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Birkenhead
Birkenhead maps
Historic maps of Birkenhead and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Birkenhead maps
Birkenhead area books
Displaying 1 of 5 books about Birkenhead and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Birkenhead
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memories of Birkenhead.
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Tunnel Road Memories
I lived in number 9 Tunnel Road which is still there today. It's the road running from the side of the flyover at the bottom of Chester Street to access the tunnel. Me and my brother and sisters played every day on the top (as we called it), this is where the gardens were situated right at the mouth of the tunnel. We would use white pavement chalk to draw a house on the ground and pick sods from the grass and sell them as cabbage to play shop. We would play whip and top and the lads would play kick the can (football only with an old can they had found) to amuse themselves, as they couldn't afford footballs in them days. We would play allio and we would play on the old coaches that used to get dumped on the bottom field at the bottom of Tunnel Road. The kids from Tunnel Road, Egerton Street and Getley Street would have stone (Jokker ) fights in November so we... Read more
1960's Tunnel Memories
I clearly remember these Land Rover "Tunnel Patrol" vehicles although I was only 7 in 1965. I thought that they were real Police vehicles (were they labelled "Tunnel Police" I wonder?) and I remember being puzzled by the cream colour as ordinary Police vehicles were either all white or sky-blue with white doors. My family used to visit my grandmother (who lived in Tranmere) virtually every week and my Dad used to play a game on the way home with me and my mother when it was dark. It was called "How Many Cars in the Tunnel Without Lights?". Each of us had to guess a number for how many cars would be seen in the tunnel without any lights on, and the closest to the actual total, won. You were supposed to leave your lights on (sidelights I recall) but many people turned their lights off as the interior of the tunnel was quite brightly lit. In those days the branch tunnels used to be "open" more often than... Read more
PTS Nurse Training
It was about this year -1960 - I did PTS nurse training at Arrowe park - does anyone remember me? Sister Happell was on A1, the children's ward at St Cath's - she was an amazing sister - strict but brill.
Cathcart Street
Yes we lived at 40a Cathcart Street, I can still remember the AINSLEYS, also the COOKS, the BURNS ect, great little street, all the best, ERIC APTER (the jockey 1).
The Good Old Days
Hi, as a kid me and our Mick would be look outs for workers from Camel Lairds playing pigeon toss for pennies. At the side of the building to the right of the tunnel we lived in the Abbey Buildings and the tunnel area was a play area for us kids, we would play in railway sidings to the right of the pic. We would play on the gardens at the front of the tunnel, it was so different in them days. We would watch bikers on Sunday coming through the tunnel and from Woodside heading for Wales, hundreds of cyclists all whistleing as they went past. No cars in them days as such. As kids we would go down to Woodside, pay to go on the ferry if we had the money to do it? and hide in the toilets, go back and to all day till we got found out and got kicked off, we would go and get our name stamped on the piece of aluminum on... Read more
Cathcart Street
Us Ainslie's remember 'the Apters', who was the 'jockey' in the family? Was it Eric Apter senior? Who was Michelle Apter, my bro was in !! love with her when we were kids.
Tunnel Vision
Went through the tunnel when I was about 8 or 9 with my Dad when he was driving trucks (sorry lorries)for Roebuck's in Heswall, we would be driving through with the window down, great fun with all the diferent sounds and smells, until he told me to close it.
The Co-Op in Conway Street, Corner of Cathcart Street.
My first job when I left school (St Hughes, Park Road South) at 15 was in this shop. I was there for 3 years, until I left for bigger money at Levers. The manager was Jack Francis, a decent man who once slapped me over the back of the head for accidentally dropping bottles of pop on the floor. I forgave him though. I used to deliver orders on Friday afternoons and sometimes would borrow the butcher boys bike next to the garage a few yards away. I nearly crashed it into the back of the number 10 bus in Claughton Road one day, when I applied the brakes. They didn't work and I must have worn the toes of my shoes out stopping it.
My first day in the shop was on 6th January 1962, scraping the Xmas posters off the window with a Stanley blade. My weekly wages were £3 12/-6d. My mother took the £3.00 off me for my keep. A pair of jeans... Read more
