Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Borough Rd.

Here's a plan from 1853 showing the planned route of what became Borough Rd. along the line of the Happy Valley. It follows pretty faithfully the present line. What I can't understand is why they decided to build a road along the line of a stream; it gave them problems later. See the thread "Borough Rd. overflow tunnel"

Typical Wirral council never, do things the easy way Chris

does anyone have any old photo's of borough road...?

My nan used to have a big antique/junk shop there, sadly gone in the road widening of the 80's, and it would seem that no-one in the family has any photo's.
it was Marriots at the corner of Tetbury street and Borough road and unsurprisingly some other shops on Oxton road, Marriots Motorcyles and Marriots bric a brac, were all relations ,
it was a big blue and grey building with stables at the back....
dont know if anyone but me will remember it now.

The name Marriot's certainly rings a bell. If I remember correctly, Birkenhead Brewery was on the corner of Oxton Rd. & Tetbury St.

I am really struggling to remember what was at the top of the road, but I do recall a big building, ( think the brewery closed in 1960), so this would be a fair bit before I was even thought of, but the building may well have still been there... Have seen a good few of the Iconic Birkenhead brewery signage around.. more distinctly I remember a old school butchers shop a few doors down from what would have been the brewery, headed in the direction of Charing cross, mainly becuase it was the first time I ever saw rabbits in a butchers shop window, and my nan explained that they left them to "hang" for a few days to improve the flavour.. I need to head back that way soon and check out what I remember versus what is actually left now.

That's definitely where the brewery was. There's a new building there now, but on the opposite side of Oxton Rd. there's still the ornate frontage which used to be the offices of the brewery. The butcher's was probably Hoyle's, on the corner of Windsor St., which was where my gran lived. Mr. Hoyle must have been a Catholic because I remember seeing nuns going in there & Mr. Hoyle putting meat in their big bag. I never saw any money change hands.
If you haven't been there for a while, you probably won't recognise the area, although Bernard's the ironmonger/tool merchant is still where it was when I was a child in the 1940's.
Here's a fine example of a Birkenhead Brewery sign.

the ornate frontage? is that the one shown in the fourth pic on the thread shops gone by.....?
that would be what was and possibly still is Marriots motorcyles ( another relative),
also two doors up the hill from colonnade insurance in those pics, painted in a very distressing green was Marriots household goods/ bric a brac shop.. may still be...
its a bit slack not knowing as I only live a few miles away now, but its just somewhere I never go.

on a different tack, does anyone know when exactly they did the widening of borough road, as I am guessing it was the 80's but am not sure now. but I remember the fuss as all the terraced houses and shops on one side were compulsory purchased for peanuts, forcing loads of folk who had been there most of their lives to move on.

Yes, that's the ornate frontage; I can't make out the name, but the Triumph sign is there. The brewery was behind the blue fencing opposite.

I think the plans for the Tunnel Approach Scheme were drawn up in 1964. I remember them demolishing the houses in Borough Road. Their coal was delivered via a manhole cover in the pavement outside and straight into the cellar!
The demolition/construction work finished around 1970. Councils are very good at ripping the heart out of communities.

My favourite Barber's shop Eaglesome's got the chop during the widening. It was almost on the corner of Borough Rd and Balls Rd. The owner had a metal caliper on one leg. He lost part of his leg when he was run over by a tram on Borough Rd. Sorry, going off topic AGAIN !

NURSE! NURSE! bring the sedatives.

The dates for the Tunnel Approach schemes were:-
Actual start of work 16th March 1967
Official opening 15th July 1969

Old Borough Road pictures are quite scarce compared to many other parts of Birkenhead.

Hey Pinz was that the one next to the Fish and Chip shop on the Larch Rd side. if it was he was a grumpy old bugger, no kids on a Saturday(that was for working men only)he used to pull my head around so now I can spin it right around. Uh Oh sorry, back to work.

My memory lets me down regarding where Larch Rd is/was. If you were going down Borough Rd (heading for the tunnel), Eaglesome's was on the left immediately before the Balls Rd traffic lights. Had an ancient polished copper boiler he used to put towels on to heat up. Always recall the sign on the wall by the mirror - "A fresh towel for every customer". I must admit, it could be the guy you describe. He wasn't given to smiling too much !

There was another barbers almost opposite called Frost's. He was the father of a classmate. Only went there once.

I bought an ex-WW2 No.19 set (military radio) from Eaglesome. He was into "ham" radio. Still listen to this huge beast in the shed today !

Larch Rd. is on the opposite side, next to Willmer Rd., so looks as if Mindplayer's barber was Frost, not Eaglesome. So, 2 grumpy barbers opposite one another.

Cheers, Chris.

Thanks Chris. You can visualise "Hairdresser Wars". The likes of Stadler and Waldorf (Muppet Show) hurling scissors, cut throat razors etc. across the road at each other. Price wars with "short back & sides" down to 1/11d instead of 2/0d !!

Now, where dem pills ???