Does anyone know if it's still there ?

It was in the field directly behind Townfield school. I've noticed that there are now houses in the bottom of that field and it was quite a way down.

In Google Earth, zoom in on:
53 22' 32.75"N, 3 04' 01.43"W

Whatever this is looks about the right size but doesn't look like a pond to me.

looks like shadow off the trees, so could well still be there lol

I remember the pond too. It was favourite haunt of mine when we were kids in the late 60s and early 70s. I can remember ending up in it a few times. I think it was filled in years ago though.

As a child, I used to play all around that area. It was mostly cornfields and general grazing. Occasionally caught "tiddlers" in the ponds with a small net on a bamboo stick. An old chap (everyone was "old" then!) told me that some of the ponds in the fields were bomb craters just left and allowed to fill with water.

This is possible as quite a few houses in the Prenton area were hit during the war. No doubt Mr Hitler mis-delivered a few 250kg or 500kg presents (wrong postcodes ??) whilst flying over !

Looks from the Google Earth pic. as if that particular pond is filled in. Maybe someone local could have a sniff around ?

I walked past Townfield School on Boxing Day but the view is obscured by bloody big Leylandii. It looks like the school now owns all of the land at the back down to the houses and there's no public access. I seem to remember that all of the land was owned by Birkenhead School in the 70s but it was completely open.

I also remember another pond on what is now the "new" part of the Holmlands. The watchman used to chase kids off if he found them there.

You could be right about the bombs. A lad in my class; David Barker once brought one into school which he (or possibly his dad) had found near Bidston. It was a dud of course but he got a bit of a bollocking for it. I believe that Osmaston Road was the first in the area to be bombed by the Luftwaffe.

I remember when Townfield Lane was indeed a lane. You could walk down to roughly where the school is, then there was a lane at right angles. If you turned left, you ended up at the bottom of Holm Lane; if you turned right, you ended up where the junction of Budworth Rd./Noctorum Rd./Wethersfield Rd. now is, although back then, Wethersfield Rd. & all the houses around there didn't exist. The area was known as the Flat Lanes, if I remember correctly. Don't remember Birkenhead School owning land that far down, but we certainly had a Rugby pitch off Bidston Rd. at 53-22-57.53N 3-03-20.34W. I remember playing there.

Oh, & the pub near the top of Townfield Lane,(Caernarvon Arms?), next to St, Saviours was bombed during the war; 1941 I think.

Cheers, Chris.

Spot on Chris. Townfield Lane was just a sandy track. At the junction you mention was a wicket gate for path straight on across the fields. When you turned right, there were green benches along the lane. When sat there, you gazed across unspoilt fields towards the railway line and the Summers iron ore trains clanking their way up the gradient behind a belching Class 9 steam loco. Could be heard for miles ! No houses at all. The first dwellings were the "new" Woodchurch Estate beyond the railway.

Changed a bit since then. I guess it's called progress !

The Caernarvon Castle is still there. My mate Mike Walsh's dad was landlord until the early 80s.

You're right, Townfield was still just a rough lane in 1968. It had a stream running down it. I remember some some lads damming it.

The new houses (on the old Ranks ground) have a road called Flatt Lane.

The oak tree opposite the school is still there too.

I used to climb an oak tree in Storeton Woods & could see those trains slogging up Storeton Bank, on the Upton side of Storeton station. Don't know what the gradient was, but it was hard work. Had a mate who worked at Storeton station, selling tickets among his other duties; must have sold as many as 3 tickets a week at a guess. Later, he was a signalman & I used to go & see him at work in the box at Capenhurst. Sadly, a few years later, he hanged himself in a signal box between Spital & Port Sunlight.

Memories, memories.

There was a station at Storeton ? Where exactly ?

Google Earth reference please.

Don't remember Storeton Station in operation. Just the remains of it. We used to play hide & seek in the adjacent timber yard. From photos, it seemed to be a duplicate of Upton Station (Booking Office on overbridge etc.) Long before Upton was changed into a tarted-up bus stop with delusions of grandeur!

