Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request Dissertation on New Brighton 1960s and 1970s

since the groyns were built , yes the sand has come back but at what cost to the natural environment, the sanstone rockpools along egremont and newB held a massive diversity of life. Used to find blennys, rockling, small sole and dabs in the bigger pools and that was just the fish !

The mussel beds that used to cover the mudflats are gone too, along with a huge ecosystem, again limiting what species will visit the shoreline to feed.

The mersey estuary has always been one of the most important sites in europe for migratory birds. WIth a decline in habitat this can only have a knock on effect


But i must say in its favour the mersey now smells so much nicer ! Those mussel beds didnt half pong

When I were a lad --- I used to use a "push net" from under the N.B. pier up towards "The Eggy" looking for shrimps, but found we caught more "brown trout" than shrimps! Hope it is better now.

the reason the ferry service was curtailed,was because the landing stage was aground at low tide because of the silting sand,also in the sixties few had motor cars and the public transport system was very good with ferries and trains,also the use of coaches from the midlands and potteries was very prevellent,with the large coach parks on the tower grounds and also next to new brighton bathing pool

Good to see that you are paying attention there, me old tractor driver!

All of you have raised some very interesting ideas, which I am very gratefull for.

The last resort photo's are good but i think it will be more of using information rather than pictures, the introduction of package holidays and WBC's neglegance perticularly interest me.
More Ideas that people think of the better, I will be spending my summer doing all the research and coz i grew up in New Brighton this subject has a personal meaning to me as the house i grew up in was on the back of the barrets estate which would of then been part of the fairground if it still existed.

I think it's important to allocate any blame to the right council. Wirral MBC only came into being in 1974 so it's nearly all down to Wallasey CBC, though Wirral MBC's subsequent prioritising of Birkenhead's development didn't help.

It could be argued that the problems started much earlier as a lot of the planned improvements of the 1930s/40s never got off the ground due to the onset of WW2. It's all Adolf Hitler's fault!

I seem to remember all sorts of grandiose schemes being floated during the 1960s/70s - wasn't there a guy called Anton(?) who was going to build a Disneyland?

Indeed!

Strongly recommend spending some time ploughing through the old newspapers.

Slightly off topic, but just been looking back at some of those 'Last Resort' photographs. Gad zooks!!! Think there's more than just a touch of irony in some of those pictures.

Wasn't there a similar book on The Chelsea called 'Looking for Love', or some such?

Most certainly the decline came about due to cheap package holidays.

I don't know about pollution in the seventies but in the fifties we used to "play" in the river with all manner of things floating by, so don't think you can blame that. I've seen mullet swimming around just off the marine lake these days so it is obviously a hell of a lot better.

With all due respect to everyone, I am a New Brighton lad born and bred. In my childhood it was packed and there were boarding houses all over the town. The fairgrounds were heaving and the coach parks full. It was a great place to live. I can remember my mothers words when it first started to decline and they were "This council does not want a seaside resort, they only want posh houses lining the river". Wasn't far wrong was she?

I bet many contributors to this site also worked on the fairgrounds, boats or catering in some capacity and it generated a lot of cash in the local economy even if a lot of it never passed by the tax man

I have to say that there has never been so much sand in my life time as there is now. I saw different parts of the beach go through no sand or lots of sand but never this much and that is down to the new groins. Good thing or bad thing I don't know?

Interesting comments about the wildlife. You never seem to see anyone digging for ragworm off Vale park these days so I assume they are not there any more? That would have some effect on sea and birdlife I assume?

Excuse my rambling, loved the place but you can't stop progress.

P.S. Blackpool is a dump!

Parkgater has it right about the pier and the ferries. Because of the cost of dredging, the Liverpool to New Brighton ferry service was eventually restricted to summer weekends only and then of course finally closed.
It might pay to try to contact some of the fairground people. There are still members of the Wilkie family around who run/ran the Palace in New Brighton. I also recall that there was a disagreement between the major fairground operator at the Tower(I think his name may have been Tommy Mann) and Wallasey Borough Council in the 1950's and he took his business across to Southport. There were many nails in the coffin for New Brighton as a resort! There's also a whole story in the property company which was formed with Brian Barnes (former head of Wirral Council Leisure services) as a partner which was going to re-vamp Victoria Road area in the 70s, but went bust and achieved little.
Good luck with the dissertation

There was a pretty devastating article on pollution in the New Scientist in 1981 titled "The Unspeakable Beaches of Britain". New Brighton gets a dishonourable mention in its own section which begins "a prime candidate for the title 'Britain's most polluted resort' must be New Brighton". Well worth reading (but not while eating).

http://books.google.com/books?id=4C...onepage&q=new%20brighton&f=false

I intend to go to the archives at hamilton square and go to earlston and see if they still do the newspaper reels.

Yes I will have to be very specific in the allocation of the councils.

I have heard rumours regarding the Disneylan project as it was all before my time, If only somebody had an idea of building a theme park down harrison park way it would be ace. be a great way to spend the weekends all beeing the ride fees where not as scandalous as the gyppo's used to charge at the Wirral Show.

Perhaps it may be the case that Wallasey CBC should be applauded for not investing huge sums of money in a facility that was quickly becoming a Dodo in this country, even the likes of Butlins was on a downward curve. Obviously any investment stopped because of the war would have had a more viable intent towards the holiday market at that time. Any investment around the 70s would have been throwing money down the drain.

The archives aren't at Hamilton Square any more; Cheshire Lines Building, Shore Rd.