anyone know what pubs use to be on the ford or are still now?
me and the misses have a dispute about a pub called the buccaneer i say that there was she says no! anyone out there help us thanks!!!

Your right, she`s wrong! Bet that doesnt happen very often!!!
Buccaneer stil there at the top of the BEECHWOOD estate as it is known now, if they havnt burnt it to the ground!

thankyou! any photos would not go a miss?

SORRY!!!!
Im wrong! I was thinking or the Corsair!! OOOPS (rhymes with "clucking bell"!!)

...is the 1o'clock Gun still there....

the corsair, one o'clock gun, beechwood social club, the windmill, the seven styles.

there the pubs that are on the ford now

Old Berkonian joke...

Question "Where is the Buccaneer"?

Answer "On ya buccan-head"!

is the buccaneer no longer there then? or was it never there?
see some remberd the old joke!

One O`Clock Gun was still ther last time i staggered through its doors 2 yrs ago!

I think one pub got knocked down and replaced by houses when the estate got a 'facelift' late eighties or early nineties. AS a young lad I delivered papers, (from RSMcColl's) on the first few ave's for a while...rough as toast.

was the pub knocked down then?

You can't quote me on that...think so though, unless I imagined it.

Local geeky knowledge question - anyone know why the 7 Styles is called that?

PS I do so I will be marking your answers!

is it because its was on the site of style number 7?

anyone out there with any photos of ford towers of stories?

Seven Stiles has been boarded up in the last couple of days. Not sure if it's temporary or permanent - looks perm to me.

yes seen it not looking good? how many houses can you fit on there? whats open there now pub wise? would like to hear from anyone who lived in ford towers as i lived in the first one floor number 8 number 85,what a view at night it was so good could see as far as formby beach lighthouse!

I'm in one of the first lot of new houses so don't know the old area although very aware of it's history! Where were the flats?

behind the shops.the road at the side use to lead to them.is the big green area still at top end,this use to come from the back of the flats.

"is it because its was on the site of style number 7? "

Aye sort of,

If you go to Bidston Village and opposite St Oswolds church is a footpath towards the Beechwood between the houses. Before the Ford Estate and M53 were built this path went all the way accross to Noctorum (about where the pub is now) and there were 7 styles on the way - hence the path being called the 7 styles path and the pub remembers what was lost under the housing estate.

No wonder the Ford Estate was like Dodge City - 5 bl**dy pubs??
All I remember was being told to go nowhere near it lol.
I laughed loudly when they renamed it.

the beechwood how it rolls off the tounge?

Has anyone noticed that the new houses being built next to the 7 Styles have name plates on them claiming that they're in Oxton - Hmmm I think that's a little cheeky - Bidston, Noctorum or evan Upton at a push but Oxton is flipping miles away from there............

the bucc was re named and called the fender i think it burnt downe it was by the sports senter on sixth ave

how can thay be in oxton?we live just off hoylake road by st james and we are classes as prenton!!

I'd seen that! I'm less than 100 metres away (towards Oxton) and we're classed as Prenton.

thanks ducko,at least i know the buck was there!

its like living in rock ferry, near deptford

We live in the North End, and my missus calls it lower bidston!!!! SNOB.

have heard people saying thay live in lower bidston?
rentaclown100 very funny!

YOU been talking to my missus then matey??

must have mate! where is lower bidson anyway?

LOL that rings a bell. We lived in Ben Nevis Rd., which is on the Tranmere Hall Estate (1920's). Definitely Tranmere; Higher Tranmere if you like, but not Prenton, which is what my mother always reckoned.
Incidentally, the Rovers' ground; Prenton Park, is in Tranmere, which reaches as far as Woodchurch Rd./Storeton Rd. to the West.

I still get annoyed when places blatantly in Leasowe are called 'Moreton'. It's like there's still that negative stigma attached to us! Some of us are decent people, honest!

understand what you mean!

Lol but a lot of older people just call it Moreton as it is a relativley new area in Wirral. But yes, i dont think that Oyster Pub helped your cause !

yep!

I drove down through Beechwood / Ford today and The Corsair pub is now boarded up as well and Seven Stiles

been past it today very sad

I must live in the "posh" bit now as i live in what's known as "Bidston rise" or the avenues.
I feel so special
lol

your not far from me then!

this is the only pic I've got of the Buccaneer

Chris, everybody use to say they lived in Prenton once they where in a house on the borough road side of greenway road. Tranmere always had a stigma to it for some reason, and lower tranmere more so than higher tranmere.

you took a chance being there, its bandit country

It's not as bad as people make out
It's the gangs of kids who are the worst

There are good and bad wherever you live, like every estate before it, got a bad name, the Leasowe, Overchurch, Woodchurch and so on. Usually by people who had never been there. Its normally the few spoil it for the masses.

Flats on the Ford 1973

NICE PIX MATE!

Bertie - where abouts on Ford were they? My house was built on land that used to have flats on.

Where the Beechwood Social clubs side entrance is look at the
green fields opposite
There used to be 4 blocks called Ford Towers
I remember once going up the stairs between 10th and 12th floors
and feeling the building sway very funny feeling

Right by Fairoak close,Lived there 20 years ago.

lived in the first block 9th floor very good view!

I think the Ford was relatively tame compared to some housing estates around the country - we heard quite a few horror stories about Beaumont Leys and Braunstone in Leicester. They'd send people there from other parts of the country if they were troublemakers. So in effect, putting into practice what Frank Field said - put them all together. Although he would like them to live in containers under the M53. How about we send a few to live in Priory Mews with you, Frank?

