Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Flour Mills - Birkenhead J Rank

Took this pic. today on Beaufort Rd. Seems to be all that remains of what was one of the biggest flour mills in the country. Sad.

is this over the road from the life jacket place (beuforts i think)

Tis indeed, i live just around the corner from this, my granma used to work in that place and my granddad worked in the place opposit

thought it was used to ride over to a mates in seacombe via that area from hoylake rd, cheers babe

There is a car place right by there at the moment if i remember correctly ? im not sure what it is though, scrap yard maybe ?

think that was there when i was there, i think there was one or two and if you went along the bottom road towards el depot de birky northo the north end houses was all boarded up and about to be pulled down

Yeah all them houses are gone now, along with Station road and the road before the Blood Tub, Illchester road is the next one to go apparently

my family originate from illy road, all wirral links of mine come from there

I've just asked my dad, that was called Ranks the Millers, made bread and all sorts, next to that was Spillers that made all sorts, cat food, dog food and over the other side, where they are building the new flats on the dock road in Wallasey, by the sumbarine, used to also be Ranks other building where they made treakle and things. He said is was my grandad that worked in there, before he worked on the docks, so him and my aunt used to go to work with him

And he mentioned the glass factory on corporation Road too

This is going back to the 1950's/60's

my Nan and aunts used to tell me all about it, ranks and spillers was massive, the spillers place in Newcastle still stands, empty i think and the Baltic flour mill is now a centre for contemporary arts (or shite as i call it)

Here's a pic. of the mills from the dock side. Did you know that J. Rank was the same as J. Arthur Rank, the film producer? He was one of the founders of Pinewood studios. His trademark on the opening of his films was a man in a loincloth striking a gong. Anyone remember that? I would, of course, because one of my first jobs in the 1950's was as a cinema projectionist.
p.s. Is the Blood tub now called the New Dock? Drove past that today.
Cheers, Chris.

it is chris, in the history section we ran a thread on it and illchester square all stemming from the dock cottages, you would not think i only joined a month ago with a google link relating to the tunnels/shelters under biddy hill lol

As I remember it, all the places along Beaufort Rd, had something to do with shipping. Yes, there was Beaufort's, the life jacket people, lots of ships' chandlers & a firm that made signal flares; went by the splendid name "The Schermuly Pistol Rocket Apparatus Company Ltd. Needed a long building to get that on.

Cheers, Chris.

yoiu say ' was beaufots' as in the past tense, is it no more???

Thanks for that; I found this site by exactly the same route.