Hmm, The huts on the shorefields were first used to house the troops who manned the AA guns, then the last year of the war they were used to house the Italian prisoners of war, then they were later used as by the local council for people who were on the waiting list for council houses, ( my Aunt and uncle and 2 cousins lived in them for a short time).
I was chatting to my mother who was a teenager living in New Ferry towards the end of the war, having moved from liverpool after their house was bombed, but those germans followed them and bombed a house a few doors up from them in Napier rd ( I remember the place at the bottom of Napier rd , and every bonfire night they had a masive bonfire on that waste land).
Also my mother told me that some of the local girls married the Italian pow's after the war.
OH btw does anyone know the story of Wallases pit, it was to the left of the bridge where the bypass is now.. looking towards the toll bar....
On a dark foggy winters night, you could hear the sound of the fog horns in the distance coming from the river. other than that there was a deadly silence, the fog was so thick that you could only see 2 foot ahead of you.
Then the sound of a horse and cart could just be heard crossing the back field near Wallases Pit, there was a a sceech of a horse in terror! then silence!
This was the story told to some of the kids living in New Ferry in the winter of 1940, weather it was told to keep the kids away from the deep black pond that was between the Nursery and Salsbury drive, its not known but my mothers Uncle told her that the pond was so deep they never found the horse and cart.
The Nursery school was setup to look after children while their parents were working in the factories for the War effort, Then after the war it became the Sea cadet huts, and in the 60's the Bebington youth club was built to the rear of the Huts.
The area of Wallases pit has now gone when the bypass was built, so i guess we will never know! but if your coming home accross that bridge after a drink or two in the ferry on a dark winters night, and the fog starts coming in ! Well i would run like sh&t and bolt the door when i got home..
Wallases pit appears to be a clay pit that was dug at sometime between 1882 and 1900, on the 1875 maps there is a house called Derby Villa on a corner of the site, here are some maps from 1920, 1938 and 1954 respectively.
Last edited by diggingdeeper; 10th May 20104:58pm.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Still searching for info, I am trying to find the name of the different brickworks around there, if one was called Wallase or Wallace it would tie in nicely.
There was a prominent person called John Wallace seemed to be involved in the openings of new buildings such as churches.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Not too sure how the name was spelt , as its been passed down by word of mouth. would it be possible to see more of the top map as i have been told a veg and flower trader lived to the north of the map, on the corner of Napier rd, its thought he used a horse and cart for his wares, and was a hawker.
@genlock - I made a mistake, the top map is about 1912 not 1920, I will open a new thread for Napier Road, this one is already getting a bit variegated.
If you want to pay a visit then PM me.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Walked the dog there this morning after reading your thread. Met two old boys that live there & they remember playing footie with Polish POW's who were only guarded by a couple of soldiers.
Whilst helping out with the exhibition and talks about the Bromborough Ju88 incident of 8th October 1940 at Fort Perch Rock the other week, I met a lady who used to live at Pollitt Square during the 1940s. She has confirmed that Poles manned the guns on Shorefields during the early 1940s and during the blitz. By 1943 when the threat of bombing by the Luftwaffe had long since receded, the guns were taken away.
At the end of the war, some GERMAN pow's were housed in the barracks on the site. Since the war was over, the barracks were not surrounded with barbed wire, and the POWs were allowed out into the community during the daytime and evening as long as they reported back to the barracks by a certain curfew time. They often went to help out on local farms etc (this was quite common with POWs across the country in the latter years of the war). Many German POWs were kept in this country until the early 1950s, in many cases because they did not want to return to what was then Soviet-controlled East Germany.
The lady from Pollitt Square told how one of the young German fellows actually asked her older sister out on a date one evening in 1946. Her mother "agreed" to it - because he seemed so polite - and after bringing her safely back home, the fellow even wrote to the mother complimenting her daughter's manners. The lady says she still has that letter he sent to her mother stored somewhere in her current home in Wallasey.
The German POWs were welcomed in their home the following christmas and shared christmas dinner with them. They stayed in New Ferry until the end of 1947 and eventually were sent elsewhere, probably back home.
It was after this that the barrack huts were subsequently used to temporarily house families who had lost their homes in the bombing. Residents have told me that the buildings were eventually demolished in the early 1970s, and replaced with the grass that is there today.
Hmm, The huts on the shorefields were first used to house the troops who manned the AA guns, then the last year of the war they were used to house the Italian prisoners of war, then they were later used as by the local council for people who were on the waiting list for council houses, ( my Aunt and uncle and 2 cousins lived in them for a short time).
Genlock, I am wondering about my previous post (above). You mention Italian POWs, but the lady I met said they were Germans. I wonder if she was mistaken. Or, were various types of Axis prisoners kept there? Could have been both. An interesting conundrum
