Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Hillbark Mystery

I don't thnk there are any remenants of the big house left, I've never seen any, but I don't think they've been built over either. The house was within the grounds of Bidston Court Gardens and at the top of Colgo's live map, on the highest terrace, partially covered with trees now.
Bidston Court Lodge is still there, and the new buildings are north of that and outside of the grounds, (between the lodge and the big 'Alderley' house)
I do remember the ruins of one of one of the old outbuildings remained till the early 80's. Flush onto Upton Road, I presume it was a coach house.
Of the big houses on Chris map, I know 'Kingsmead' was knocked down in the 80's to make way for the 'Lawns' new build, and 'Intabene' is still there, having been split up into flats, and it's grounds used for a number of new buildings.

Nothing remains of the main house other than the terraced gardens in front of it, but there are foundations and the remains of tiled floors from outbuildings, possibly stables from the layout of the floor.


The building on Upton Road you are referring to I assune is the one that was half way down Ford Hill (Where there is a gap in the sandstone wall filled by iron railings today). In my day, this was a pig farm, I used to see it from the top deck of the 96 bus every day on the way home from school. I also watched them demolish it, so it must have been demolished by 1970.


I didn't know they had demolished 'Kingsmead', but I'm not surprised, even by the late 60s most of the grounds had been sold for new housing.

I think you're both right; the terracing is clear on the Live bird's eye view & if you move around the points of the compass there are low walls to be seen. Maybe the semi-circular feature was the base of a summerhouse. Do you know if it's possible to gain (legal) entry to the site? I'm pretty certain you'd find remains of formal gardens above the terrace. Shambo; I think you're right about the outbuilding probably being a coach house. Is it the building on Upton Rd. opposite the lodge?
Here's a picture of the drawing room.

Thats the one.



Pig farm eh? My only recollection is of it being a ruin in the 70's, and disappearing totally in the 80's.
As a kid, I used to live on Windermere Rd, at the bottom of Upton Rd, and Bidston Court was part of my extended playground. I always used to wonder why the gardens were there... They're open to the public as far as I know... I haven't been back there for over 20 years.

Here's an interesting link. Next time I'm up, I'll try to visit & look around.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=4666396

Yea theyre still open to the public now.
When at St Anselms we used to run around there at dinner time cross country club and some games afternoons. We used to call it the Yellow Brick Road as all the paths are yellow bricked.

The original wrought iron gates from Bidston Court were donated to Calderstones Park, Liverpool.

http://www.allertonoak.com/merseySights/SouthLiverpoolCP.html

To remove my confusion again, I am summarising the posts above on the Bidston Court Site:

Referring to chriskay's map:



Bidston Court Gardens is the original location of the house moved to Hill Bark. There were originally two entrances to the site, the main entrance was by the Gate House which is now a private residence, the original gates from here were donated to Calderstones Park in Liverpool.

The present entrance is through the gates which led to the stables and coach house. (There was a third entrance by way of the building on Upton Road, but this was by a steep, narrow path.)



The path from the gate can be seen to the right of the arch (which leads to the house). When the house was removed, the stables remained until the second world war, when they were destroyed by a bomb.



The foundations and floors of much of this block still remain.





There are no signs that there was ever a building at the site of the main building, most of the site is now covered with trees



The semi-circular wall seen on the aerial view isn't seen on chriskay's map (I've marked its location on the map) nor on a later 1917 map that I have, so it could well have been added as part of the landscapping of the site after removal of the house.



The buiding on Upton Road was obviosly originally built as part of the estate, as there is a path from it to the house marked on the map, but I think it is unlikely to be a second coach house.

As the site is on the escarpment, the grounds are steep, and the formal gardens are in terraces



In the picture above, the house was behind the line of trees.

Some good pictures there. Somebodys been doing some urban exploring haven they !

Thanks, uptoncx. I'm too old to be climbing walls or gates, but if access is easy, I'll definitely be having a look next time I come up.

Cheers, Chris.

excellent uptoncx thanks for Sharing

Thanks everyone - I'd always imagined that Bidston court was actually on Biddy hill but I know the place well, used to run past it all the time with school cross-country and it was a legendary hideout for purple aki!

Funny you should mention that; so did I.

Great pictures uptoncx.

Just found this pic when i entered Thermopylae Pass into google. I think this site is wrong over the dates though??

Francis Frith