Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Overflow Tunnel Borough Rd 1930s

Has anyone any info. about this? It was constructed in the 1930's to divert the stream & rainwater under the upper part of Borough Rd. because the lower part of Borough Rd, from about the library, used to flood. It started at the bottom of Everest Rd., by the Rovers ground & went under Everest Rd.& Victoria Park & into the river at a place which was called Gonnell's pool, which is about where Tranmere oil terminal is.

Very interesting
I haven't ?

I heard it used to get flooded, but I never knew there was an overflow tunnel

Pinzgauer & myself are interested (obsessed, some would say) in the Borough Rd. overflow tunnel, which was constructed in the 1930's to help with the drainage of Borough Rd., which was originally a stream. It ran from the Rovers' ground, under Everest Rd. & Victoria Park to the river at a place known as Gonnal's Pool. This does not appear on any map we have, but by lining up the route, which we know from manhole covers of a particular design, we think we know where it might be. Pinzgauer spotted the thread about the crane at Rock Ferry & when he looked at the Google Earth pic. in that thread, came up with the idea, with which I agree, that the location might be the rectangular basin just North of the start of the old Rock Ferry pier, at the bottom of Bedford Rd. East,& just North of 6 rusty looking tanks. The Lat. & Long. are: 53-22-28.94N, 3-00-09.09W. (there seems to be the shell of a small boat there). Because neither of us lives locally, we're hoping that someone can have a look & see if there's any evidence of an outflow there, & if there is, an idea of its size.
Grateful for any help.

Cheers, Chris.

Hmm if am right the drawrings i added on that picture below is where your talking about. If i pass by I'll try and get a picture of it or if anyone else goes by then i hope they would be greatful enough to help out.

this may help if indeed pomp is right about where u meant ping:

me and my mates used to hang about down there, rope swing in the wooded bit on the opposite side of the road from the boat yard bit... admiral along from that, then a little road to the works but i think it is all fenced off... used to be full of holes tho hence how we got in... theres an old building on the corner which we used to go in as well but it was really manky... then there's a load of this oil tank things... a big rectangle bath of oil which i believe u wouldnt want to fall in lol - it's not likely u would get caught tresspassing in there as nobody really goes down there anymore

Thanks, guys; yes, that's where I'm talking about & I would have expected the outfall to be in the wall that Pomp's single ended arrow points to, since the drain runs from the inland side, roughly parallel with Bedford Rd. East, but of course, when the Tranmere oil terminal was built, it might have been re-routed/extended if it originally came out on that site. Incidentally, the highest point along the line of the drain is on Everest Rd., about 10 Ft. East of the crossing with Ingleborough Rd.; 145 Ft. above sea level & the height at Borough Rd. is 128 Ft. That's a difference of 17 Ft., plus whatever the depth at Borough Rd. is. This means that it was tunnelled & not cut & cover. Davey; your 'load of shit' may be under water at high tide; anyway I'd expect the outfall to be above high water level, otherwise there would be a back flow.
Any further info. or pics. gratefully received.

Good work peeps

Right guys, all this stuff is at the bottom of my road. So when I get the time then I'll stroll down there and take some photographs for you all. I don't mind taking Photo's of anything really that you guy's are after down there. So if you want anything down the shore photographed then just let me know.
I will get down there this weekend and take some photographs and even see if I can do some research on the place.
Another thing thats just come to me is that I had a drain search completed when I bought my house. So I'll try and locate this drain search map and see if it is any use. Although I'm sure it only went down as far as the other side of that road.

I went to have a look here recently, but couldn't see anything. I'm sure the outfall is in this area. Has anyone got any contacts in the local canoe club? I think a little trip at high tide might reveal something.

Cheers, Chris.

Some of you may remember that months ago I asked if anyone knew anything about this: no-one did, so I researched it myself. Thanks to a very helpful lady at United Utilities, I eventually managed to see the plans on screen at the Council offices in Birkenhead, where they had access to the plans on United Utilities' computer. I wasn't able to get a copy, but I was able to make a lot of notes. With this information I was able to trace the route of the tunnel.
This tunnel was constructed in the 1930's to eliminate the flooding which used to happen in Borough Rd., the flooding sometimes reaching as far up as the library. Borough Rd. was originally a stream & was called the Happy Valley. My original reference to it came from the book "Sidelights on Tranmere" by J.E.Allison. This book is still available at the Wirral Museum & is a very useful book.
Attached are:
The e-mail with the dimensions & other information which I sent to Pinzgauer,
A plan of the route superimposed on Google maps,
Pictures of the manhole covers.
The pin marking 12A is because I missed it out on the original plans & added it later.
At one of the manholes in St. Paul's Rd. (can't remember which one) you can hear the flow of water. I think it must be falling over a weir.
There's no picture of No.16. It's in the middle of New Chester Rd. & has been so well worn there's no lettering left.
The one thing I've not been able to do is to find out where the new outfall is which has replaced the original at the Oil Terminal.
The last manholes, just before the oil terminal, are on private property; there's a car wash there.

The pics of the manhole covers is on the following page.
Hope some of you find this of interest.

Cheers, Chris.

Here's the original reference which sparked my interest, on page 13 of Mr.Allison's book.
Also, pics of the manhole covers so anyone who wants to follow the route can identify them.

I seem to have made the maps on page 1 a bit small to read. The route is:
From Borough Rd., follows the line of Everest Rd. to the top of Victoria Park, then goes through the park to Albany Rd, where it turns left to Well Lane, which it follows to Old Chester Rd., then follows the line of St.Paul's Rd. to the end.

Well done on collating all the info. Chris. When you get your teeth into a subject ......... !!

Glad you survived the various manhole cover shots. Standing in the middle of a busy road photographing a manhole cover does not lend itself to a long and happy life. A short and flat one maybe !

Don't recommend anyone "pops" any of the lids. If a No.64 bus doesn't get you, the sewer gas will. Failing that some of the shafts will be VERY deep. (Mind the first step - it's the big one !!)

What's the next project then ??

Well, fancy you remembering that the 64 bus went along Borough Rd.
Oh, and the pics of the manhole covers were taken on a Sunday.