Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Upton Army Camp, Wirral.

First of all i would like to thank and acknowledge information and map contributed by Uptoncx.

The camp area's present address is Old TA site, Arrowe Park Rd, Upton, Wirral. Around 1965 i attended on a regular basis the 63rd Cheshire's Army Cadet Force, also on site was an Air Cadet sq and a TA regiment. Any information would be much appreciated other than i have to hand. The land was requisitioned from Arrowe house Farm which was sited where the Champion spark plug factory was on the corner of Arrowebrook rd and Arrowe Park rd. Over 21 acres were taken by the war department for emergency purposes which i assume being ( emergency purposes ) would have been around 1940. In 1947 the camp was described as a ( A. A. O. D. ) site, Anti aircraft ordinance depot. The map below has 2 shaded areas, the pink area is as i remember it and was that way until recently i assume, the green shaded area was not there as part of the camp in 1965 and more about that later.

A Map as i remember the use of buildings and a letter concerning the green shaded area that was De-requisitioned. also what the area of farm land was used for.

So this is where the Police, Driving Test and Job Centre are now. Was that area called Upton Meadow or something similar?

Here is the 1972 aerial of the area west of where the police station is now.

And here is 1997 aerial with some of the remains....

The police station was not built on the MOD land,in fact it was built around 1935, before the land was requisitioned.

The sorting office and the driving test centre are both built on the MOD land.



Upton Meadow never really existed, there has never been a field called Upton Meadow. The name was coined in 1982 to refer to the 50 acres from the MOD land (where Sainsburys is now) to Greasby Road.

After the MOD moved out (I think in the 1970s) BT opened a TEC (Telephone Engineering Centre) on the site. It must have been later than the 1972 aerial photo as there are no cable drums or BT vehicles about.

BT moved the TEC to the telephone exchange in Church Road, and the site was used for a period as an HGV driver test centre. The 1997 aerial photo shows that BT had moved out by then.

Thanks Upton, might have a wander round the site sometime, I remember the TA sign somewhere along that stretch, but everything has changed so much that it doesn't trigger much else. It is certainly a quiet place, only found one reference to the site so far and is missing off a number of WW2 databases. I was going to ask if there was any American link to the site, but it is probably not big enough.

Strange location for Ordnance Storage, most of them have a link to a railway. Is there any chance there was a gunsite very close? Nearest HAA seems to be Hoylake or Prenton, but no doubt RAF West Kirby had some guns. The only thing that can be said for the site is it is just about the only place on the Wirral without a military target near it, so probably the best place for Ordnance.

Good post. Didnt know any of that. Is that on your webiste Uptoncx? it should be. Interesting.

[quote=diggingdeeper I was going to ask if there was any American link to the site, but it is probably not big enough.
. [/quote]

When i was there in my cadet days i did hear there was yanks prior to D-Day, but i can't find anything on it.

Ok - conspiracy theory time. I can't believe an Ordnance storage would not have a railway link.

AAOD - I can only find a few possible locations of these and they are located in the weirdest of places.

Wednesfield
Walsgrave on Sowe
Upton
Kidbrook
Weyhill
York
Inchinnan

Only one person on the internet worked at a AAOD and there is no Military department mentioning AAOD

The layout of the site is all wrong for Ordnance it should either be wide spacing between buildings or a big building(s), Upton has loads of small buildings close together.

I can't find any link between AAOD and RAOC.

I think we need to find out what the site was really used for and what AAOD really did.

OK, I have a reference in a 1940 parish magazine to "... the soldiers of the RAOC billeted at Greenbank House and working at the ammunition depots down Arrowe Park Road".

and in another "In November the traditional hotpot supper was held in the Eagle and Crown with guests from the officers of the RAOC now stationed in the village".

The reference to AAOD comes from two seperate articles, one from Cheshire Life, March 1951 which states: "Attached to the regiment is a R.E.M.E unit (113 Assault Regiment (special) Workshops, R.E.M.E.) commanded by Major H Jones which parades at 64 A.A.O.D. Site, Upton, Wirral".

The small , close together buildings in the green shaded area in my view are the billets and living quarters of any occupational regiment. That being the area de-requisitioned after the war as it would not be needed for a TA site. The ammunition bunkers as you can see on the map were well away from the main living area of the camp. The bunkers as i remember them were not constructed from brick with a concrete slab on top, the were constructed from solid concrete completely with the obvious steel doors and surrounded by a blast wall of concrete and banked up earth, the size of these 3 structures were big enough to keep more than a few ack ack going.

This from http://www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=162
French volunteers were recruited primarily from units arriving from Norway or Dunkirk : in June 1940 these units were quartered in camps around the ports, particularly on the Channel and North Sea coasts and around Liverpool. Infantry units were quartered at Trentham Park near Stoke on Trent and at Arrowe Park near Liverpool,
Not sure if this is part of what is being discussed.

Found this on http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=272085.msg2568335;topicseen
A bit late replying I'm afraid, but the camp was on Arrowe Park Road by where the Royal Mail sorting office is now.

From December 1947 it housed 113 Assault Engineer Regiment Workshops. In the early 60s it was home to the 63rd (I think) Cheshire army cadet force. 2184 squadron Air Cadets are still on a small part of the site.

After closing the site became a British Telecom Engineering Centre, and then an HGV driver training centre. What remains of the site is now demolished, derelict and for sale.

Here is a link to the Royal Engineers at Harrowby Rd Birkrnhead
http://www.reahq.org.uk/index.php?page=birkenhead
And here is some info from the Halton Libraries Catalogue:
The Cheshire Royal Engineers, now 113 Assault Engineer Regiment: A Regimental History
by Davies, T R (Compiler)
np (1950)
Format:
Pamphlets
Notes:
204860
19c, 20c, Volunteers, Territorial Army, auxiliary forces, reserve forces, armed forces, Birkenhead, Wirral, Boer War, South African War, First World War, Second World War
Contents:
Concise yet detailed account from 1860 onwards. As 2nd Cheshire Field Company RE(T) it was the first Territorial engineer unit to go to France in 1914, and as 2nd (Cheshire) Field Squadron RE(TA) it was the last engineer formation in the British Army to retain its horses (given up 1937)

Went for a walk around there this morning and as expected nothing left, far to much other activity gone on since the camp closed, a few mounds of heavy concrete here and there. it also appears the De- requisitioned land is to far over grown to fight your way through it. Its up for sale and would have a better view if they ever start to clear it.