Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Bidston observatory

one of the unknown heroes of the d day landings was Dr at doodson who was based at at the observatory dr doodson was known as D to his colleagues including DR rh corkan his deputy at bidston who was transfrred to the admiralty in london and would have referred to him as D when DR doodson visited london as the worlds leading exspert on tidal information of tide tables for normandy on which eisenhower based his D day invasion plans was the D in D day associated with his nickname?????????????

Quite a lot of WW11 sea battles and landings used information supplied by the observatory it is one of the reasons the hill was so protected during the war..

There is a story about one of the staff that worked there who was very possessive of his daughter and he used to spy on her and one day he was trying to do just this from the top of the observatory and plummeted to his death. It is said that his daughter carved his name in to the rock but as of yet i have not come across anything.

Bidston Observatory was originally built in 1866, with its distinctive white domes each housing a telescope (these can now be seen in Liverpool Museum). The building has a long and fascinating history involving work of groundbreaking international importance, as well as of local significance - for many years the observatory was connected by telegraphic line to the "One o'clock Gun", situated at Morpeth Dock in Birkenhead, which fired every day at 1:00pm to indicate the exact time to the citizens of Liverpool and Wirral.
As well as astronomical observation, equipment was installed to measure seismic activity as early as 1897, when seismology was a relatively new science, followed by the arrival in the 1920's of the Liverpool Tidal Institute. The expertise of the the Institute grew to receive worldwide acclaim for its expertise in analysing and predicting tides.

Now known as the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, you can find out a great deal more about their work at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory website. In 2004/2005, POL moved to new purpose built premises on the main Liverpool University campus. At the moment, the observatory building is unused - we await news of any future developments with interest