Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Wiki Walks wiki walks

Trans and Kevin: Thanks for the rail pics. Best close-ups I've seen! It's hard to believe those actual pieces would have carried the earliest trains on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, 1830-35. They were replaced on the L & M by more sustantial rail when the L & M carried heavier loads. But they proved adequate for transporting the stone blocks to Bromborough Port Stone Quay until 1905 when the line closed!
It's amazing you can still touch this important railway archaeology in its original position! (Some of it is preserved elsewhere, though.)

Read the full fascinating story in 'The Storeton Tramway' by R.C.Jermy.

Thanks bud! will look out for a copy of that! Kev fantastic pics mate!

Here's a couple from the book "The Storeton Tramway" by R.C.Jermy. The thing to note from the plan (from the same book) is that the tunnel was not just under the road, but was about 60 yards long & was approached through a cutting. This cutting has long been filled in. During the war, the tunnel was used as an air raid shelter. I don't know whether the tunnel was filled in, or collapsed; certainly I remember as a child that you could just about get in from the woods, but the Eastern end was blocked. From the pictures, it's clear that the top of the tunnel was at least 10Ft. below the level of the road, so what you wondered might be the arch is too high, although in about the right place.

Cheers, Chris.

Thanks for the info chriskay. No wonder we could not find the tunnel.

i will have to change this date gang sorry!

Thats alright dude! 10.30am? Whoah? On a sunday?

I can only just make it for 12 on Sundays. Sorry its a no from me if where meeting that early.

10:30 not a problem for me personally, but would like it a bit later so more people can have the opportunity to come along.

Date no problem either, whenever you set it, ill be there!

Shall we do it the week later?

yep that sounds good to me gang 12noon!

Söund.

History eastham

Eastham is cited as one of the oldest villages on the Wirral Peninsula and has been inhabited since Anglo Saxon times. The name derives from its location: ham ("home") situated to the east of Willaston, which was then the principal settlement.[3] The original village is clustered around St. Mary's church, whose churchyard contains an ancient yew. Much of the surrounding land was once owned by the powerful Stanley family.

Since the Middle Ages, a ferry service operated across the River Mersey between Eastham and Liverpool, the early ferries being run by monks from the Abbey of St. Werburgh. By the late 1700s, up to 40 coaches each day arrived at a newly built pier, carrying passengers and goods for the ferry. Paddle steamers were introduced in 1816 to replace the sailboats, but the demand for a service declined in the 1840s with the opening of a railway link between Chester and Birkenhead Woodside Ferry. In 1846, the owner of the ferry, Thomas Stanley, built the Eastham Ferry Hotel and shortly after, the Pleasure Gardens were added to attract more visitors. The gardens were landscaped with rhododendrons, azaleas, ornamental trees and fountains. Attractions included a zoo, with bears, lions, monkeys and antelope, an open air stage, tea rooms, bandstand, ballroom, boating lake, water chute and a loop-the loop roller coaster.

Entertainers performed in the gardens during summer, and included Blondin, the famous tight-rope walker who once wheeled a local boy across a high wire in a wheelbarrow. In 1894, the Manchester Ship Canal was opened by Queen Victoria, bringing added prosperity to the area and a Jubilee Arch was built at the entrance to the Pleasure Gardens in 1897 to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee.
The 'Bear Pit' at Eastham Woodland & Country Park as it stood in 2006.

In 1854 the American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, whilst in the position of United States consul in Liverpool, visited Eastham and declared it to be: "the finest old English village I have seen, with many antique houses, and with altogether a rural and picturesque aspect, unlike anything in America, and yet possessing a familiar look, as if it were something I had dreamed about.

In its heyday Eastham Ferry was known as the 'Richmond of the Mersey', but its popularity declined during the 1920s and the last paddle steamer crossing took place in 1929. The Pleasure Gardens fell into disrepair during the 1930s and the iron pier and Jubilee Arch were later dismantled. In 1970, to commemorate European Conservation Year, the area was designated a Woodland & Country Park and today, it is once more a popular place of recreation.

EASTHAM FERRY WALK 12 NOON 7TH FEB

1.T.C.
2.BLUEBELL
3.
4.
5.
6.

1. T.C
2. BLUEBELL
3. Rudebox
4. Plusone
5.
6.
7.

1. T.C
2. BLUEBELL
3. Rudebox
4. Plusone
5. Softy
6.
7.

1. T.C
2. BLUEBELL
3. Rudebox
4. Plusone
5. Softy
6. Shadow Omega
7.