Anyone know what they dug out of them to make "the dips" - or was the road / sea wall built up to leave the dips in the middle

I think that it was that the sea wall and prom that were built up as a defence but I may be wrong - hopefully someone will come up with some great piccys of before and after

I've always understood that, when building the prom / sea wall, they made temporary earth embankments to keep the tide at bay. I suppose they kept it as a feature once the work was completed.

What they would of 'dug out' of the dips would of been sand because in those days (1890 - 1910) the area was beaches and sand dunes.

lovely dip!!

weren't they also used as mini air strips in ww2? i think i read ut in ine of the wallasey books!
barry

i thought they were so you could take your pooch for a walk

looks to me like they just get used by people to empty there dogs

Could be just for landscaping purposes. It does look nice on the eye.

we used to go there on days out in the summer usually a big family gathering.

With the picnic

yes they were great days one of the uncles had a small camping stove so the adults were always brewin up, us kids had the juice.

Yes. The Americans landed small planes on the field nearst to Wallasey Village. There were American troos billeted in the top rooms above the Melody Inn in Wallasey village. I have seen the grafiti in there.
Were they always called the Dips, as I had never heard that name until a few years ago?

I but all those years ago you took your rubbish home with you, unlike the ... who seem to be using them lately. The rubbish left behind is unbelievable.

Think they are actually rubbish dumps that have been grassed over. You have to try and imagine that was all beach at one time and then they built the sea wall. It would have taken a lot of stuff to fill it in.

I doubt that the dips were ever rubbish dumps as they weren't in living memory and they wouldn't have been when New Brighton was at its prime as a major holiday resort, which started long before the sea wall was built.

I guess they were created when the sea wall was built (or shortly after) as flood water collection areas and that the term "infilled" has been interpreted as infilled with rubbish.

Alternatively they may have just areas kept low to shield them from sea breezes and were just for public amenity.

I may get proved wrong.

No they were filled with rubbish. Trust me, my grandfather was on the building of it.

The chalets were much further along, between the Harrison Drive slipway and the Derby pool. Worth a thread in themselves! Destroyed in the winter storm of ?1978.

I remember the chalets up by harrison drive beach always wondered what happened to them.

They almost certainly were. This was a common method of land reclamation in those days - when Otterspool Prom was built on the other side of the river the area behind the sea wall was infilled by being used as a domestic rubbish tip for several years.

Perhaps the term "rubbish" is causing confusion? In the thirties there wasn't the packaging we have now and all that stuff that goes to landfill, and people didn't throw household stuff away as they do now. Most couldn't afford to throw much away at all

Mostly it would have been cinders, ash from fires, pottery and bottles perhaps? Wouldn't mind having a dig there but obviously that's against the law.

I went down there on Friday evening and it was full of rubbish - Cider bottles, cigarettes, chavs... and police cars were just driving past ignoring the masses of underaged drinking...

From the official souvenir brochure of the Opening of the New Brighton Promenade Extension, 20th May 1939:

Are they artists impressions? Clever if so as they have shadows etc. It's the two shelters in the top picture that has me baffled unless they were taken down or may removed in the war?

I remember them (iirc of course) and I was only born in '52, there were public toilets there I do believe... one shelter had the gents, the other, the ladies. I can't remember when they may have been taken away though - but then, all such public toilets were magnets for pervs so they probably 'went' along with all the others...
That 1st pic looks to me to have been taken about where the coastguard station is (if you were to look to your right you'd be across the way from the (West Wallasey) sailing club and the pitch & putt, I think?)
(edited to add that last paragraph)

There are still toilets but only one building and they are still notorious for pervs. If they are the ones in the photo, then only the far one is still standing. Ladies at one end, gents at the other.

The police installed cameras some years back to catch naughty men and they caught a lot. Personally I am not comfortable with cameras in public toilets (I'm shy) and think they could have done it better. We don't have many public toilets as it is and these people who go to them for sex are ruining it for those in genuine need. I just don't get why they do it anyway? Surprisingly or maybe not (?) a lot of those caught were married.

I was born 1950 btw and New Brighton born and bred.

i thnk the 2 buildings in pic 1 ( the public toilets) are still there but sealed up now. Looks like the pic is taken from the furthest end of the promenade

IN the bottom left of pic 3 there is some kind of box and you can see them in the other pics too...What are they ? some kind of traffic sign ? or bollard ?

Good stuff - thanks for sharing Marty

I think they're just illuminated 'Keep Left' signs; roundabouts were something of a novelty in those days so motorists were thought to require instructions about how to cope with them. (Come to think of it they still do, most modern roundabouts have direction signs of some sort on them.)

In the first picture the two buildings still exist. The nearest one to the photographer still looks much the same & the far one now houses the public toilets which are still in use.

