I've sifted through the whole of the Info Request section here and it is quite amazing. I've remembered a lot from my childhood growing up in Birkenhead and have learnt a great deal also. So thank you! Now I have a question of my own...

I've tracked my family back in the 1881 census to a road called Grace Street. I'm presuming it was quite small as there are only 10 houses listed. There's no sign of it now or indeed the streets that came before and after it on the census. These were Frederick Street and Cumberland Place.

From later information I have it was likely to have been around the Duke Street / Price Street area as they had a few shops there.

Any help or maps would be great! Also I've yet to find a way to search the census details by street so I don't know when it disappeared. Could quite easily have been lost in the war I guess. Might have been renamed as well?!

Thanks again for the memories you've brought back so far

i have a 1911 ordanance survey map. you go up duke street,cross price street turn left onto old bidston road and its a tiny street first left.are you from that area. hope it helps a bit,

hope ths helps

Thank you both so much for your replies! Looks like that is now the Pumptec site (Google Streetview help).

cathcart - I lived in Noctorum until I was 18. My Mum and sister still live there so I make it back home a good few times each year. I got a train to Liverpool from Birkenhead Park station at Christmas so I was literally yards away without knowing it!

derekdwc - What year is that map and how do you get hold of it online?! I'd like to be able to narrow down when it was built / knocked down if there's a way of getting different aged maps.

I'm not sure bombing would have flattened pretty much everything north of Price Street in that map...

map not online
year 1954-5
not on a 1967-70 map

i got the details off the godfrey edition old ordnance survey map. you can get them from ian allen the bookshops. about £2. you want the orange one with birkenhead 1909 on it. their web site is www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk,hope this helps.

Could try:

EMapping Victorian Cheshire

There's something there c.1875 and c1910. The aerial view shows that its gone c.1970... (see the tabs on the right hand map)

That e-maping site is genius. Very user friendly.

I'm going to pursue war damage / slum clearance and see where I get to.

Thanks all again