I was looking (unsuccesfully) for Bidston Aerodrome on OS maps when I spotted two airshafts. These were located between the junction of Compton Rd and Wildbrook Drive (was Mason Avenue) and the Bidston Link Road (or School lane as was)

Anyone any ideas what these were for?

CLICK ME

Present google image of the area

I know the scale is well out but if you try to compare both maps it looks like one of them could be lost in the building of Hoylake road, do you have a date for the map but the ones at the bottom of Lennox lane still look accessible..good find

I always forget to put the year - 1956. Hoylake road already exists but Bidston Link doesn't. To give you a better idea of scale, Bidston station is the building at the very top left hand corner of the picture.

I reckon the left hand airshaft is beside the roundabout or maybe underneath it, the right hand one is in open space.

Just realised that School lane is the station approach road not Bidston Link as I stated above.

It is also strange that this land has not been built on.

This any clue? I've tried to roughly overlap where they'd be. They look like they're more likely to be the tiny dots rather than the big thing so I've put those in orange to help (somewhat) with identification.

I feel a mission coming on people!
He who dares.....!

very interesting good find

Well to be fair your not a million miles away with that overlay Stuy nice one.

I'm just glad they're of the same orientation, Paint doesn't have rotational abilities!

That overlay is brilliant BigBad and yes the little dots are the shafts the circular thing was a pond.

Just off to sharpen my spade ....

Bad news, had a rummage around the site today, the left hand shaft (by roundabout) is probably under a 20ft earth embankment. The rest of the "field" looks very much like it has been covered with at least top soil in recent years judging from soil quality and age and types of plants. Possibly when they levelled Tesco car park. It is much more overgrown in places than I thought, the area by the roundabout is just about inaccessible, the area around the right hand shaft needs quite a bit of flattening, perhaps late Autumn I might go with a probing rod. I strongly suspect under the top soil will be a layer of waste (rubble etc) of some sorts.

It sprung to mind as to what happened to Conway Park Station debris when they dug that out?

I took a couple of photos but they don't show anything so haven't bothered putting them up.

I've put the spade away, back to map searching, it was a nice hour out in the open anyway.

nice investigating there fella

Interesting stuff there, know the area quite well and it does seem from a first glance that those vent points would be under years of filled in soil. Didn't know about those points though, though I know they did have decoy buildings by Bidston station where fires would be lit to divert bombers from bombing the nearby Bidston docks, remains of the buildings were there 1992-3 but I think it got so overgrown there and it's a bit of a hzard being marshland.

has anyone checked this out?

Air shafts for what?

Thats the Question!

Since this was on the edge of a marshy area, Bidston Moss, it's difficult to imagine the area being suitable for mining. Maybe they were sunk to allow the escape of methane from the marshy land below?

could well be!

I haven't given up on this as yet, my best bet at the moment is that they were remains of air-raid shelters but there is some mention of ammunition huts in that area.

Here is the same site in 1972ish.

good work mate!

i have looked for these but spotted nothing as such yet


tunnel me dudes

been today robbo nothing yet just brambles!

The 1972 aerial photo looks like some sort of sports track / oval - if you look just east, there is a sports ground with a 440 yard running track marked out with 8 lanes and looking about the same size - perhaps this one was a cycle track / dog track / training track ? Further east there is a football pitch, and some stadiums / pavilions ?

Here are the pictures I took last July, the shaft should be where the big bush touches the path.

I can see where to look now kid! nice one!

when you looking dude ? pm

This place you describe as a running track used to be Valley Rd playing fields.The Bidston tennis centre now stands on the exact spot.

Just a thought! That area must have a very high water table. Remember how easily Bidston Station used tot flood. If they were air holes perhaps they were from sewer pipes. Any tunnels would require almost continuous pumping.

I lived in Mason Avenue (now Wildbrook Drive)from 1948 until 1971 and I can assure you that Comptons field never had any airshafts on it while we played on it. There was a couple of ponds, the cowpond and the crater and what we called the 7 seas. This was an area that flooded often as the water ran down from the top of the field. Comptons field became a tip to supposedly become a sports track. The original dump was alongside the Bidston railyard. This became the playing area with the sports barn that is there now. If there had been an airshaft we would have found it.

As I have mentioned on another thread the RAF base field was on the other side of Lennox Lane and abutting the railway line at Bidston station.

The only reason Bidston station flooded was because the Birket used to overflow in very bad weather were you might get days of continuous rain. That was cured when the river was diverted to an undergriound culvert leading down to the Morpeth dock area by the lairage.

I think that those if us talking about tips are spot on!

If you have a look at this map on the Environment Agency website showing historical landfill - there's Compton Road Tip - I bet they were/are methane vents

http://maps.environment-agency.gov....8836.0208333332&y=390552.91666666645

Good thought, but I don't think they used Methane Vents in 1956, I'll try and date when it was used as landfill.

I suspect it was only a soft landfill site, not general waste. Perhaps just a dumping ground when they removed Bidston Steel Mill and cleared for Tesco's etc.

I used to know the lad who was involved in that site when we had a Birkenhead Corpy, I think there was an attempt to make an outline of a future sports area, but sailor boy Heath destroyed the idea with his Metropolitan messes, the guy I last saw in the 80s sadly I was in a hell or a rush so didn't have chance to chat to him, I presume he's moved on to pastures new to fill up with rubbish somewhere in the world.

Nope! there were no methane vents on either tip. We spent most of our childhood playing on both sites.

The first methane vent was on the proper Bidston Moss tip. And that was vented to provide gas to Cadburys.

The Compton Road tip was not just general waste. I well recall ripping open a bag full of chiken legs. The tipping of that waste on Compton road started in the middle to late 60s. The Valley road site was finshed as a tip by the early 50s.

Which if I remember correctly was eventually outlawed because European Law said tips had to be vented to atmosphere and they didn't allow for capture and being used as an energy source.

Then the ruling changed again ..... dah di dah ...

Didn't know it was Cadbury's that got the goodies though

I might also add that the Compton Road tip was never fenced off as the Bidston Moss tip was. Bin lorries just came dumped the stuff and went. A bulldozer levelled it all and they sprayed it with disenfectant. One summer during all this dumping the avenues suffered with a plague of grasshoppers. They were everywhere in the houses