Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral Now and Then 1947 "plan"

One of the many bits of trivia I have collected over the years is a book (maybe 300 pages) titled

"Outline Plan for the County Borough of Birkenhead"

My copy has hardly been touched over the years and a 38 x 30 " map in a rear flap pocket has probably never been opened.

The page size is an odd 9.5 x 12 inches so I had to dig out the A3 scanner to copy some of themto insert below

[That is if I can work out HOW to insert an image - I am very new to this site]

I have only attached two images for the moment in case I have done it wrong or the file size is too large etc. If I have then I am sure someone will tell me.





OK, let us see how we get on with those and whether there is any interest in more as scans of text or photos.

Because the book is a PLAN it contains a fair number of maps and photos of the "as it was/ as it is" state - and then even more of the artists impression type ie what some folk thought Birkenhead could look like with various redevelopment schemes.

Snod.

Yeh we would love to see more

If you need help uploading Click Me

If your still stuck please pm me
And we will help.

OK Folks here goes with 3 more scans from the book - all showing the "as is" scene around 1947

Snodvan

Right that has sorted one thing - the file sizes were too big to show the pictures diectly. It would be helpful to have a file size guideline please.

Anyway - I guess links take up less bandwidth on the server

Snod

Three more files. Most seem to be of the dock/ waterfront area

Snodvan


Ariel view of the Four Bridges route across to Wallasey


Woodside railway station viewed from the river


Areiel view of Woodside and the Grayson, Rollo & Clover Docks

Wow. Tremendous stuff; more please.

The really interesting question is whether this book is generally available through local archives? I really have NO idea when/ where I acquired it. I THINK it was when I was given a whole load of books (mostly novels) by a widow after her husband died. That would have been in the early/ mid 1960s. I have no idea what her husband's job had been but MAYBE it was something to do with the council. Whatever, the book is in near pristine condition and the maps and Borough history it contains are no doubt fascinating to the Birkenhead oriented members.

Because of the unusual page size and a need to set up an A3 scanner it will take a bit of time to do some more work for future posts.

Some of the fold out pages are even too big for the A3 scanner

Snodvan

Yes, this is excellent, I am loving every page of this so far!!

I note that Jono has provided a "key dates" list.

https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=207440#Post207440

Well, the following set of scans will provide him with some homework to update the list. They are scans of pages from the 1947 document in which they list the history of Birkenhead. Reference is made to "the maps". Those maps (some geological, other showing fields then roads then industry run from 1824 through to 1945. Scanning those will be a separate job - and we will have to see what the scan quality is like

For the moment - read on

Snodvan

And the four final pages of section 1

Happy reading for the Bank Holiday weekend

Snodvan

fantastic documents there and pictures.. Must be an excellent book

100kb for displaying images.
And 1mb Max upload size

I will try and re-size them for you so they show in the topics

---------------


Each picture there is a topic in its own rights
Amazing, and thank you so much for sharing.
History Preserved

Fantastic stuff ,cnat wait to read .Now know what i am going to do tomorrow

Jonno

I have just sent Mark a PM with a couple of images of the maps, asking for his advice ie are the images good enough to post. The issue is that the original images are only about 6x5 inches and even with a magnifier the detail is "miserable". Scanning gives a bigger picture but still no more detail.

Snodvan

do you have any editing soft ware ,ie photoshop.If you do try and play around with the images in there

I have seen extracts of this plan in a lot of wirral history books but its nice to see it all in one place.It also has a lot of relevance to topics that we already have running and will prove an excellent point of reference

Jonno

Mark has advised scanning maps at higher res to a max 1meg file and "he will sort it out". OK, I will do that over the next day or so.

I take your point that the book will probably be relevant to a number of threads. Being new to this site I really cannot judge what those threads may be - and since you do not know the total content of the book you cannot really advise me as to whioch bits to scan and post. There is far too much to scan the whole thing (and undoubtedly someone would anyway raise the copyright issue) so the best option is that "someone" who does know comes and views the book and highlights those parts of greatest interest.

Thoughts, volunteers etc

There is one section that interests me at the moment - "bugs me" would be a better expression. There is a reference in the book to Airport services for the future of Birkenhead. The book says that Hooton is too small BUT that a subcommittee should be set up to investigate the potential of developing a proper Wirral Airoport on the old military site at Saughall Massie. Now I KNOW that somewhere I have the report of that subcommittee. I have not seen it for years but can picture it very clearly - loaded with maps, sketches and artists impressions as well as facts and figures (probably speculative). I just can't FIND the **** thing at the moment - and that "bugs" me.

Snod

The following maps were originally printed to accompany introductory texts ( https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=218028#Post218028 ) in the 1947 book "Plan for Birkenhead". Unfortunatley the maps in the book are small and do not scan well even at high resolution. Folllowing are forum sized pictures together with links to larger images.

