Jonno39 - Keep me right lol There were 3 churches. 2 Graves Exist from the Titanic. The First plea of insanity victims is buried there. The Second Church was round. Its rated 3rd Best Gothic Cemetery. Why it was built there? (Bidston Avenue, straight grand road). Which used to have holly tress and others top to bottom. And loads more....
------------- The Main Church i was told today was divided into 2 because one side was for catholics and the other for prositants. And was used to hold funeral services in its day.
Flaybrick Memorial gardens as it is known now. Is a catalogue of history. The points mark has made are true and can easily be cross referenced .The insanity victim was a Chinese guy call Loch Ah Tam and he supposedly murdered his wife and three children in a fit of rage but pleaded insanity as he had no recollection of the events in question. He was tried and convicted and sentenced to hang at Walton gaol. Coincidentally the day of the funeral was the same day that he was hung some witnesses report a large gust of wind on an otherwise calm day as the family were lowered in to the grave . Loch Ah Tam is said to stalk the path near to the grave .the grave can be found on the old boundary wall to the infectious diseases hospital.
The cemetery its self was opened in may 1864 but the original plans where drawn up some years before ,the designer a Mr Edward Kemp chose that site as it provided a processional route so the populus could pay there last respects and if you look back out the gates you can see this today.there are many people who were significant to the rise of Birkenhead buried in there as well as military hero's ,Titanic victims and victims from the Thetis submarine disaster
There used to be three chapels t,the main church was divided into two Catholic and Protestant and there was a Methodist chapel as well.there are several unmarked paupers graves with up to seventy bodies in them also victims(mainly children)of the diphtheria out break are buried there as well. it is also the resting place of some of the Laird family (not john).To be honest I could write for hours because every grave tells a story
It all makes perfect sense expressed in dollars and cents ,pound shillings and pence
Apparently way back + 40 years. Bidston Avenue which is in the distance, used to have trees all the way down. There were holly bushes shaped into tall trees with rounded tops almost like a simple ice lolly.
There were trees that flowered and made it look so prestigious and that was a very posh road to live in. As Jonno said to us on our outing, that they used Bidston Avenue as they wanted a "Grand Entrance" so you can see that from the Gates there is a straight road almost into Birkenhead.
So the Modern Bidston Avenue we know today is nothing to what it was, when the council looked after and trimmed those trees and holly.
This is the same Edward Kemp who was Paxton's assistant in the construction of Birkenhead Park, & who became Park Superintendent. Interestingly, it had been Paxton who originally started to design Flaybrick. The extract attached is from "The People's Garden", a history of Birkenhead Park by Clifford E. Thornton, on sale at the Park Pavilion.
I noticed the other day, If you look straight up Bidston Avenue towards Flaybrick Cemetery, Bidston Windmill is in line with the Cemetery and Bidston Avenue albeit slightly to the left, however as is my understanding, where the foundations of the orignal Windmill are, this would place it directly in line.
Wonder if that had any influence on where it was built?
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