Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Wirral gun sites from the second world war

I made a visit today to the Liverpool Record Office & have quite a bit of new info. on the Storeton site. I'm waiting for permission to use it.

Cheers, Chris.

Mmmmm,sounds promising mate.

Think the pictures are taken in the vehicle park of the Wallasey tunnel off Oakdale road

Thanks for the pics, Derek. Just to be clear, those are not the type of gun used at Storeton. At a guess, those pics are of a ship mounted gun & I'd guess the calibre to be 20 or 30 mm. The Storeton guns are recorded as being 3.7" calibre, which is about 94 mm.

Cheers, Chris.

Here is one I came across today, it near the roman road in prenton, on a contry road that leads to to brimstage hall.

Unless I'm mistaken, that's the pillbox on Brimstage Lane, (you can see the communications mast at the top of Rest Hill road), in which case it's not a roman road but Lever Causeway, which dates back to the 1920's. It was William Hesketh Lever's (later Lord Leverhulme) private road from his home at Thornton Manor, to Birkenhead & his factory at Port Sunlight.

Cheers, Chris.

your completely right chris, as the paths that you were able to walk up and down near to this turrat, aka his drive way are now labled as private and not public.

Very sad actually.

My friend Mark used to live in the cottage opposite the mere in rabymere, which was part of leverhulme's estate, but when the Americans took over they turfed him out to a smaller cottage and made many of the public walks a no go zone.

Yes, it's sad. Lord Leverhulme's causeway was always private, except for the bit from Storeton to Mount Rd., but he himself was a great public benefactor (just look at Port Sunlight & the Lady Lever art gallery) & as far as I know he never stopped reasonable public use of the causeway. One of the problems now, of course, is the matter of public liability; (cue Jaci). I guess if they made it open to the public & someone tripped & fell they could be sued for failing to maintain it. Mind you, the way things are today, if a burglar trips in your house or garden they can probably sue. End of rant.

lol, Rant noted. back to topic anyway, I will try and snap some more on the wirral as I know were a few more are !

Great, but if they're more pill boxes, better put them in the pill box thread please, not gun sites.

Cheers, Chris.

Well, I think I've waited long enough & I've had no reply from the firm, Edmund Kirby, Architects & Surveyors, who deposited the records with the Liverpool Record Office. They are there under the ref. No. 720/KIR/1186-87.
It seems that the Storeton gun site was owned by the Leverhulme Estate & rented to a local farmer.
Apart from the original Form of Requisition, and one from 1943 expanding the site, all the papers are to do with the demolition or re-instatement of the site.
I've put them in date order. Number 11 is the continuation of Number 10 (Letter from the Civic Trust), which contains a delightful assessment of the abilities of the local sapper regiment.
The next post will have a few plans which I was able to see; pity they're not better quality.

Cheers, Chris.

Plans. Right click & View Image should let you enlarge them.

Cheers, Chris.

That`s cool stuff that Chris.I did`nt realise it was that big and so many buildings.Thanks for sharing.

That is excellent Chris. It isn't very often that we get to see this "part" of the enigma wrapped around WW2 structures. I wonder how much more of this standard of notes is hiding in archives, only to be chucked at some future date.

I note that the plans include the field on the other side of the road where the GL radar ramp and wire mesh mat was !

cheers

Thanks for Digging that up Chris - the remains make even more sense now - cheers