Hostels on the ford estate, 1973, Sorry no idea of the addresses

lived there between 1972 -80
Was ok and because you grew up there and were part of the community you knew everyone (also the few bad lads)so never had any real issues with the estate , only as it hit the 80's it did become a sort of no go area for a bit as drugs and weapons moved in and i remember reading somewhere about shotguns going off around the "towers" and not long after that ther was a big investment and cleanup ,the towers came down a lot of the maisonetts were demolished new roads added and even some of the houses were removed .

I still recognize the tell tail signs of what used to be and my old house is still standing on what was fairleaf way

2nd pic was called Esher house on 5th ave

.

More pics Ford Est 1973, Described in book as very modern housing project.

Ford est 2

I'm off First Ave and there were flats knocked down here as well.
Great pics!

I used to live ontop of the shops when i was 6 years old above the sweet shop and used to pinch sweets and crisps from the kwiksave oh the shame

nice pix mate any of the towers getting knocked down?

Yes, I remember mother used to tell me that it wasn't safe to go to Tranmere (although my first school was Well Lane). We had relations who lived in Seymour St. & others on Olive Crescent, so the Tranmere connection was pretty strong.

I lived in Fairleaf way in the early 80's. Visited the Flats with my day when i was about 3yrs old can clearly remember it, live in Herondale Avenue (don't know if spelt right) in the late 80's and St Oswalds in the late 80's early 90's and i can rememeber how it use to look and how it is now weird. lol

I remember the Ford being built but i can't remember what areas families moved from. When i moved to the Woodchurch with my parents in 1957 from Watson St a lot of people from the same area got a house on the Woodchurch. Was it the North End ?

I think they moved people from any where there was major (slum) or housing that had been in bomb areas during the war. I remember them even moving people from Liverpool to new estates out near Ellsmere Port, I went with a girl from Liverpool and she told there was a mass exodus. I had a mate who moved there from Water Board House on Borough Rd opposite the Plaza Cinema, his dad was the "Inspector of Water" or some weird title, I think there was some sort of pumping device there, not real sure. Anyway there name was Litton and his brother was some sort of councillor. MMmmm her comes the nurse, must be time to get back in the cupboard.......

I guess that would be to pump water up to the reservoir on Greenway Rd., at the top of Tower Hill, which is shown on a map dated 1884.

That water tower was still there in the 1960s and possibly as late as the 1980s

Seåcombe got a stigma as well! Wallasey a 'nice' blanket name covering all parts -'good' and sh!te.

I moved to First Avenue in 1966 from the Woodchurch as did some others. There were quite a few from Birkenhead area ie Cathcart Street. Later they moved people from the North End into sixth to eighth avenue.

Good info Bossfan - thanks!

Are you still in First Ave??

I lived in Fairoak mews 71-84. That was right behind the Towers. We used to play in the lifts in the Towers and I don't know how many times we ran up and down them 12 floors. Oh my god! I even remember the key code to block 4, was 151!!!
The estate had a terrible name from people who never lived there. I wish I could give my kids the freedom my parents gave us when we lived there. We had the biggest playground a kid could ever want, the woods and then Bidston Hill.

Dave2479 I think I know you. Did you have a dog called Sandy?

bert1 the photo you posted, I can't remember what that close was called but a remember a very tragic fire in a house.

Vini

No. I left in 1980 when I got married. But my Mum stayed there until 2000, when she passed away.

Just wondered. Thanks

Pub called the 7 stiles because out there used to be fields which were known as the "7 stiles", also there were the Flat Lanes further out towards the Woodchurch. Up the top of Ford Hill used to be the Thermopylae Pass, so, from town us kids used to go through Birkenhead Park, up Bidston Road, through the Thermopylae Pass and on to the 7 Stiles and Flat Lanes. It used to be a day out and there were frongs, taddies and jacksharps in the cattle ponds out in them there fields. Loads of long grass with furry seed heads which used to tickle your legs as you ran across the fields. And......it was always summer.

Pillock, that should have read frogs not frongs.

Mmmmm that brings back memories; I used to do much the same, except I'd get the bus to the top end of the Thermopylae Pass. Yes. it was always summer!

Where did you get those pictures from? My dad has got a white book Wirral 1876 -1976 marking some occasion, summit to do with the boundaries changing?? those exact photos are in that book, doubt there are many of those books around now.

Birkenhead 1877-1974

That's the one

The Seven Styles has had another make over and reopend as The Fenderway last week.

I think the old Birkenhead News ran a competition to name the pub in '68/'69 . Was it to do with the number of stiles between the farm on the site and Bidston village ?

The pubs on the Ford Estate, say from 1977; starting from Upton Road. 1 Seven Stiles. 2 The Windmill. 3 The Buccaneer. 4 The One O'clock Gun. 5 The Corsair. As a young man my father took me fishing for sticklebacks [small fish] in that area which is now the Ford Estate [Beechwood]. It is my knowledge that there were seven stiles that you had to cross - hence the name of the first pub.

the buccaneer was in the middle of the estate near the sports center lived on the ford till i was 15 it was brilliant

the Buccaneer was more or less where the library stands now

The Bucanneer was by the junction of Fifth Ave and Fender Way. it has since disappeared and a block of shops and a community centre are there now

i used to rember the ford state used to have friends living in them flats bet its all changed now

was one of the first familys on there the styles pub was still a style bridle close

I used to have a friend called rose,who lived there and I went out with a lad who lived over the road called eddie? in the 70s

I guessed that the Buccaneer would have been where the library is, the random little car park which is outside nothing off the road off Fender kind of suggests it was in that location.

Looks like the pub count is zero now, just been past the Windmill, it is now secured by VPS after what looks like an arson attack.

Does anyone know why I can’t view these pics!?

Think it depends on if you have a suscription that allows you to view history pics

here is a pic of the 4 Ford Towers