No.60 Mersey Road was my grandparents house from early 1900s and I'd like to know more about it and the road as it was then. It must have been in a good area as the design is very similar to Rock Park ones, although I think it was semi-detached. Note that the gate posts and the railings are the same design as some in Rock Park and it had the same river view. Perhaps it was intended to extend the Rock Park scheme across Bedford Road?
An uncle took the photos below and he died in 1922.
Any snippets of information would be greatly appreciated.
Brian Balshaw

Remember my auntie having a range like that above and cleaning it with Black lead polish, some how the food tasted better out of that oven, especially the scones.

Yes, it was always on and heated the whole house. The thing looked huge to me, but then I was only two or three y.o. when my parents left the in-laws and got their own house in L. Bebington.
Here's an excellent book from 1991 but what happened to the 'Rock Ferry Local History Group'? It must have had plenty of useful information which we would be interested in now.
Bri

Further to the above, I think the house was in Tranmere, not Rock Ferry, because the parish boundary seems to have been just north of Bedford Road. So, all of Mersey Road was in Tranmere. Can anyone confirm this,please?
Bri

i grew up in mersey road an it was rock ferry diana 45

Polishing our kitchen range was my Saturday job with the curved wooden brush with a handle & the "Zebo" grate polish!

All my copies of Gore's/Kelly's Directory list Mersey Road as Tranmere.

My Kelly's of 1894 has it as Rock Ferry, but Gore's of 1900 has Tranmere. Just to confuse matters further, the Kelly's has two entries for St.Paul's Rd., East side and West side. The West side is in Rock Ferry and the East side is in Tranmere (postal address Rock Ferry), so I guess in 1894 the boundary was St.Paul's Rd.
Incidentally, I would have thought that you would have described the sides of St.Paul's Rd. as North and South.

i lived in mersey road from 1945 to 1965 i only ever knew it as rock ferry i used to go past number 60 every day i can only remember it being let out as rooms from mid 60s diana 45

That's interesting. I don't know when the last of the family, originally 4 brothers and 2 sisters, left the house, but it was about 1960s or 70s. It was certainly big and could have been divided, being 3 storeys and a basement.
The county maps site has an aerial view from 1970 and shows it semi-detached but in an L shape. The front door must have been on Mersey Road but the longer side is on Bedford Place.
Any more memories of it?

Looking at my photo above, the front door is obviously on Bedford Place but the entrance gate is on Mersey Road!

The boundaries are a bit confusing but may have changed over the years, being between parliamentary boroughs, townships and parishes.
This map from 1875 shows Bedford Road dividing Tranmere from Rock Ferry!
I suppose anyone living on Mersey Road would consider it Rock Ferry as they would probably do their shopping in the Bedford Road and New Chester Road area and use 'Rock Ferry' Station and 'Rock Ferry' Pier.

Rock ferry was in a funny situation being split between Tranmere and Bebington, basically Rock Ferry was only an area and not designated as a village or town. This has caused me a lot of grief in recent research.

As this large-scale 1875 map shows, no. 60 was not really semi-detached, it was the end property of a small terrace of four houses. I'm not sure when they were built, but it was certainly before 1858, as they appear on maps of that date - though at that time Bedford Place was actually named Russell Place. They don't appear on the Tithe Map, so a good bet would be that they were built some time in the late 1840s to early 1850s.

That's the clearest plan I have seen and shows the back yard features as I remember them as a toddler, with outside loo and steps down to the basement door. It looked L-shaped on the poor quality plans because of the the roof apex being at right angles to the other three facing Mersey Road. I can prove the front path WAS curved, from my 1934 photo!
Thanks for that; another bit of family history.

Yes, I'm convinced the Mersey Road houses were built about he same time as Rock Park, 1837-50, as the designs of the houses and gate posts are so similar.

Is this where it was? Merseyroad on the corner of Bedford Place.

Yes, that's it.

All gone!

Well ain't progress great eh ?? (Tongue firmly in cheek.)

love the maps in photo you are standing with your back to front gate facing front door curve in path was ornamental on first photo you can see front doorand window on side the villas in mersey road were smaller versions of rock park villas