Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral Now and Then Broadway, Wallasey Village

Wallasey has a fair few landmark buildings which includes Gorsehill Water Tower, SS Pete & Paul and of course St. Hilary's Church. The two scenes were taken nearly 100 years apart. The top picture is from 1913. The bottom picture was taken just recently.






For more information on the History of Wallasey Village as well as the History of Wallaseys Tram System then please visit my website. The link is in my signature.

An interesting older photo of Broadway in that it shows the newer stonework where the church grounds were extended. It also shows access as just a small doorway through that extension. The recent photo shows a much bigger entrance having been made (hacked!) through that newer stonework by the present occupants of the bungalow next door who seem to have acquired some ownership of the land that was extended by the church. Their planning permission indicates an intention to construct a garage on the site.

Originally the bungalow belonged to Tommy Roberts, the butcher from the top of Leasowe Road. There used to be a narrow pathway between the bungalow land and the extension wall. That pathway led up into the church grounds. The pathway between the bungalow and the wall has now gone but there are still the remains of the entrance from within the church grounds

In another, much older, photo of Broadway you can see that on the site of the church extension there used to be a row of buildings. My understanding is that at one time one of those buildings was used as the Grammar School ie perhaps in a period between being in Breck Road and then moving to Withens Lane. Between the buildings and the church wall is a large gate. Presumably that gate was replaced by the extension of the church wall seen in the original picture from Liberator.

Now the occupants of the bungalow have removed a large section of that wall extension you can see inside and there are obvious remains of the old buildings (which were demolished in 1913).

A later photo of Broadway clearly shows Tommy Robert's bungalow and that there is a "car sized" doorway into that church extension wall. I have enlarged the car to try to identify the car. Riley? Perhaps it belonged to Tommy?

Snod

The car look like a Morris. They had they thermometer mounted directly on the radiator cap - just visible. Someone more knowledgable than I may recognise the model. The horn in the middle of the headlamp supporting bar, next to the RAC badge is another Morris feature.

After youth club in St. Georges school in Leasowe Road, I used to walk a young lady home up that jigger & across the church yard, stopping for a snog on the way. I still see her to this day, but only to chat now!