Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History 70% houses damaged

Liverpool Echo,

New facts now disclosed, 1944.

Up to 1944 £600,000 spent on repairs to moderately damaged houses and still a large number of houses beyond first aid repairs.

In 1939 Birkenhead had 37,727 houses, flats and shops, 2,079 demolished by enemy action and over 26,000 damaged.
25,000 have received first aid repairs. These do not include properties that have suffered broken windows.
It is estimated 1,000,000 square feet of glass has been used since November 1941.

Dad's house in Wallasey had a bomb land in his garden. He was away . Not sure when, probably the May blitz.
33, Penkett Road.

If he had his windows blown in, The Electricity Committee in 1941 decided if the windows were boarded up and artificial light was being used during the day the rate would be 1d per unit as opposed to the usual rate of 3-3/4d per unit.

I remember when shop windows were broken they were boarded up and a glass panel left in the middle so people could still look in. There was not enough glass to repair them properly.

Thanks Joney, handy to have first hand knowledge.

I was reading about a shop damaged by the bombing in Chester St, 1941. The shopkeeper had to vacate, children effectively broke in and one particular lad went back twice. They were caught and the parents had to pay compensation to the shop owner. The lad who went in twice got 6 strokes of the birch.

One of the many committees debated a proposal put forward that any house or dwelling demolished by bombing should be rebuilt on the same site and the occupier given preference to move back in and live in their own community.

There was opposition to this, an example given, if we rebuild a 3/4 bedroom house and it previously had a single occupancy and we have families that are homeless who would fill it, they should have priority. It was decided it would be looked at on a case by case basis.

Hi Bert 1. here is more first hand knowledge. When war was declared the first sign we had was some Royal welsh soldiers turning up on Cannon Hill in the park and pointing two twin Vickers machine guns at the sky .Planes would have to fly very low to be hit it was more of a moral booster perhaps. They soon moved on and where replaced by a Balloon crew which were mostly W.A.A.F.S. They managed to lose the balloon one day it took off into the sky and came down somewhere around Patten st. The cannons on Cannon hill were taken away for scrap to help the war effort along with all the park railings

In June 1940 the Emergency committee decided that all park railings would go during the upcoming Scrap Iron week and encouraged local residents who still had railings behind hedges to come forward and have them removed.

Prior to this the local natives were angry that it appeared their railings etc were removed and anything the corporation were responsible for were still intact.

Allotment holders were upset as they felt there would be a free for all, no protection from theft.