All the old newspaper archives have an extortionate subscription to view and browse but there is a free welsh paper archive It helps with some very old history requests somewhat It has a lot of Wirral and Merseyside stories within these papers What I found was a numerous number of collisions on the River Mersey but that was just 1 search Here is one from 7th December 1878 It covers 1800 to 1910 Here is the link if interested http://newspapers.library.wales/ If you find anything interesting please post