Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral Now and Then The Arno

The correct Now and then

I used to live in woodchurch lane and go to the arno often.

We used to climb up and walk around the top of the quarry wall, very dangerous looking back now but you tend to have no fear as a child!!.

We used to go to the same spot when it had been snowing and sledge down the hills!!.

Also behind where the Kwik save was there where fab hills to bike down i think these have also gone now

Fantastic fun, these pictures bring back lots of happy memories thanks

p.s is the sundial still there????

i live about ten mins walk from the arno and spent quite abit of my childhood up there wid me mates playin football and climbin the walls lol.

great pics guys

I remember that, don't know if it's still there though. Maybe someone could check. Oh, & I used to cycle up Woodchurch Lane & past the Arno on my way to school; pretty steep up by the Arno

Cheers, Chris.

A document dating from the reign of Edward III, dealing with an enquiry into the question of encroachments into the Forest of Wirral, treats with the occasion when Richard de Oxton was called to account for having in his possession a quarter of a rood of land in Oxton, near Arnehowe. At the period of this document, the use of the words erne, earn or arne, for eagle was quite common. Howe is well-known as a word for hill, so could it have been that the name for the Arno in medieval years was Eagle Hill?

Eagles on the wirral !!

Sounds like a reasonable explanation though.

interesting theory

Thanks, Colgo, that makes perfect sense; yet another example of how language changes over time.
Unless my memory if failing, a rood was a quarter of an acre, so the area in question was only 1/16th. of an acre, or about 253 square metres.

Cheers, Chris.

"p.s is the sundial still there???? "

Unless it's been fixed up in the last 10 years, it's still there but smashed to pieces and scattered accross the hillside.......

I was on a site today about the viking heritage in the wirral. You all know that the vikings first settled on the wirral?? Anyway the Arno is descended from old viking just like thingwall, bromboruogh,heswall, meols and more. Just Google Wirrals Vikings it is amazing how much there is on the subject.

Dave Miller

Is there Tunnels at the Arno Its hilly enough

No mate, your obsessed with tunnels !

He was a gerbil in a previous life - still looking for the toilet roll tube of destiny.

any body remember riding down the footpath at the top end of the arno which went down towards the playing feilds behind the shops on woodchurch road,there used to be a large tree root sticking out halfway down and if you were not carefull you would fly off your bike as it was quite steep and couldnt stop in time.

I vaguely remember behind the Kwiksave in Woodchurch Rd there used to be what we called the 'Quarries' where there seemed to be hills and hills of an orangey coloured clay.Any info on it
Also we used to make bows and arrows from Bamboo bought from a shop in Grange Road
How dangerous it must have been if you stuck a nail in as the arrowhead (sometimes you would put a nail on the railway lines
to get flattened by a train}
I remember there being a duck pond near there where we tried to hit water rats with the arrows until one of the lads turned up with an air pistol and everybody wanted to get one

And we survived! how, I can't imagine. Probably because the phrase "Health & Safety" had not yet been dreamed up.
BTW, although I don't know exactly where on Woodchurch Rd. Kwiksave is/was, I suspect your "quarries" were the brickworks, near the co-op dairy at the top of Swan Hill. (Oh, of course, that's not there any more either).