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

Bidston Hall, Church Farm and Yew Tree Farm all date from the seventeenth century; across the road from the church is Stone farm, which was formerly the Ring o' Bells Inn with a swinging signboard depicting the ringers at work. Unfortunately, the last landlord, Simon Croft, was also one of the inn's best customers and did little to discourage drunken behaviour, which distressed the churchgoers and led to the inn being closed down in 1868. This left the village without any licensed house for more than a century. From Mike Kemble
http://www.mikekemble.com/mside/bidston.html

The place he refers to as Stone Farm is on the opposite corner to the church - just west of it. I am guessing this based on tithe map registering that property as a public house occupied by a James Radley

Yes it is on the other side of the road. Those stones would now be covered by modern housing from the looks of that map. How do you know for certain that they are stones ?

Frick

if you read the map carefully it says stones along each row. Could they have an agricultural use?!

From looking at the old maps i would say its the plot of "Rushy Meadows" pasture land, and i would stick to the theory of it being a wall to keep live stock. Its certainly too big for any kind of building.

There are no houses on the field - just the M53, the field boundaries are still intact with slight changes here and there.

There where also a lot of large pits dug in that area during the second world war.they were filled with oil and set on fire to dis-orientate the German bombers heading for the docks

oh great so maybe they all got dug up either to make houses or to confuse the jerry's lol

Yeah those 'starfish' decoys where just slightly south of Bidston station, brick remains still there but a hell of a lot more overgrown than in the early ninties when i was younger.
I'm hooked on that site link you provided Missguided, I didn't know how different the bidston area looked according to 1970's aerial view, there seems to be no roundabout or flyover leading into moreton..just scrolling along most of wirral now to see what was there in the 1970's. Get a error message though everytime i scroll along the map

Yeah I was happy to find Old Maps but because they are trying to sell them they made the resolution very poor.
Me and Miss C are off to Central library to research today so will hopefully have something when we get back. I briefly found something on the name last week when I popped in there:

Bidston - likely to come from Anglo-Saxon Bidda's Stone - a prayer stone which people assembled at to pray - apparently in this case to pray to Aethelred

Missguided-You know you found that the field was called 'Nag's Meadow'-well perhaps the field was for keeping horses tethered there?

Actually I made a mistake-Nags Pasture not meadow, even more likely for where horses would be kept to crop the grass?

Nag's Pasture is not the one with stones in - I am pretty certain that is Rushy Meadow. Central Library turned up nothing at all. Bidstone is another name I found and the bidda stone was to pray for Aethelmund - probably a Anglo-Saxon warrior or priest. Another theory talks of Beda - possibly Bede - he has links with the area.

I'm stumped, so next stop is Birkenhead History Society.

Good luck with the history society ,from past experience they are a pretty stuffy lot.

Do you think that the Bidda stone and Aethelmund could be connected to the sun goddess ?

No its not. The Sungodess is thought to be the oldest carvings on the hill. Its thought to have been etched by Phoenicians travellers thousands of years ago. 'Ray Bellisima' (spelt phenetically) is there name given to the River Mersey.

The name is taken from the name of the Phoenician Cat God. This female marking on Bidston hill faces the river Mersey and looks to have a cats head. Coincidence ???

Bloody vandals eh? I dunno... whats the ancient world coming to?