Another Question !

Does anyone know as to what was the exact location of the Anti-Aircraft "Z" Rocket Battery on New Brighton prom during WW2.

I think these (more probably the first) may be (censored) pictures of it. The first picture does show a "dip" between the 1st and 2nd shelters in the middle front of the picture:

I am sure they were on the site known as the "Gun site" which is still known as the gun site. Off Bayswater road I think?

I can remember the old army toilets that were there. Think the council took them over and people going to the sand dunes used them. A lot more dunes in those days plus of course a bit further along was the bathing station thingy?

Not doubting you but are you sure it is New Brighton? That looks like flak in the sky and god knows what those things are on the ground. There are no shelters in the photo that I can see. There is a tent in the foreground.

I also note that the rockets appear to be vehicle mounted whereas in other photo's of the rockets at New Brighton I have seen they are mounted on the ground.

According to Ian Boumphrey's book 'Wirral on the Home Front', the Z Battery was located on a 9 acre site at the bottom of Sandcliffe Road.

Those other photos are beautiful, it looks so peaceful (if they're not artist's impressions). I like it down there, but it's just a mess.

If you go down Sandcliffe Road, (ex Jockey Lane) towards the beach, just before the railway bridge, on the right, on the golf course, you will notice some light wood fencing.
I believe that is were they were sited.

I think the first picture may be of the New Brighton site, looking towards the sea from the SW. The 2nd picture is unconnected. The rockets in the 1st picture look to be mounted on the usual slab of concrete, compared to AA guns they were cheap and easy to install. One of the rocket launchers in the 2nd pic looks to be on a vehicle.

What I meant by the shelters are the small semi-circular (usually corrugated iron) shelters to store AA shells (and I guess rockets as well).

I also think the black "flak" has been "photoshopped" or whatever onto the picture, it looks too low to me to be of any use for taking out aircraft at that heigth.

Some more pics from the Prom Extension brochure. They are actual photos of the newly-built prom, not artist's impressions - they just look a bit strange because I've had to scan them from photocopies!

I agree - it looked SO much better back then. These are brilliant pix, thanks for posting them!

Like everything else they could just not leave well alone could they - they just have to go and ruin it all. <sigh...!>

Just found some pics of the Dips c1966. A few more people around by then...and a few more cars!!

the photos look good.it looks better and more open without the houses, the railings,the clown.I just about remember it without the houses on the back field.

I think the stainless steel clown dates from a couple of years ago, when every town had to have a stainless steel statue of something more or less relevant to the area. There are quite a few about, Chester, Llangollen, Ellesmere Port, Hoylake, Southport to name some.

The tin man... sorry clown was built in about 2001 at the cost of £25,000

that clown should be outside the town hall imo

great pics tho

No, inside with the rest of them.

Wonder how long the street lights lasted for? Few big storms would have damaged them I would have thought?

Your right I have been over them with my metal detector and its mostly scrap pieces of lead and rubble under the grass.

The dips were tidied up considerably, I would guess around 1970's. Then wasn't one used to manufacture the concrete sand-traps which I guess was 1980s?

There is a big difference between rubbish as in rubble etc and rubbish as in household waste. I can't see how they could have used household waste without numerous problems with subsidence and smell. It was an exceedingly popular active resort at that time, they wouldn't risk its reputation.

You are making the assumption that 1930's rubbish is the same as now. See my post 413847. I don't see any subsidence on Bidston Moss which was also a major rubbish dump in my time. Not to be confused with the recently closed Bidston tip. Also at the back of Tarran Way in Moreton. They don't just drop it off in wagons willy nilly, it is all worked out so that water is not interferred with and problems won't occur in the future. Most even collect the methane these days for other purposes. That wouldn't be a problem at the dips as it wouldn't be produced apart from as a by product of too much beer drinking at the Wirral show (RIP).

Sorry Helles, I thought there was a reply somewhere but didn't find it. It is very difficult to imagine what 1930s household waste would be like but I would still imagine there would be quite a bit of peelings and other organic matter to rot and fester - just can't imagine them risking it at such a major resort.

I can remember pig bins (1950's) and can only assume any kitchen waste, and there wasn't much I understand, would have gone to feed pigs. Then of course there was compost for the richer larger households. Mostly would have been ash from household fires that was binned. Digressing slightly, can anyone remember the cinder tracks they had all over the place? New Brighton football club had them in various parts of the ground. Not much wasted in those days.

The Dips in New Brighton we used to call them the Greens and used to spend every sunday afternoon playing organized games of Football using coats as goalposts which caused a considerable number of arguements and I can remember Alan Whittle who played for Everton at the time joined in with our game dont think that would happen now do you.