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Wirral History and Heritage Assoc

Does anyone know what this organsation is. From what I glean they undertake the work formerly done by Wirral BC i.e. the Wirral history fair and producing the Heritage openday booklet.

I believe the Chairman previously published a letter in a Wirral newspaper advocating and supporting the closure of Wirral`s libaries. I find this a strange thing for the chair of a heritage Assoc to undertake and surmise the WH&HA must be a Wirral BC financed agency pretending to represent Wirral`s heritage and history groups.

As the membeship is does not require payment surely they can add any group to the membership list and so claim to represent all Wirral heritage groups/socities.

The threee local groups I am a member have not heard from the WHHA but one is listed as a member although it does not recall applying.

Very strange.

Does anyone have a list of the WHHA memeber groups as my emails to the WHHA go unanswered.

My emails inviting support for the Opening of the Bidston and Tranmere Air Raid Shelters, as a public attraction, were also ignored or unanswered.

Didn't even know we had an Assoc. !!

Never heard of them!

If they are pig-ignorant enough not to even acknowledge Rude's email(s), then I'm sorry - they don't exist !

It costs nowt to reply - even if it's only to say "NO - please go away in short sharp jerky movements".

Wirral's history and rich heritage is far too important to be allowed to be sullied by this unheard of group of pretentious little twits of no importance !

WHHA... "If" you are out there, have the ability to read AND can understand the words manners and etiquette, your reply, along with associated excuses are eagerly awaited.

Rude..... Will send you a pm re: the above later.

I'd be interested to hear more from this group, they don't seem to advertise what they do particularly well.

I've sat on both sides of the fence with archaeology so to speak, I've been involved with countless academic excavations, but have also been paid (although the industry is on its knees at present) for a commercial archaeology firm and therefore know how councils operate when it comes to preserving sites.

Wirral doesn't have its own unit (it is sort of covered by Liverpool) so when something appears they have a few options...firstly, if land is being redeveloped by a private contractor, they can get them to pay for a professional archaeological unit to excavate and most importantly write up a report of the findings. If it's council development, they have the same option to pay for a professional team or they can hand it over to local "archaeologists" who are happy to run a third-rate dig on the land with no publications whatsoever in return for expenses, thereby saving the council a fortune.

Unfortunately for us, Wirral take the latter approach on this as far as I've seen. There's also a worrying amount of people running round Wirral claiming they are archaeologists, when in fact they are no more than treasure-hunters.

The reason I bring this up is that the WHHA seems firmly in bed with WBC and I wonder how much easier it is for the council to close historic buildings etc if they have a nice advisory group to back them up.

I could be totally wrong here, and if I am I will be the first to offer a humble apology. Just my two cents worth.

Wirral History and Heritage Assoc

If you "Google" this title, it comes up with several hits. None of them very new or informative. But it does tell a tale.

Hello deano606

Re:"The reason I bring this up is that the WHHA seems firmly in bed with WBC and I wonder how much easier it is for the council to close historic buildings etc if they have a nice advisory group to back them up."

I suspect there may be some truth in your comment as I know a few people invovled in protecting Wirral`s built heritage who are never consulted by WBC. It would seem if there are no listed building experts on WHHA then WBC is probally relying on this Assoc to qualify their demolition program

I'm not entirely sure if this is the raison d'etre for the group, but it would certainly help the council. Who are the group members?

The website is very thin to say the least. 'What we do' consists of the word 'mission' then... ...silence.

Apparently there's a 'Fair' at B'head Town Hall on 5th March.

That was good, last years event, i must say.

I've no doubt that this group is likely to be made up of well meaning local experts, it's not their intentions I doubt, it's just how the council use them!

Ever since the demise of the Civic Trust, the WHHA have taken it upon themselves to promote Wirral Heritage by continuing the annual Heritage Open Days, etc. Whilst this in itself is definitely worthwhile, it's only right for us to question the relationship between this organisation and Wirral Borough Council.

Local newspapers have reported before that the WHHA are actively involved in helping identify Wirral 'Buildings at Risk' but I doubt they have sufficient expertise or political clout to really be effective in saving any of these sites unless, of course, it happens to fit in with existing WBC plans for Tourism & Leisure.

When you consider that for years national organisations, like English Heritage, have repeatedly identified similar Wirral Buildings as at risk but without anything ever being done to secure these buildings, what hope is there for an organisation like WHHA being successful when so few people from the Wirral itself have ever even heard of them.

Another item of curiosity for me, is why their domain name was registered by a marketing company.

What a peculiar website - very unfinished - almost like it was set up just for the sake of it being set up. Maybe so they can quote the web address. Like a dummy website...