Travelling over the flyover to Liverpool today and the road leading to the booths - sorry don't know name of approach rd. On the right I noticed a derelict double fronted wall with a door! Typical I didn't have my phone to take a quick picture - I was a passenger!
I'm curious what was there and why leave the front of a building!
All these years and I've never noticed it before! Has anyone noticed this before and any ideas?
Thanks

Remains of Grange Lane Station.
It is usually covered by an advertising hoarding.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/birkenhead_grange_lane/index.shtml

I remember it being owned by AABACUS in the fifties who made cranes but never realised it was an old station.

I strongly suspect that building was neither Grange Lane Station nor Town station, it would appear to be the offices for the railway engineering works behind it.

I suspect it wasn't either.
I reckon it is the Aabacas building. You can see the wall with the curve on it is clearly the same as the Aabacas building, by comparing this picture with the screen grab below.

Here is the screen grab of what I think is Grange Lane and Birkenhead Town stations.
Full image here: https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW045190

If any of these help, 1900, 1911, 1938, Directories

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=53.38952&lon=-3.01837&layers=168&b=1

That 1938 one has Aabacas on the corner.
The pic above is from 1963 so they must have moved.

Not on the corner, just first numbered in that stretch from Tunnel Rd.

An aerial view of the Abacas works, 1934

I didn't realise the sheds were divided between the railway works and Aabacus, I thought Aabacus just had the yard beside them. Not having a foundry chimney I didn't think of them having an enclosed works, plus there are trainlines going into the Aabacus sheds .... but it all makes sense now.

Directories are often incomplete, sometimes some streets only appear to have three addresses when physically there were a lot more premises.

I agree. Here is a photo from 'Railway Stations of Wirral' in the 'Yesterday's Wirral' series (Ian Boumphrey). The resemblance to Rock Ferry Station is obvious.
There's more on 'Disused Stations' website. One shows the slope from this building down to the platform.

I can vaguely remember a weather vane of an outline of Stephenson's Rocket on the Aabacas building, seen from the top deck of my 50 or 58 bus as it stopped outside Sturla's shop. Many years ago!

Birkenhead Town to left - original Grange Lane to right (later Abacus Works) - looks like the flyovers are being started in the foreground.

This one bri? Not 'Rocket' though - more likely a L+M 'Planet' or similar.

I'm not sure what to make of this ... https://alchetron.com/Birkenhead-Grange-Lane-railway-station

Turns out this is the 1850 Tithebarn Street Station but has been named as a number of other stations in error or intent.

So I wasn't dreaming, that's the one!
I was only guessing the type, so now it looks like a R. Stephenson 'Patentee', like this photo of a later version.

I suspect the original Grange Lane station to be the building with the damaged roof and advertising billboard on it, and not the Aabacas works.
Can anyone clarify this?

Seems like they are using it as a stock image.
https://alchetron.com/Birkenhead-Dock-railway-station

I can’t clarify with proof, but I can certainly muddy the waters further!

Personally, I believe the Abacus building to be the original Grange Lane terminus - the building with the holes in roof just looks, well, so mundane for a prestigious terminus station in the new up-and-coming town of Birkenhead. This railway was the wonder of the age, and making a statement was what the Victorians loved - I don’t think that single storey building would have impressed the investors or punters. The ‘Abacus’ building might have done, and looks to be in period for 1840.

Grange Lane station only operated as such from September 1840 to May 1844, (when it was closed as a passenger station and traffic re-routed to Monks Ferry), but it’s position would have been right at the end of a dead-straight approach – why would it kink slightly to the right to the lowly building at the end of the approach?
1845 map crop attached.

Looking at the Abacus building – imagine it without the saw-tooth roofed engineering works behind it, and then imagine it with a light and airy double span roof instead, all cast iron columns and girders. Now note that the ‘Abacus’ building conveniently has a double gabled roof, one for each train shed roof to butt up to (the hipped roof at the front of the building masks this feature from the road, but the aerial gives it away).

In this guise, you get the single track approaching a delicate looking train shed with the stone built ‘Abacus’ building right behind it. Much more like a typical terminus station of the period, probably with 2 platform faces in the centre, and loco-servicing spurs. Possibly a small goods yard where that single-storey building is too.
I've attached a crude photo edit to show what I mean.

I reckon the saw-tooth building was added once the station closed to passengers, and partly covered what had been the station precincts. It looks far more purposed for engineering than passengers.

All just my opinion - just need to find more proof!


BTW: Some more information on WirralWiki regarding the Grange Lane / Town area:

More on Wirral Railways from 1830...

…might be worth a read?

Birkenhead Town Map, 1858.

I can't make the map any clearer, to the right, at the end of the marked green proposed road is what was Grange Lane station, compare the outline to the previous map I posted earlier in the thread, a little bit more detailed to the map Billy posted above.

Thanks Bert - much appreicated.

This map is dated 1858 then? That's 14 years after Grange Lane closed - the building shown here is a lot longer than that on the 1845 map crop I posted. Therefore, I think the original station had already been developed by this time (Monks Ferry and the dock lines are also complete and operating by now), and this map shows the 'saw-roofed' engineering building. Can you make out what it says on the map over the top of the building?

Whatever, it still shows that the approach is dead-straight towards the 'Abacus' building, and doesn't deviate to the single storey buidling with the holes in it's roof.

Sorry Billy, the more I zoom the worse it goes, I think it's definitely the building Aabacas occupied many years later, probably sometime between 1911 and 1938. As you know it only closed to passengers in 1844 ish and not as a station, etc.

A much later map, after 1889 when Town station opened.

Yep, I'll concede that the Aabacus building is indeed Grange Lane Station. The 1847 docks map makes it pretty clear as that was surveyed before the LNWR and GWR railway sheds were built.

I too concede it was Grange lane Station.
It was the engine sheds that was throwing me off, as I thought they were all the original ones.
A snippet off Disused Stations, "The original C&BR station was then given over to goods use and the engine shed was extended over part of it in 1857"

Just above the arrow and the sidings on this 1876 map, can anyone shed any light on what that building was? That's what I thought was the original Grange Lane.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/birkenhead_grange_lane/index.shtml

That building changed shape and size a few times.

I can only presume it was a goods depot for mail etc, they would need one somewhere. The ramp that came down from Town Station appeared to make a point of passing that until it turned and headed down towards the platform.

On BFA it seems to be part of the engineering works yard.

But it was about twenty feet above the yard without any obvious means of getting to it without hopping over to the ramp between the ticket office and the platform.

My guess would be goods offices too - or a combination of offices and stables, turned over to yard offices once the engineering works was established. It seems to be two storeys on the yard side? Does this make things any clearer?

That’s something I overlooked, there are gateways either side of Aabacus, so the whole yard sloped. I thought some pictures showed the railway ramp was high and dry.