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#547779 16th Jul 2011 7:13pm
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bert1 Offline OP
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An aerial photo of the Woodside area,what was the large chimney and what building was it attached to?

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ws1.jpg (1.38 MB, 461 downloads)
ws.JPG (168.72 KB, 455 downloads)

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bert1 #547785 16th Jul 2011 7:28pm
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Don't know when the Grasshopper was installed on that site?

What was going on in Hamilton Square?

Do you have a date?

Moonstar #547796 16th Jul 2011 7:49pm
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The date is 1923, as far as i know, nothing was going on in Hamilton Sq, other half of photo below.

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bert1 #547827 16th Jul 2011 8:29pm
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I'm sure the building is the Shore Road Pumping Station, which housed the giant steam pump called the Grasshopper. The chimney was the exhaust for the pump, which was used to keep the Mersey underground railway clear of water.

bert1 #547836 16th Jul 2011 8:45pm
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The chimney was 280ft tall.


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bert1 #547848 16th Jul 2011 9:22pm
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when was the chimney demolished, seem to remember it in the late 40s early 50s and thought it was still there.


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bert1 #547849 16th Jul 2011 9:23pm
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Yes indeed. Shore Road Pumping Station. Up until the late 1950's the former Mersey Railway generated it's own juice there. When they switched over to the National Grid, the steam plant was closed down. Grid supplies were then used for traction and lighting, also for pumping. The "Grasshoppers" were shut down. One was scrapped and one survives. Pumping is now done by "down the hole" Sulzer pumps with spider bearings concentric within the pumping main. Can't recall the output, but I remember being told when on a visit down the pumping shaft that if all pumps stopped, you have 4 hours before river water rises to conductor rail level under the river bed. It's then "Game Over" !!

The chimney was clad in scaffolding and demolished brick by brick in 1960/61 (?). No room for a Fred Dibnah job !!

Extract from "The Mersey Railway" by G.W.Parkin.... "and on Thurday 25th June 1959, Mr Robert Varley, the Company's last General Manager and Engineer formally closed the station down"

Sorry for the long-winded reply !


Last edited by Pinzgauer; 16th Jul 2011 9:33pm.
bert1 #547855 16th Jul 2011 9:29pm
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It was fully scaffolded in the late fifties and early sixties, and I remember seeing it in the early sixties.

Here is a 1961 picture ...



[Linked Image]


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#547856 16th Jul 2011 9:31pm
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bert1 Offline OP
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Thank you all, excellent info as usual.


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bert1 #547860 16th Jul 2011 9:40pm
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Moonstar: The Grasshoppers were installed in 1884. Built by Andrew Barclay & Sons, Kilmarnock.

#547871 16th Jul 2011 9:53pm
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Thanks for that Pin. I seem to remember some years ago seeing the engines working - are they still open to view?

bert1 #547881 16th Jul 2011 10:06pm
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Its been closed since the middle of last year, there are talks about mersey-travel taking it over.


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bert1 #548087 17th Jul 2011 12:11pm
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Brilliant one that. It's amazing how much I've forgotten over the years and these sort of things were the big landmarks of our area. I think each time I take in some new stuff it must shove some old stuff out of the file.


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bert1 #548122 17th Jul 2011 1:53pm
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That chimney was BIG by any standards! It frightened me every time I looked up at it and thought 'what if it blew down'! It would have obliterated Woodside!

bert1 #548224 17th Jul 2011 4:16pm
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A nice photo of Shore Road Pumping Station in the late 50s (probably 1959 to judge from the negative number on the back), and one of each of the 'Grasshopper' engines.

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Shore Road Pumping Station.jpg (391.32 KB, 236 downloads)
Grasshopper 1.jpg (524.58 KB, 236 downloads)
Grasshopper 2.jpg (463.13 KB, 236 downloads)
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