Tragic about your friend. Strangely enough, I've not long bought a DVD of a cab ride on the Mersey Electrics (508's) On the R'ferry-Chester line the driver is talking about the signalman that hanged himself on the wooden signal gantry at xxxx location. I guess that was your friend. How very,very sad.

philmch: Where the road crosses over the railway at:-

53 20 56 84 N
03 04 01 87 W

Mike.

Thanks Mike.

The new houses that surround the school were built on land sold by Birkenhead school. Fender field was left by an old boy but never actually used it was sold in the late 90s to pay for an assited places sheme http://www.birkenheadschool.co.uk/about/history.htm

I used to live in Noccy in the early 80s but am a bit too young to remember much - I do think I remember when the Wirral 100 and the shops opened though

Thanks for that info, AR_One

I live on the holmlands and my house backs onto te school field. The land with the pond on has always belonged to the school. It is now surrounded with railings all the way around but yes the pond is still there.

That's great news DoctorFrick. A nice end to the year.

Could you possibly post a photo of the pond ?

Can i just mention the bomb craters found in MANY fields around the Wirral.
What happens was that Hitlers (well Goering was in charge of the Luftwaffe realy!) brave `lil airmen were sent over to bomb the bollox out of our dock! but when they came across our Ack Ack (anti aircraft!) fire they poo`d themselves and just jettisoned their payload ASAP to get rid of weight and gain height!
i know that many did get thru and caus havock in and around our docks and city centers, we are still seeing the aftermath today in our buildings, look at the `new` brickwork on the hydraulic / clock tower at the four bridges!
If you realy want to see more , get yourselves down to Fort Perch rock! Go into the air crash section, they have all the info on dates and locations of local bombings and damage, plus mock-ups of shelters and home life. Also got the Spitfire engine dug uo from Birkenhead park earlier this year and accociated artifacts! Realy interesting place the fort, bit run down but good wey to spend an afternoon. worth the £3.00 anyday.

excellent info hoseman

took a few pics of the area today

the caernarvon castle





the oak tree on townfield... must be a few hundred years old

If you goto townfield school check out the tree there, its bigger than that and much older !

I will try and get a picture of the pond for ya Phil, but dunno how good my camera zoom is.

There was a pond there ... If you head down the road to Sainsbury's/Aldi/Home Bargain, the road is called 'Duck Pond Lane'.
There was also an awesome BMW track there, which has probably been raized thanks to Health & Safety or something.

"This is possible as quite a few houses in the Prenton area were hit during the war."

Should of added in my post of a while back that my family used to live on Mountwood road and several of the windows didn't match - turned out that was from bomb damage. Another place that bomb damage certainly used to be seen was in St Savouirs where the windows on one side it don't match as they were blown out (saw that on a school trip 20 years ago so it may of been fixed by now!)

I know one of the houses on Northwood Road was damaged by a bomb

Nos. 52 & 54 Northwood Road got badly damaged in May 1941. Loads of info. on the raids on B'head in:-

"Birkenhead at War" by Ian Boumphrey.

A really interesting book. Well written and lots of excellent photographs. Still available. (£9.95p)

There was lots of bomb damage in Prenton especially around Woody Road. There was an AA site on the opposite side of Holm Lane where Shavington / Davenham is now.

Iv got 200+ photos i will be putting online later this year

There was a lot of bombing activity around Beech rd, Milton and Victoria in Tranmere as they had all those temporary houses on them can't remember what they were called(Chris or Pinz would know)I lived in Dingle Rd. My dad said it was because the jerry's couldn't find Lairds or the ack ack was too intense and just dropped their bombs wherever. Apparently there were a lot of men women and children killed in that area. Jeez I was lucky, Beech Rd entrance was just across the road from my house.

