so the Main fender became the Birket the Ford Brooke became the Fender which appears to have begun in Storeton the bridge may have been on a road going from Storeton to Landican
19th century map showing some bridges on the main Fender which runs to the Ford brook, through to Landican
I've seen this map before and something always intrigued me. It shows a railway from Bidston Hill down to a quay on Wallasey Pool, but I've never seen any other reference to it before. Does anyone have any info on this?
19th century map showing some bridges on the main Fender which runs to the Ford brook, through to Landican
I've seen this map before and something always intrigued me. It shows a railway from Bidston Hill down to a quay on Wallasey Pool, but I've never seen any other reference to it before. Does anyone have any info on this?
That is the Flaybrick Quarry Tramway, which was the first railway on the Wirral as far as I can determine. Flaybrick Quarry is now mostly Flaybrick Cemetery.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
...although refered to as a railway on maps, it was probably more like a wagonway. I would imagine it took advantage of the natural gradient to get stone from Flaybrick to Wallasey Pool, and horse power to get the wagons back up again.
...although refered to as a railway on maps, it was probably more like a wagonway. I would imagine it took advantage of the natural gradient to get stone from Flaybrick to Wallasey Pool, and horse power to get the wagons back up again.
The Main Fender on the map seems to me to be the Birket nowadays
The Main Fender is indeed now known as the Birket and the Ford Brook is now the River Fender, it would be interesting to find out when these name changes took place, and who's responsibility is it to change the name of a river.
Completely by chance I've just come across this letter in Wirral Notes and Queries dated January 1892. It was in response to someone querying the origin of the name Birkenhead. If the writer is correct then it looks like the names were changed during an ordinance survey in the 1840s.
Excellent discovery, thanks for sharing that, seems the names waterways of the Wirral have been subject to administrative inteference. Presumably Ordinance Survey would have records of such a decision?
Interesting to see the association of the name Fender with 'British' origins as opposed to later Norse/Saxon beginnings. That is given some suppport by local Celtic place-names such as Landican of course.
Sorry to digress folks, but a supplementary....Great also to see that curious quote, attributed to locals at Meols/Moreton, in particular "Well they calls it..." (emphasis added) Wonder is that a fairly accurate rendering of the local accent of the time? If so it sounds very 'countryfied', not out of place in Somerset :)) Then the phrase "ought" more Lancashire than Wurzel.
Thanks nightwalker I googled Wirral Notes and Queries and found this site that I didn't know about http://books.google.com/books an attempt to digitise loads of books and put online
On the matter of the possible Celtic origins of the name Fender, please note that the Welsh and Cornish terms, for what is described as a 'managed spring' are respectively, ffynnon and fenten. Not too far away from 'Fen-der'. Could it be its name derived from some original spring?
Getting closer now, thanks for the info/research, next time I'm in town, and if there's any good pubs left, we must raise a glass.
