Does anyone have information or pics regarding the area on which Heyes Drive, the Solar Campus, Links View Garage and the surrounding fields (all just off Leasowe Road) used to be? I've had a good scout around your site (seriously addictive I must admit) but haven't had any luck finding anything. If there's stuff on here that I've somehow managed to miss can someone please direct me towards it.
I believe it was a brickworks at some point, all the crap I've dug up in my garden is testament to this but I want to know more.
Thanks
I went to St. Georges school before the solar campus was built & Barker & Jones brickworks was right next door to our playground & the brick dust drifted across as the lorries moved about. Where Linksview is or right next door was an old clay pit, partly flooded & I remember one of the boys rescuing a sheep out of it.
There were lime pits behind the Black Horse in Wallasey Village, my Nan remembered a boy from her school falling in and dieing.
The Brickworks were run by Barker and Briscoe and production stopped there in 1970.
it was later than 1970 because my ex husband was working for Barker&Briscoe when we got married and that was 1975..
Quite Right! Barker and Briscoe continued production at their Moreton site until much later than Leasowe Road. The Leasowe Road site was demolished end of 1970 start of 1971. They were building the houses of Hayes Drive when I went to St Georges middle school in 1971, just after they had finished levelling the danger field off, they started that in 1969. They levelled it by putting about 4 feet of top soil over the entire field and chopping off the high spots. The danger field was the name given locally to the whole area around the brickworks because of the pits and workings. Much of the field has started to subside over the years, recently the council had to fill in some 3-4 foot depressions which had begun to cave in as the ground underneath began to subside. It's still up and down like a fiddler's elbow now!
Thanks for the information everyone. It would be good to see some pictures of the area when the brickworks were present and possibly pictures of Heyes Drive being built.
I had good walk around the field yesterday, not really with any hope of finding anything, I squelched through the sodden field nonetheless. There are plenty of patches scattered about the leasowe side of the field, whether they used to be buildings, filled in lime pits (?) or even boggy land I'm not sure. I've taken some pictures (hardly exciting I must admit) which I'll put on sometime and maybe an indication of where they are situated.
Between the Solar Campus and the side of Heyes drive is a short concrete/gravel path which runs for several yards before disappearing into the grass. I can only assume this led to the Isolation Hospital as shown on the OS c1910 map. Thanks for information 'Capt_America'; I didn't get a chance to head over to the Birket to check on the old posts but fully intend to sometime soon. I found some other info about the area on a website www.mikekemble.com/mside/wallasey1.html; as follows is a small excerpt from it.
Very little is known about early Wallasey dwellers. There have been a few finds of animal bones, an adze hammer, a bronze palstave and, in 1864, at Leasowe, of a complete skeleton displaying "characteristics and peculiarities of an original race, or savage tribe." (Sir Edward Cust). The adze hammer was found in 1936 in Brickworks on Leasowe Road, 4 - 5 feet down in blue silt on an old course of the River Birket.
Does anyone else know of this? I intend to dig deeper when I get the chance. The wife thinks I've gone barmy.
Wasn't the brick company called Barker and Jones before Barker and Briscoe ? I have some info on a firm from Leasowe Road called Wallasey Haulage which I think may have been from the same site as the brickworks. Cheers Chris.
The haulage company ran from a yard behind a cottage which was where the sheltered flats are now (Liddel Court) and ran down parallel to Cross Lane. The cottage had a date over the door something like 1812 if I remember correctly. The entry between these flats and the houses before Chorlton Grove also led to the yard. There were 2 more houses where the flyover is now with a market garden yard behind railings and a massive privet hedge just like on the other side of the road.
The yard and the garage sheds can be clearly seen in the middle. the access road between the house and where Liddle Court is now can clearly be seen. There was another old house on the corner which has already been demolished, Hope this helps?
You ,might like this one as well. It shows the brick works with the entrance to Hayes Drive where it is now, Links View garage one side and the school on the other. Enjoy!
Edit: at the bottom left of centre you can just see part of the "Oily", old clay pit workings yet to be filled in, part of the "Danger Field".
