I've been researching all 14 Merseyside WW2 Bombing Decoy sites, and browsing through RAF Aerial Photographs from that era, with some fascinating results.

These two pictures turned up as "obliques" from 1941 of the Burton Marsh Bombing Decoy for Garston Docks. They are interesting because they show the sites of the two Neston and Denhall Collieries.

I have had to reduce the images to 1024 pixels wide as per NMR requirements.

This one is of the bottom end of Marshlands Road.



Reference:

1 - Colliery waste tip - these are much larger than what remains.
2 - Colliery buildings
3 - Colliery waste tip - now Riverside Walk. Note that the end is being "quarried" away, the material was taken away and used in the construction of RAF Wrexham, and other airfields along the A41 and Shropshire.
4 - Houses - these houses still remain, scattered around the West Vale and Marshlands Road area. They were intended as smallholdings, hence the separation.
5 - Bottom of Marshlands Road.
6 - Harp Inn
7 - Cottages - known as "Seven Row" (still exist)
8 - Miners houses - New Street
9 - Branch off Hooton / West Kirby Line to Colliery.
10 - Bridge abutments over Marshlands Road.

Bottom of the Greenfields Drive estate and Quayside



1 - Colliery
2 - New Street
3 - Quayside - 5 bungalows which still exist, although much modified. Disused mine shaft at the left hand end. !
4 - Sewerage Works - the plot still exists in it's entirety.
5 - Greenfields Drive area
6 - Marl Pond - still exists - and contains an old vintage van dumped in it years ago.
7 - Gutter - much larger than at present
8 - Bungalow still exists
9 - outlet into gutter from sewerage works

The whole area taken up by the farm has become Winstanley / Sunningdale. By 1941, both mine shafts in that area were filled in. One was near the dutch barn, and the other near the farm buildings.

nice one, we will be in the harp on the 19th of december again if your around.
I can see the second pic above.

Hi there, I have only recently found this website/forum on Wirral history and I'm interested in WW2 era findings. I lived in Ness during the war from about 1940 to the wars end when we moved back to Birkenhead mainly because of my dads work in Ellesmere Port. My mother was born in Ness.
As a kid I remember the decoy on the marsh below Ness also the AA gun battery close by.
I also remember a nightime plane crash on one of Young's farm fields which now has Marshlands houses built on the crash spot, I remember Ness being lit up like day at the time of the crash. We all visited the crash site after school and I distinctly remember the smell. Regards Doug

Hi doug,
Do you remember the bomb that was dropped in the garden across the road from Bull Hill in Little Neston.My Gran and Grandad lived at the top of Bull Hill and they said it blew all the windows and doors out

The plane that crashed was raided by the local kids when they got the chance, when i was younger my dad used to show me the bit's that had come his way, very sad to say now that i have no idea where the bits went. I seem to recall he had quite a bit of a perspex type material that had come from the planes windows !.

I remember another bomber which crash landed on the Marsh near the decoy. It didn't look all that badly damaged, bent propellers etc but all intact...until the kids got at it. My cousin went in with his knife and got a seat belt I remember other kids got what they could. It was a RAF bomber with two engines and twin fins on the tail maybe a Wellington??? not sure.

I vaguely remember the Bull Hill bomb. I went to Ness Holt school not far away but I don't recall visiting the bomb site.

We used to go to the little wooden chapel at the bottom of Bull Hill every Sunday evening, I used to love the Harvest Festival with all the goodies spread around the church.

The Wellington only had a single fin - more likely to have been a Handley Page Hampden, or maybe a Armstrong Whitworth Whitley (could even have been an Avro Manchester, but the two fin version was not too common). Hope this helps.