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Oxton
Oxton maps
Historic maps of Oxton and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Oxton maps
Oxton area books
Displaying 1 of 5 books about Oxton and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Oxton
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Oxton.
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School Place Birkenhead
Does anyone remember School Place, Birkenhead? It was in Watson Street. Also does anyone remember the prefabs at the top of Garnet Street opposite Oak and Eldon Gardens?
Our Local Church
This photo was taken from against the wall of our property at 3 Bidston Road, where I grew up (1945-65). You can just see the shadow of the sycamore tree that stood at the top of the garden. This is the Bidston Road / Gerald Road / Townfield Lane junstion. The church and the cottage (2 Bidston Road) still reamin, all that is left of No3 is the sandstone wall. Note the gas light - this is about as far as street lighting had reached - it was quite safe to walk around at night in those days !! We were regular attenders at St Saviour's
My Local
The pub had only recently been rebuilt, the original haveing been flattened by an aerial mine in 1941, which also damaged St Saviour's, parts of which were still awiting repair. Until the rebuild it was an bomb site and used to play there. The property behind the photographer was also hit and had been demolished. New properties were built in the 1950s (5, 7, 9 Bidston Road). Even in the early 1960s there was still extensive bomb damage visible in Birkenhead, serving to remind one of the terrible bombing the area had received during the Second World War. I suspect that is Colonel Perry's Bentley! He used to drive it 200 or 300 yards down Bidston Road to go to the pub!
Our Local Play Area
The Arno used to be our local play area. We used to take water and jam butties. We would be there most of the day.
Rosemount
I used to work in a greengrocer's shop on Rosemount in Oxton. The shop was owned by Mr Samuel Wharton. He had a sister (I can't remember her name) and her husband owned the butcher's shop which was also in Oxton, although I can't remember which road it was on. It may have been Christchurch. When I first started working there, I was very nervous of the customers because they all seemed so posh to me, a Tranmere girl, but they were all very friendly and made me feel very welcome. Although Mr Wharton was the owner, the shop was managed by a lady called Barbara May, who later became Mrs Adams when she married her fiancee Fred Adams. I worked there for about 3 years then went to work in another greengrocer's shop on Borough Road.
Our Home
We moved to live in Oxton Birch Close. Happy memories of this house. Both my daughters spent their teenage years here. I also had my son here to bringing him home from Arrowe Park Hospital.
Merseyside memories
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
