Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Birkett Scheme.

In 1917 the government had plans to lay down another 3 million acres to corn. The Wirral Wartime Agricultural sub committee realised 2,000 acres had diminished productivity along the course of the River Birkett due to weeds, rush grass and silt. It fell in to this state because private landowners had never done anything about it. The committee applied to the government for German prisoners of war to do the clearing of the Birkett. The government obliged and about 140 prisoners were sent, the majority had been captured at Vimy Ridge. Initially they were going to be kept in huts at Moreton, the Army having looked around decided to billet them at Leasowe Castle.

Work started near to Bidston Station and the prisoners wore their own uniforms, on the front left trouser leg and the back right trouser leg red patches were sewn, overcoats were provided by the government and had a blue patch sewn on the back. They were guarded by 8 armed British soldiers. They were kept in order by their own NCO's. No trouble was reported and they cleared about 150 yards a day.

This was while the Birkett still flowed into the Great Culvert which was a combined river and sewage tunnel to divert sewage away from the docks, both the Fender and the Birkett were open sewers. The Birkett had been channelised around when the Great Culvert was built in 1846 although for some time there was still an outflow at Poulton, this underwent further changes when Bidston Dock was built around 1933.

By 1999 the Birkett was no longer a sewer (other than overflows) and was diverted back to its former route going into the West Float dock system with the assistance of a lift pump. The Great Culvert then became a sewage and surface water tunnel feeding the new treatment works at Morpeth Dock.

Thanks for that DD, I forgot about it being a sewer. It must have been very unpleasant labour, perhaps it was thought no more than they deserve. I wonder if they had some sort of a Jurassic JCB or in you go boys start digging.

Wild guess but despite there being no shortage of steam shovels and dragline cranes in industrial east Wirral I can't see prisoners-of war in the WW1 having access to them.

140 men is quite a large task force but as they did their own support services (cooking, washing, supervision etc) it may account for only one yard per man per day which doesn't sound much for what is essentially forced labour. Also they may have been disposing of waste some distance, I can't imagine they would risk much of it flowing into the Great Culvert.

In April 1918 Mr W Webb Shennan, Birkett Scheme engineer reported fourteen and a half miles of river, main drains and ditches had been cleared and deepened.
250 prisoners had carried out the work and owing to the recent heavy rainfall which has been a good test, the project has been successful.