I did a search in the newspapers 1800 to 1850 for mention of Holt Hill or Green Lane, not conclusive by any means. No mention of Green Lane, Birkenhead, for any reason. A snippet advertising land plots for Marine Villas, Liverpool Mercury, 1812, may suggest Holt Hill went closer to the river.
Last edited by bert1; 6th Feb 201512:29pm.
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Thanks for the extra info. Billy's map of 1836 is interesting. It shows the original planned route terminating somewhere near Egerton dock. The parliamentary Bill of 1837 doesn't make any mention of that; it talks about the idea of extending the line to Woodside, but the operators of the Tranmere and Birkenhead ferries seem to have blocked that. Interestingly, I haven't seen in the Bill any mention of Monks' ferry, although that was later the terminus. The termini were: 1840, Grange Lane. 1844, Monks' ferry. 1878, Woodside. So, bert, it looks now as if Holt Hill came down to Old Chester Rd.
A couple of years ago, in another post about Old Chester Road, derekdwc suggested that Green Lane was once Holt Hill Road and attached a section of map to prove it. The map has the tunnel to Woodside and the dock extension on it, but no Mersey Railway or Green Lane station as yet. This would date it fairly accurately, assuming that the person who drew it had the rest of the information correct, i.e., road names.
That map shows the tunnel to Monks' Ferry, not Woodside, so the date must be between 1844, when Monks' Ferry was the terminus and 1878 when Woodside opened. At least it confirms that Green Lane was previously Holt Hill Rd. Anybody know when the dock extension was built?
You can narrow the date of the map down even further because of its bridge between Tranmere and Birkenhead ferries in dotted lines so its after 1851
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It appears that the dock branch is almost as old as the Chester to Birkenhead line.
From a 2010 report on the Morpeth Branch Dock. "In 1830 two separate proposals for a railway from Chester to connect with the Woodside to Liverpool ferry were made; however, due to lack of parliamentary approval and finances neither plan succeeded. Further plans were put forward in 1835 by the Woodside Ferry Co, and in 1838 work finally began on the Chester and Birkenhead Railway, with a single line being opened in 1840, which terminated at Grange Lane. The railway company then acquired most of the shares in the Woodside Ferry Co. and had already purchased the Monks Ferry Co, one of its main competitors in 1840. In 1842 the Birkenhead Improvement Commissioners took over the Woodside Ferry Co. and the railway was extended northwards from Grange Lane to the recently constructed Bridge End Dock (later known as Egerton Dock to the immediate west of Morpeth Dock). This line was then connected with the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway, and with Saltney, so that coal from the Wrexham area could be transported to Birkenhead".
