Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Townfield pond

Does anyone know if it's still there ?

It was in the field directly behind Townfield school. I've noticed that there are now houses in the bottom of that field and it was quite a way down.

In Google Earth, zoom in on:
53 22' 32.75"N, 3 04' 01.43"W

Whatever this is looks about the right size but doesn't look like a pond to me.

looks like shadow off the trees, so could well still be there lol

I remember the pond too. It was favourite haunt of mine when we were kids in the late 60s and early 70s. I can remember ending up in it a few times. I think it was filled in years ago though.

As a child, I used to play all around that area. It was mostly cornfields and general grazing. Occasionally caught "tiddlers" in the ponds with a small net on a bamboo stick. An old chap (everyone was "old" then!) told me that some of the ponds in the fields were bomb craters just left and allowed to fill with water.

This is possible as quite a few houses in the Prenton area were hit during the war. No doubt Mr Hitler mis-delivered a few 250kg or 500kg presents (wrong postcodes ??) whilst flying over !

Looks from the Google Earth pic. as if that particular pond is filled in. Maybe someone local could have a sniff around ?

I walked past Townfield School on Boxing Day but the view is obscured by bloody big Leylandii. It looks like the school now owns all of the land at the back down to the houses and there's no public access. I seem to remember that all of the land was owned by Birkenhead School in the 70s but it was completely open.

I also remember another pond on what is now the "new" part of the Holmlands. The watchman used to chase kids off if he found them there.

You could be right about the bombs. A lad in my class; David Barker once brought one into school which he (or possibly his dad) had found near Bidston. It was a dud of course but he got a bit of a bollocking for it. I believe that Osmaston Road was the first in the area to be bombed by the Luftwaffe.

I remember when Townfield Lane was indeed a lane. You could walk down to roughly where the school is, then there was a lane at right angles. If you turned left, you ended up at the bottom of Holm Lane; if you turned right, you ended up where the junction of Budworth Rd./Noctorum Rd./Wethersfield Rd. now is, although back then, Wethersfield Rd. & all the houses around there didn't exist. The area was known as the Flat Lanes, if I remember correctly. Don't remember Birkenhead School owning land that far down, but we certainly had a Rugby pitch off Bidston Rd. at 53-22-57.53N 3-03-20.34W. I remember playing there.

Oh, & the pub near the top of Townfield Lane,(Caernarvon Arms?), next to St, Saviours was bombed during the war; 1941 I think.

Cheers, Chris.

Spot on Chris. Townfield Lane was just a sandy track. At the junction you mention was a wicket gate for path straight on across the fields. When you turned right, there were green benches along the lane. When sat there, you gazed across unspoilt fields towards the railway line and the Summers iron ore trains clanking their way up the gradient behind a belching Class 9 steam loco. Could be heard for miles ! No houses at all. The first dwellings were the "new" Woodchurch Estate beyond the railway.

Changed a bit since then. I guess it's called progress !

The Caernarvon Castle is still there. My mate Mike Walsh's dad was landlord until the early 80s.

You're right, Townfield was still just a rough lane in 1968. It had a stream running down it. I remember some some lads damming it.

The new houses (on the old Ranks ground) have a road called Flatt Lane.

The oak tree opposite the school is still there too.

I used to climb an oak tree in Storeton Woods & could see those trains slogging up Storeton Bank, on the Upton side of Storeton station. Don't know what the gradient was, but it was hard work. Had a mate who worked at Storeton station, selling tickets among his other duties; must have sold as many as 3 tickets a week at a guess. Later, he was a signalman & I used to go & see him at work in the box at Capenhurst. Sadly, a few years later, he hanged himself in a signal box between Spital & Port Sunlight.

Memories, memories.

There was a station at Storeton ? Where exactly ?

Google Earth reference please.

Don't remember Storeton Station in operation. Just the remains of it. We used to play hide & seek in the adjacent timber yard. From photos, it seemed to be a duplicate of Upton Station (Booking Office on overbridge etc.) Long before Upton was changed into a tarted-up bus stop with delusions of grandeur!

Tragic about your friend. Strangely enough, I've not long bought a DVD of a cab ride on the Mersey Electrics (508's) On the R'ferry-Chester line the driver is talking about the signalman that hanged himself on the wooden signal gantry at xxxx location. I guess that was your friend. How very,very sad.

philmch: Where the road crosses over the railway at:-

53 20 56 84 N
03 04 01 87 W

Mike.

Thanks Mike.

The new houses that surround the school were built on land sold by Birkenhead school. Fender field was left by an old boy but never actually used it was sold in the late 90s to pay for an assited places sheme http://www.birkenheadschool.co.uk/about/history.htm

I used to live in Noccy in the early 80s but am a bit too young to remember much - I do think I remember when the Wirral 100 and the shops opened though

Thanks for that info, AR_One