Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request bombing in blitz

Hi there, i live on hoylake road birkenhead, while i was digging up my front garden today i unearthed a lot of artifacts that looked like they were from the blitz, bits of shrapnel, broken cups and glass and other items, i was just wondering if any new if hoylake road was bombed during the blitz as am very interested in this, i live facing the tunnels part of hoylake road as i know it is a long road, have been doing a bit of a time team with the kids while doing it so would like to definetly tell them it was from then, many thanks mandy x

I found shrapnel in the rods years ago opposite your house so it's possible. The closest bombing I can think of is the Hoblyn, Naylor, Collin Road area.

Incredibly, there are no records of Hoylake Road being hit. There was a gun above the tunnels.

I'm trying to remember the (old) name of the road behind you.

I can only remember Harding and Mason avenue. I can't remember the third one. I'm sure mason was the avenue next to the boating lake.

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Thanks for all the info so far and the map, i have got harding behind me and am situated in the middle of compton and hurral, am finding lots of broken china, melted glass, shrapnel and clay pipes also, have tried searching on the net but cant seem to find actuall roads that were hit, is nice to know history of where you live just so can explain to the kids what we are finding and why, much thanks for you help, do you where on the hill the gun tower was as would like to go over and have a nose, go over there a lot and also think it would brilliant if they opened up the tunnels to the public once they were made secure or what ever they need to do, i think it would draw a lot of interest like the tunnel tours you can do, i would be willing to offer to do refreshment haha, history should be opened up not left trapped away like it has been x

A floor is missing from the Bidston pub and noone seems to know why or when it happened

click on the number 200 in pub index - not the name clicky

A guess would be that the shrapnel could be from the AA shells.

They used a fuse to enable them to explode at altitude to aid in hitting the planes.

What goes up, must come down.

Shrapnel certainly did fall to the ground and probably done more damage when it did than it ever done in the air. Damage to the civilian population was expected to be low, they were expected to be in shelters or taking cover where they could during an air raid.
When finding things in the garden i would consider a few points, what stood there before those houses were built?
Keep in mind that building materials are buried into the ground on construction and materials are brought in from other areas for building up the ground.

There was an anti aircraft site just by Bidston station which is not a million miles away. The picture house where the Avenue pub now stands (stood?) was bombed and again not that far away. Park station of course was bombed so there must have been a fair amount of other damage in the area.

The 'semi-official' bombing map held at Wirral Archives shows what appear to be two sticks of bombs and a few stray ones falling across the area between Bidston Sidings and the Bidston Tunnels Shelter. Interestingly, one of the bomb 'hits' drawn on the map is between the houses in Harding Avenue and Hoylake Road roughly halfway between Compton Road and Hurrell Road! Will post photo tonight, when I can download it from my camera...

Bombing map, as promised. The blobs with a black outline are supposed to be those that resulted in fatalities.

Great find that mate

Thanks for the map Marty, it shows the inaccuracy of the Luftwaffe.

RAF weren't much better in the early days of the war Bert. Looks like they were after the railway from that map but could have been the docks?