower thanthat at the Boroug rd/Everest Rd juction. This might explain why it is so deep at that point?

The roundabout at Victoria Park is always being dug up and massive steel erected in the middle, wonder if it has anything to do with this tunnel/overflow ?

The access manhole is just inside and to the left of the entrance to Victoria Park. The sewer runs along the line of Everest Rd. so if it does intercept the roundabout it would be only at the extreme Northern end, and may not intercept the roundabout at all: because I'm not local I can't check the lines. Also, at that point, the depth of the sewer is in the region of 21 metres so it's difficult to imagine what they might be doing which would get near it.

@ Excoriator: yes, it has been confirmed that the overflow tunnel started down Borough Rd. roughly at Parkend Rd., so nearly at Singleton Ave.
MrG65 provided a lot of information but I haven't seen him posting recently. He had access to the original plans.

Re. the excavations at the roundabout. I think that's gas. But whatever it is it is pretty deep. It's quite a wayfrom the line of the tunnel however.

I've managed to find the photos of the plans MrG65 sent me. I'm sorry the resolution isn't better.

Very interesting. It seems that the interceptor at Parkend road not only takes the flow from the original Borough road sewer, but also what comes down Parkend Rd. This seems to be a substantial tunnel itself so it is probably what comes down Singleton Avenue.

I had assumed that this interception would be in the form of a weir, so that the old sewer would take the flow under normal circumstances and the excess would go over the weir into the new tunnel. But this seems not to have been the case. A large penstock implies the idea is to divert the lot into the new tunnel.

I wonder where the old tunnel ends up these days? It seems to be a substantial size, and from the lie of the land would pick up a lot of flow from the rest of birkenhead. I guess it would be Morpeth Dock, so I imagine it gets there via Argyle Street, probably joining the Great Culvert just before the treatment works.

Thanks very much for taking the trouble to dig out this info.