Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request Borough Rd Tunnel

i know who owns the scrappy i might go and have a look for any clues

In his book Sidelights on Tranmere, J E Allison mentions that this area near Victoria Road was the site of a sandstone outcrop. The 'Happy Valley' stream (which ran along what is now Borough Road) flowed fast over this outcrop on its way down to Tranmere Pool and this may have been the location of the water mill used by the monks from Birkenhead Priory in medieval times. Nearby fields were named Dam Heys, indicating the stream might have been dammed at this point to provide power for the mill. Could this sandstone outcrop be the cliff-like wall that backs on to the scrapyard? It may have been quarried in later times, or possibly cut away when Borough Road was being laid out in the 19th century.

Good point yoller. I don't think it would have been cut back so far just for construction of Borough Road. More likely a quarry in its own rights. I'll have to dig that book out for a re-read !!

Thanks, Yoller. Here's a copy of the tithe map showing the "Dam" fields. Also, a map from about 1875, which shows why there's a funny bulge in the line of the Ward boundary; it's because it follows the wall of Ashfield House.
I think I agree with Pinz that they wouldn't have cut back the sandstone that far just for Borough Rd. I think it's been quarried, but I haven't yet found a map which shows a quarry there.
Cheers, Chris.

Is it possible that bit of land was cut back after the construction of Borough Rd, Lets say for example to put a petrol station there, with modern day equipment that would be easy to do, Does anybody remember what was there before the petrol station. Also has anyone done a thread on the area further down Borough Rd where there is a road actually called Quarry Bank.

Thanks for your replies. Looking at the maps, I'd agree that the sandstone outcrop has almost certainly been deliberately quarried. There would have been no need to cut it back just to build Borough Road. Is it possible that, because it was an outcrop and easily accessible, when they were building Borough Road the council also took the opportunity to get itself a few thousand tons of valuable sandstone which could be sold on to defray the cost of the road construction? Or could the sandstone have been used in some way to help build the road? As for Quarry Bank, that area drops away relatively steeply towards Borough Road and it's probable it was also an easily accessible area for sandstone and was quarried at some time.

Lads that scrap yard your goingon about next to the petrol station. i can tell you that in 1954 the yard {which is now a scrap yard was owned by my uncle and his mate who had the chip&fish shop next door to Charlie Frost the barber on Borough Road. there was NO Mistery about the yard. they had there cars garaged in that yard. the back wall of the yard was in places sandtone cut face and other area's was back fill with rubble so that the houses in Dingle Road did not end up the back yards of the line of terraced houses on Borough Road.
If you want to KNOW WHERE ALL THE QUARRIES WHERE THEN GO AND READ THE BOOK HIGHLITES OF TRANMERE, IT LISTS ALL THE QUARRIES.
dont forget that area of the town is TRANMERE

what was your uncles and his mates name jimbob might have know them.

The book "Sidelights on Tranmere" mentioned by Jimbob does mention, on page 10, that there were seven quarries in Tranmere, with specific mention of the one on Quarry Bank. This must have been an early one, since it's not shown on this map of about 1875.

One interesting thing about that area is that there is only one access to the Tranmere Park area according to Chris's map which I think is the 1875 one is via Victoria Rd. Now I do know that Victoria Rd at Borough Rd was very steep and you only need to check the BM heights to see how far above Borough Rd that Dingle Rd was, Larch Rd at the eastern end of Dingle was not there in 1875. So access especially for freight would have been very difficult. So it would seem logical to move freight etc from Borough Rd(Happy valley) the only way would have been via a less steep tunnel at the lowest and easiest access point which happened to be Beech Rd T with Dingle.

Just to clarify mindplayer's comment there, there was only one point of access to the Tranmere Park area FROM Borough Road, but at that time Borough Road had/was only just built, whilst we think of it a main artery of Birkenhead, it wasn't just before that time. There were three further access points to Tranmere Park from Derby Road which is a much older road.

Tranmere had built up from the river side of the ridge and was now crawling down the inland side. Likewise Oxton and Claughton were growing rapidly, but inbetween these they managed to build Borough Road almost unimpeded(spell?) as there were very few houses in that vicinity.

With reference to Mindplayer's point about benchmarks, here's another copy of the map showing them. The height difference between Dingle & Borough roads is about 17-20 feet & a tunnel from Dingle to Borough would not have been less steep than the climb up Victoria Rd.
Incidentally, this map has another interesting feature: see the thread "Abandoned Train Station @ Singleton Ave."

Cheers, Chris.

The entrance to the yard was via an alley off the bottom of Larch Rd, on the Northern side on the eastern side was houses with some hilly areas. No. 10 Dingle Rd was lower and about same level, my place was a lot higher. On the western side(Borough Rd)were more houses(gone now I think). The southern side was where the Servo is with just some old fence dividing them. Joe's Scrapyard had been there as long as like forever.

The point I was trying to make was the only access from Borough Rd apart from Victoria, and that if there was a quarry were the servo is it would have made sense that a tunnel be dug for ease of access. Plus with horse power they would have had a good length to pull up Beech Rd. I am pretty sure the map I saw was earlier than 1875 but after the Tithe maps. Maybe about 186????
Still looking. If anybody has any maps between 1850 and 1875 please have a look for me. Because this is doing my head in.

Did anyone actually go round to the scrap yard and have a sniff around the back wall/sandstone face ?? Robbo...Jonno.... ??