LOL, you mustn't place too much faith in the memories of two old fogies; we do what we can tho'.
The temporary houses were called prefabs, short for prefabricated. Can't remember the constructional details (Pinz?), I suspect a lot of asbestos cement sheeting was involved, but some of them lasted a long time, in fact I think there are still some, much improved, down Heath Rd., Bebington.
I'm really pleased that you're getting so much enjoyment from this site. Please continue to contribute your memories.
Quote/ My dad said it was because the jerry's couldn't find Lairds/end quote. Listen, aiming for Laird's & hitting Beech Rd. would be considered accurate in those days.

Cheers, Chris.

The Prefabs were factory built. I think about 4 separate sections were fitted out internally, transported to site, plonked on (concrete ?) foundations and bolted together. Electrics and plumbing joined up..... and here's the door key !

Cheap to make thanks to mass production. 3 main manufacturers. Arcon, AIROH and another ??? Most of the one on the Wirral were AIROH ones, having a rather nice curved metal canopy over the front door. A lot of the basic structure was made of aluminium !! Yes, you read that right. Aluminium was again available as the war had just ended. Some aircraft factories switched over to making prefabs instead of bombers.

Remember prefabs nr. Fairview Rd., Oxton. Think there's a school there now. Some prefabs were little "palaces" with immaculate, but small gardens.

Not on the Wirral, but some have actually been given listed building status !! Quite right too.

Thanks for that Chris and Pinz I knew you would come through.



Dave Miller

You're welcome, Dave.
Since you're abbreviating Mike Pinzgauer's name & since you're linking us, maybe I should adopt the pseudonym Needles.

Chris has been on the cooking sherry again !!!!!

No cooking sherry for me, Mike; I like a decent manzanilla!!

mindplayer? Why the name?

Moreton had loats of Prefab houses & bungalows after and during the war, it was also nick named Bungalow town

was that built down by the lighthouse ?

this is wot i think
i think so yes because i've seen some photos in a book of mine

Here is tithe map 1847 and modern day map:
1847 Tithe Map

I was reading a book once called Mindplay about electronic devices messin with your mind. So it came from there.

Dave Miller

Townfield School field has a bomb crater on it im sure. Its either the school field or the field directly behind it (has houses on it now though). One of the old teachers told me about it. They found shrapnel on there and also some bronze age artefacts aswell.

The pond had a large tree at the edge of it with one large branch that arched out over the middle of the pond....a wooden raft supported by a couple of oil drums was anchored there ...you wrapped your legs around the branch and shimmied along ....always in the back of your mind was the thought that "today may be the day that it breaks" .

Heavens, this one has certainly run. Oddly enough, I got to visit the pond again this summer when Townfield School had the open day for their 40th anniversary. I'm a former pupil.

I took a stroll down to the pond and it looks different and smaller. It seemed to be very shallow and choked with reeds. It does look clean though. The school has somehow annexed the land to the rear. This was all public access when I was a lad.

As a boy I remember walking down Townfield lane towards "the Flat Lanes at the top of the lane their was an old cast iron Gas lampost.. but not working...that particular afternoon I spotted a Goldcrest disappear into the top of the opening of the lamp ...out it popped and flew off I climbed up the lamp and peered inside .....to a wonderfully constructed nest and cupped inside thirteen of the tiniest eggs you could imagine ...each smaller than the fingernail on my smallest finger ....all of that has now been lost as urban sprawl eats away the open spaces around the Wirral .

The ponds along the Flat Lanes were always called the Seven Sisters ....although I never was able to find seven...four maybe ...even when you walked to the Birket and the Fender....but they were all magical places to explore as a child including the streams .

used to go to townfields infant school at the time we was putting fish in the pond and also we was doing a project searching for tadpole spawns it was in 1990-93 i think

Have posted this on another forum post but I want to get everyones opinion on this. I am sure this was a small stream or something which lead into the fender. However, it could also be a man made ditch when the shops where built. If anyone could share any light on what it looked like a while back or what it is then I would appreciate it.

Think I remember that, I was there in 1990-97

pm me think you know who i am

Lol same here

The tadpole subject whent in from year to year lol

Kids still do it now