As an aside from my researches in the archives yesterday (see under Church Rd. in picture section), I made the interesting discovery that the Rovers ground was previously on the other side of Prenton Rd. West, where the Prenton Park pub is now. The map is dated 1926. Among other things I noticed, apart from much less housing, was that the Lever Causeway hadn't yet been built, (I haven't got a pic. of that part of the map).

Looks like they built Temple Road School/Prenton Sec.School/Whatever it's called now (my seat of learning), slap bang on top of the original pitch !

Old maps are fascinating !!!!

Always thought the school was built prior to 1926, but maybe it just felt like it was built at the same time as the Workhouse nearby. It was just as cheery and enlightening as your average workhouse !! Sorry - drifting off-topic.

Brilliant, Devonshire park is actually a park!

I beleive (but only from what I've read on Wikipedia that Prenton Park has had three locations, where it is on this map, where it is now and even further along Borough road towards town.

I always knew it as Temple Road school (& very down-market; but I went to Birkenhead School!!). Workhouse nearby? do you mean St. Catherine's, later to be a hospital? I sang in the choir at St. Catherine's church as a boy soprano in the late 1940's. I agree; old maps are fascinating. I suspect the workhouse pre-dates the school by many years.

I met a guy in the archives who said that the Rover's was started by a team from Cammell Laird's who first played in Birkenhead Park.

St Catherines used to be a Lunatic asylum also (what i read somewhere)

Birkenhad Asylum Information on the Workhouse (asylum)

Great post Chris, very interesting.

Yeh big thanks Chris
Interesting, I'm glad were all getting something out of it

from my research the original site was owned by nuns and they moved to the present site when they aquired the old cow shed from a farmer in the woodchurch area this then remained and was used untill the ground was revamped in the 90s and is still called the cowshed stand today

Pretty sure the ground was rebuilt circa 1910-1915. The original club was founded in the 1880's, but the Prenton Park we know wasnt built until 1915ish....

Interesting; the map I have showing the tram routes is dated 1926, but it may have been re-dated to show the tram routes in 1926; the original map could be older. As you can see on the attached extract from the map, it still shows the ground on the other site (Temple Rd. School). On the site of the present ground, just where Woodchurch Lane joins Prenton Rd. West, there's a building called (I think) Salem Cottage. Maybe that has some connection with the nuns. (You have to make allowances for the fact that the paper of the map has separated from the linen backing at the folds & that the marking of the tram route has obscured some lettering). Although I was born & brought up within 100 yards of the present ground, I was not keen on football; Where was the cowshed stand, was it on Prenton Rd. West?

Cheers, Chris

yes the cowshed was the stand that ran along the side of the prenton pk pub.if you looked at it from the other side of the ground you could clearly see the shape of an old cowshed.

extract from the history of the borough birkenhead:
"the club was formed in 1881 under the presidency of alderman .J.H.Mcgaul.at first the club only played friendly games.but on removal from south road to prenton park in 1887 gates where taken for the first time and the club aqured support of about 1000 .in 1888 they joined the liverpool and district league and progressed well until 1900,when there was a split resulting in the formation of a seperate club by the players(poss cammel lairds ?)rovers however carried on and where eventually admitted to the english league in 1921 they played in division three north."
hope this of intrest and use .the book which is a pretty good read is available from the libary when i return it :>

Thanks for those inputs, jonno. I've been doing a bit more research today & from the Rovers' website I get some dates which are slightly different from the ones in your book. According to the Rovers' site (& a couple of other sources), the club was formed in 1884 as Belmont FC, by two cricket clubs, Belmont & Lyndhurst Wanderers. The ground shown on the map was their second ground, on Ravenshaw's Field, later called Prenton Park. The move to the current Prenton Park was in 1912. I can now date the map to between 1880, when the housing of Devonshire Park, on the East side of Borough Rd. was built & 1912, when the ground was moved to its present location. My original dating of the map to 1926 was obviously wrong; that must have been when the tram routes were marked in. As an aside, Temple Rd. Council School was built on the site of the old ground. After the 1939-45 war, it became a Secondary Modern Boys' School & in 1971 became Devonshire Park Combined School, a mixed Infants & Middle school. In 1983 it became Devonshire Park Primary School, which as far as I know, it still is.

Cheers, Chris

well obviously the club know there own history lol .i think the more you read the more the dates become confusing .the book i took the extract from was actually written by wirral borough council (says it all) its called birkenhead 1877-1974. iknow of another relating to tranmere so im going to see if i can locate this but the dates will probaly different again.the references to belmont are still with the club to this day as they have a suite called the belmont.gonna dig deeper to see if the split did happen and if the other team indeed become cammel lairds .cheers jonno

Very interesting indeed..
If anything it just shows how backing up of dates is important
to getting to the bottom of things....

Fascinating to read as the facts begin to show.
Like the Birkenhead naming possibilities lol

I've got a book which is called "Tranmere Rovers Football Club."
It states the club was founded in 1885 by the cricket clubs of Belmont and Lyndurst.
There really is too much information in the book to write about as its fact after fact but if there is anything you would like to know just ask and I'll post what I have!

hi ,is there any mention of the original team splitting at any point cheers .jonno :>

I can't find a distinct split, although there is a gap of history during the second world war. Nothing is mentioned about the club from 1939-1948 and there is only one photograph in this period, which is of the borough road stand after it had acquired bomb damage.

according to this book the split was around 1900, but to be honest this book has got pretty much everything about rovers wrong

The breakaway club was Birkenhead FC not Lairds (although there's every possibility that some of them worked at the yard.)
Here's the record of Birkenhead FC Birkenhead FC record

I've got loads of stuff on Cammell Laird FC which I'll sling in on another thread..as a taster did you know that Lairds groundshared with Rovers for the first two years of their existance?

And the one for Tranmere Click Me

i loved the old "cowshed" that was great but miss the old kop open terrace an all standin much better then!

all i care is i still got my rovers an my son keepin it goin!!! trfc 4ever

Is the pitch on the map in the original post the Steeles Field on Borough Road which is mentioned on the club Website ?

No idea about the location of Steele's field, but I guess Ravenshaw's field was where the Prenton Park pub & Temple Rd. school are now.