(and many thanks to Mark for helping a duffer with this post )

Now hopefully I can get back to looking whether there are other interesting bits in the book that will interest you all.

Snod


Geological Sand Stone Underlies Birkenhead Full Size Image Click Me


Historical Birkenhead Contour Plan Full Size Image Click Me


Birkenhead Farming Community 1824 Full Size Image Click Me


Birkenhead Historical Growth 1824-1945 Full Size Image Click Me


Birkenhead the Young Town 1858 Full Size Image Click Me


Historical Birkenhead 1877 Full Size Image Click Me


Birkenhead Historical 1927 Between the two wars Full Size Image Click Me


Birkenhead Historical 1945 On VJ Day Full Size Image Click Me

Snod/Mark; have you tried photographing the maps? It may give a better result than scanning.

Cheers, Chris

We done a hi res scan and it just got more cloudy.
A photograph may have worked but who knows?

Thanks for sharing snod

More pics from the "1947 Plan" book.

I will attach these is sets of about 3. Mark may wish to rearrange things another way. I am still a beginner in these things.

I have not tried to identify the actual locations. Some are obvious of course but since I am from Wallasey rather than Birkenhead I would only be guessing in the case of others. The book text is useless at identifying places ie there is no real link/ reference between text and pictures.

I am sure you folk will be able to identify/ comment as appropriate

Snod

Set 1

Set 2

Snod

Set 3

Snod

And finally - set 4

These two pictures are different because they are artists impressions of PROPOSED buildings - SUGGESTED really. Very imaginative when you consider the book was issued in 1947 and must have taken at least a year to produce/ print

THAT lot should keep you all happy for a while

Snod

More interesting stuff there; ive seen the last two images before, in "A Pictorial History Of Birkenhead" and thought exactly the same thing, it would have been great if they had have been built.

But then, as good as they look, what state they would be in today, if they would even still be standing, is another thing altogether. The 70's and 80's hit the local economy hard and it took most of the industry and buildings with it... it wasnt until the 90's that we saw a resurgence of building, developement, refurbishment and influx of new business.

Great stuff.

I was going to buy this book the other day, but needed the money for the car

Any chance you can PM me the images larger as I can match almost all of these up how they look today

What amazes me about Birkenhead the Young Town 1858 map is how deserted the town is.. No tunnel's no nothing.. It seems as soon as the tunnel was built BAM the town grew fantastic norm thanks for sharing

Wow Fantastic
Joe read this.


Woodside with a Tower Block.
If that had gone ahead i'm sure it wouldn't have lasted
up to today as in 2008.

Joe

No problem with bigger images. I will try to sort that out later this morning after I have seen Soundman, or this evening if I get sidetracked into other jobs by the Mrs.

Snod

Hi, all; the "irregular recent development" pic. is Grange Rd., about 50 yards down from Charing Cross, on the left. The first floor facade is classic Art Deco of the late 1920's/early 1930's - similar in many ways to the Queensway tunnel of the same period. Dewhursts was a butcher, not sure about Benefit, but something says "shoes" to me. Next to that is Timothy White's & Taylors, chemists. This national chain was once almost as large as Boots, which eventually took them over.

Cheers, Chris.

IS the A FINE WELL FRONTED PIC not market street ?? the windows above the shops are what makes me think this

I also think that this maybe Holycross in Woodchurch click me

Perhaps someone could nip along & take a pic. for comparison.

As far as the Church is concerned, I'd be surprised if the plan extended as far as Woodchurch. Snodvan??

Cheers, Chris.

Gutted... ive literally just been down that way, by the court's and Hamilton Square!!

LOL Matt; hope the court wasn't too hard on you.

Haha I had to go for a claims form lol.

This is all fascinating stuff. The book was produced as a result of the new 1947 Town and Country Planning Act which was the beginning of the current development planning and development control systems. These early documents tend to be much more informative than the sort of things produced nowadays. They were starting from scratch, so they described the area being planned for, with lots of interesting photographs and often gave a lot of history as well. Potential for various improvements was usually described, sometimes with many artists impressions. Several of the captions are expressed in terms of potential improvements. There would almost certainly be a copy of this book in the county archive covering the Wirral. I have seen copies turn up for other areas in second hand bookshops, they are evidently not particularly common though. You are lucky to have one for your area, thank-you for sharing it here.

Hi, Toby, I hadn't realised this was part of a national project. I have a pristine copy of this book, complete in its original slip case, which I acquired several years ago. I may try photographing sections of the large fold-out map.

They do pop up on ebay now and then. Some very good quality photographs included.

This is the plan,: it measures about 950mm X 750mm.
I'll attempt to post smaller sections which I hope will be readable.

Enlarged areas of the plan.
By using Ctrl + you can enlarge these to a point where they are almost as legible as the original.