Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Stones in Field near Bidston Village

OK - here's one to stretch wikiwirral historians' brains.
A few years back I was looking at an old map of Bidston from about 1870. On it I noticed some stones placed quite uniformly in three rows in a field west of Bidston Village. Just checked the old-maps website and they are on the 1899 map but have disappeared by 1912.

Does anyone have any idea what these stones were? Were they part of some megalithic arrangement? And if so this is massive!
Its either in Lower Nags Meadow or Rushy Meadow (tithe map 1842). The land is owned by Robert Vyner.

Have a look:

Fender Lane is now Bidston Village Rd which ends where the bypass takes over.
Would be grateful for any info on this.

Interesting. Looking at my 1899 map (Godfrey edition Cheshire sheet 7.14) there is no sign of the stones. However, this point is right at the edge of the Godfrey map. Also, just about where the stones are on your earlier map is shown as the the route of the North Wales & Liverpool railway

Snod

Hmm, on Old Maps they're still there on the 1899 map (to the south west of the junction of the railway line and Fender Lane) but they'd been reduced in size & number but gone by 1913. They're also in the 1876 and 1882 ones but extend further, a mystery indeedy!

Co-ordinates are 327800,390100
http://www.old-maps.co.uk/IndexMapPage2.aspx

I wonder if they are mentioned in the Wirral Hundred?

Someone must know what they were...could they have anything to do with the name Bidston?

Trying to find where the name originated from is prooving pretty difficult.

Is it a mile stone to some were

Rather a lot of information out there but nothing on these stones or the name.

have they got any think on them ?

The only thing I have on this (from the history of the wirral hundred) is that to the west were marhes, a plain with more than a thousand cattle ... but later he mentions the foreground of the moor is broken up with rock and sand, quarrying operations extended over a wild and irreguler space.

I don't know if the "quarrying operations" is a poetic description or stating that there were quarries there, nor is it clear which direction this was in.

Good find anyway MissGuided - this could be something big.

I would suspect that they are part of an old dwarf wall, most likely to keep live stock.

It seems peculiar that they run in three rows and they are spaced apart - the spacing widens with the years, so I assume people were taking the stones away.
If they had been megaliths they probably got dug out and used for building material - terrible shame.

There is/was an old farm called stone farm in Bidston, don't know where, this may have something to do with the stones because stone farm would have been stating the obvious if it was referring to the farm buildings - like saying Brick House which would take on a more meaningful meaning if it were near a brick works.

1842 Plot 236
Owner - Robert Vyner
Occupier - Executors of Eleanor Wharton
Ploy Name - Part of Lower Nags Pasture
Land Use - Pasture

Maps do not unfortunately give names of farms.

Here's a list of everything Robert Vyner owned:
http://maps.cheshire.gov.uk/tithema...ter=V&word=VYNER&random=854#Tab1

Thanks for the link to the tithe maps; that'll be good for several more wasted hours.

Cheers, Chris.

Yes but we're no nearer the mystery of the stones