My daughter who is mad on horses, has recently been to see the film War Horse. I was telling her that I remember someone once telling me about The Caernarvon Castle pub in Oxton and something to do with gathering of horses for the war. I can't for the life of me remember the details, but apparently the pub was set a bit further back at the time?

Does this ring a bell with anyone and am I just making it all up, or did I genuinely remember this conversation with someone once.

Around the corner from that pub is a Transport Squadron for the TA, and part of their grounds are stables, as at one point horses were part of their transport requirements, there may also be a link with that

It could be from a book Old Lang Zine?, by somebody who watched Birkenhead grow and died in the 1930s, Harry something ?, the horses were "called up" by the army along with his favorite horse he lived in that area but the horses were in fields at Bidston and a lot died in the cold, there was two original copies of the book at Hulme hall today at the Genealogy show £60each ouch.

These are the pages from Auld Lang Syne, Harry B Neilson's memories of Claughton, Birkenhead and Bidston, that I think you may have seen, davew3.

He tells of horses being requisitioned for the Great War, but I can't see any mention of the Caernarvon Castle.

Neilson, who lived in Bidston Village, published his book in 1935.

There was a programme on channel 4 tonight called War Horse - the true story of horses in the Great War. One of the things they said was that as well as recruiting men for the army, they also requisitioned horses, and mentioned the fact that they recruited an enormous number something like 140,000 in two weeks, so maybe the horses requisitioned locally were assembled at the TA depot near the pub. This was quite an interesting programme and I was surprised at the importance of horses in the first world war.

The pub was rebuilt after being hit during the second world war so it was situated slightly different

A funny family story relating to the Pub. Our family lived in Caernarfon before and during the war. However my Mother continued as a Womens league of Health and Beauty Teacher in Wallasey and West Kirby. She travelled each Monday on the Crosville and stayed until Thursday in Teehay Lane, Bebington.
One evening she was on the bus back to Teehay Lane when she overheard a conversation to the effect that "The Caernarfon Castle" had been bombed and destroyed.
Needless to say she caught the first bus back to Caernarfon to see if we were OK as our house, in Pool St, was with yards of the Castle.
She, and us, were more than puzzled by her arrival!
People might still remember her, she worked under her Maiden name of Mavis Budge, although her given neam was Ethel, and her married name was Knott.

Good info

Lived round there all my life and had no idear of the history of the TA or pub apart from the ov oious stuff

You & your daughter might find the following useful, Sallybear:

http://www.nam.ac.uk/microsites/war-horse/explore/requisition-transport-care/

There's tons of stuff on the real life war horses so you might want to click on some of the links and read through. Apparantly, thousands of horses were shipped over from places like Canada and America (often in appalling conditions). Don't think the site specifically mentions the Wirral area but you could try the 'search' option to check.

If you use the search function there are quite a few pictures of the ov before it was rebuilt and he bids ton road used to look

Martin1943, do you mean she went all the way back to Caernarfon in North Wales? No wonder you were all surprised! What a lovely story. One for the family album