Hi, I am trying to find out the history of my Grandparents old home. The address was 168 Conway Street, Birkenhead ( at the junction with park street)(Now Europa Pool etc) My Grandfather was a stonemason and ran his business from these premises and had a showroom on the front selling headstones. There were 2 sandstone gateposts at the side of the showroom which led to the house. On one gatepost the word CONWAY was carved and on the other was the word COTTAGE. From what I have been told I am led to believe that Conway Street was at one time the driveway to the house and it stretched down to Birkenhead Park, but do not know any more than that. Does anybody know where to start looking for information please?
Philip,try wirral archives.If your Grandfather ran a business then there is a great chance it will be listed,as far as the property is concerned they might have a map of where the property once stood.
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Hi Philip, I've managed to do a bit of research concerning Conway cottage, but info on the history of the house is hard to find. The exact date the house was built isn't known, but it doesn't appear on any of the maps of Birkenhead from the mid-1840s. It is, however, clearly marked on Mills & Fletcher's map of 1858 (see pic below) next to the K in 'BIRKENHEAD'. A block of property on this site seems to be marked on an earlier map from 1850 showing J M Rendel's plans for the proposed Birkenhead Docks, which would suggest that it was built some time in the late 1840s, possibly about the time that Birkenhead Park opened in 1847. A number of substantial detached 'villas' were built along Conway Street at this time, but most of them only survived 35-40 years before being demolished to make way for terraces of workers' housing.
The earliest occupant I've been able to trace is Alfred Dudley esq, who is listed in the 1851 Census, 1857 Post Office Directory & 1860 Gore's Liverpool Directory. He was originally from Kingswinford, Staffordshire, and is variously described as a commission broker or merchant, working for G Wheatley's India & China Express Company, whatever that may have been! He seems to have moved shortly afterwards, for by the 1861 Census he was living in the Manor House, Moorside, Neston.
I haven't had time to trace every subsequent occupant of the property, but in 1881 the occupant was James Harkness, a widowed builder from Scotland, and in 1901 it was John Ambrose Thomas, a team owner from Eastham. If you want to have a go, there are various sources available: Trade Directories (available at Birkenhead Reference Library or on microfilm at Liverpool Record Office, but sometimes unreliable), Census Returns (available online, but difficult to search if you haven't got a name to look for), Voters' Lists/Electoral Rolls (at Birkenhead Library & Wirral Archives), and Rate Books/Valuation Lists (Wirral Archives, but survival is patchy).
I have managed to track down some stuff relating to your grandfather's time at the house. He and his brother (?brothers) appear to have arrived there in early 1922, when they put in an application to build a temporary masons' workshop at the side of the house. This presumably soon became a permanent building, for the business of Alldis Brothers was well-established by 1928. In that year they applied to build a showroom on the boundary of the property fronting onto Conway Street. This was originally going to be built directly next to the pavement, but apparently the dentist next door at no. 166 objected, so the plan was revised and it was built six feet further back. I've included a photo of the showroom in the early 1960s; it's not great quality, but it brings back memories of walking down that end of Conway Street when I was a kid. God knows how many times I must have passed the place, but, although I remember the gate posts, I don't recall Conway Cottage itself - basically because you couldn't see much of it unless you were on the top deck of a passing bus!! Hope this stuff helps. If you want copies of the surviving building plans, they're available at Wirral Archives, off Shore Road near Woodside Ferry.(If you can't get there in person you can email any requests to [email protected])
Omg Conway cottage was last called Alldis builders jean Alldis was in my class in trinity street ..also Helen Alldis and another sister but can't remember her name ...jean was my first ever girlfriend at 10years old omg
