on the front wall of Andy's Aquatics in New Ferry, if you look carefully, you can just make out the faded painted letters 'EWS' with an arrow directing you around the corner into Mayfield's North. It is preceded by a number - I think its 350 - in a smaller typeface.
I believe is directions to firemen to an Emergency Water Supply and dates back to WW2 when bombing was quite likely to disrupt the mains water supply. and the 350 was a measure of the distance. I'm not sure if its yards or feet, but 350 feet would take you to near the other end of Mayfields and 350 yards would take you to where the Baths used to be. (There was no bypass then of course)
Has anyone any memory of this?
From what I recall of New Ferry baths I think they were postwar, but if not they may well have been the EWS. Or perhaps the presence of the EWS triggered the idea of constructing baths there?
Any light that can be cast on this would be gratefully appreciated.
New Ferry baths were opened in 1932 and possibly could have been used for an EWS, also they had tanks placed in various places, similar to that in Borough Rd (image, round tank)
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
New Ferry Baths were opened in 1932. I am surprised they had a 350 yard marker for the EWS, I've never seen one over 100 yards before but what you say makes sense.
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
The picture of Borough Rd is the junction with Brattan Rd (or what remains of it), very impressed to see all the Air Raid shelters still standing, imagine waking up to that desolation in the morning.
It is unlikely those were air raid shelters for Brattan Road, I'm sure someone came up with an answer as to what they were.
The shelter doorways for Brattan Road are on the side facing the house risking entrapment. Even more intriguing is the ones on Mount Grove are facing the same direction despite the houses being on the other side which would imply they have been built after the ground was cleared. The spacing from Brattan Road to some of these would appear to be shorter than a house and a pavement wide.
Very few houses had their own brick air raid shelters, most shelters were built on the roads. Where they were built in peoples gardens/backs they were often shared roughly one per five houses as they were subsidised by the council..
Here is a photo before clearance.
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
They were not purpose built shelters but out buildings with a 4 or 6 inch concrete roof slab which made them far more effective than any Anderson shelter or a internal Morrison shelter. Like any shelter they couldn't take a direct hit but were perfect for blast protection.
That raid was the 12th March 1941, I'm not sure what hit Brattan Rd area but they were dropping Land mines on that night and they were designed to explode before they touched ground and for the shock wave to do the damage. Small low to the ground outbuildings offered good protection.
DD, before you got to Mount Grove there was Barnston St with Brimstage St across the top of it.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
So they were the outside loos and/or coal bunkers (and the expression "built like a brick s---house" comes into play).
The Barnston Street houses look minute, must have been one-up, one-downs. All of the Brimstage Street house are still extant plus the four remainers on the south side of Mount Grove.
Last edited by diggingdeeper; 7th Jun 20209:50am.
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
When I was a kid quite a few terraced houses had brick air raid shelters in the back yards, we used to play in them, as Bert said double brick and a concrete slab roof, I lived in Mornington Street off Oxton rd, our shelters were in the middle of the street, same construction, went to school one morning in the 40s came home at night and they'd all gone.
I think I've put these up before, pictures of our air-raid shelter that had been built between the wash-house and the outside loo. Needless to say I spent a fair few hours on the roof of it.
Originally it had its own door and the window leading into the wash-house had a big metal plate over it. The loo door had also been plated with metal.
The end door was of course the coal bunker that used to have large wooden planks you could insert depending how much coal was stored.
Last edited by diggingdeeper; 7th Jun 20206:56pm.
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
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