Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral Now and Then The dead house

The Old Boat house on Magazines by vale park was once used as a dead house. An early morgue. Got any pictures of it around 1865 onwards?
Also does anyone know if Demesne St Seacombe still exists, if not what is it called now?

Hi SaraB,

Just done a quick search for Demesne St, yes it still exists.I have a link here for you to see.It`s a continuation of Borough Rd east and leads to Toronto st.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=Demesne+St,wallasey&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image

Do you mean the old building which is situated on the corner of magazine and the prom.If it is the same building I remember reading somewhere that it used to be part of customs,I presume it was when the mersey was rife with piracy. I think it has a private residence today.

wasnt there an incident there not so long ago ,a sort of mercey killing ,husband and wife??.

also desmene street still exists but believe me its not a place you would want to visit

Jonno, do you have anymore details on that as I`ve not heard of that. Would be interesting to no more.

Just looking now aand the area,magazine brow and magazine lane where named for th reason gunpowder was originaly stored here.

There ia a pub called the magazines, if you walk past it, going towards vale park, on the corner opposite the pilot boat pub is a small cottage called the boathouse. It was one of the many deadhouses in the area. The first was in the 1850,s and was in an old cottage at the back of 'Black horse yard'. Before then Innkeepers were requested to make room for drowned men. In 1880 a proposal was put forward for a mortuary to be built at seacombe ferry.
Demesne was the site of the Seacombe cottaqe hospital.

My great grandparents lived at various addresses in Demesne street. It was once a very thriving community and had some excellent houses. I can remember some of the very old one's that must have been very posh in their time but it has gone right down the nick now.

It is pronounced as DEEMAIN. It is a strange name so I looked this up ages ago and this is what I found.

It refers to land that is owned free and clear of all strings - and there was a time when such was rare even though today it is almost entirely the usual arrangement. Once commonplace were leasehold (term for years) and Copyhold - an obligation to do annual services (typically harvesting) for the Manor as a condition of ownership.

I'm gonna pop up and have a look at it tomorrow. What do you know about Flynns piece on claremount road?

It's that piece of land on the corner of Grove road and Claremount.

yea, thats the one. I heard someone had pledged it to the people of wallasey but who and why I dont know. It has a no building covenant on it I think