Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request Dissertation on New Brighton 1960s and 1970s

I am starting my dissertation titled, New Brighton in the 1960s and 1970s: Why did the resort Decline?

I shall be using the tower ballroom fire as the centre point. In order to undertake my dissertation i need to find as much primary and secondary sources in this era so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I would suggest you look to see if you can find anything the council/councillors were up to at the time and if Merseyside Development Corp or it's forunner were about at the time, as sometimes things decided can have an equal but opposite reaction.
But good luck getting your dissertation in on time.

I think New Brighton died a death when package holidays were introduced!
....Nick.

In the 1960s, there was sand, plenty of it, from Egremont up to New Brighton and then beach sand all the way along Harrison Drive. Building Seaforth Docks (they opened 1972, according to Wikipedia) changed the currents and we lost the sand on the Mersey; oil pollution ruined the sand at Harrison Drive. Maybe not the driving force behind the decline of New Brighton, but surely a contributing factor.

cheers av got along way to go yet am just at the start so got a whole year.

yes WBC will definately be getting a mention at some point, definately going to target non funding and ignorance to allowing it to just dissapear

yes that is also another interesting factor, and i may have missed that idea thank you

when liverpoodlians fled to spain rather than new brighton haha, will have to ask some of the family about that

Don't think it helped any when they stopped running the direct ferry service to New Brighton, and then they pulled down the pier.

Also, the River Mersey became very polluted in the 1970's, and used to stink something bad.

yeah would be great if we got a new pier.

deffo need to target the pollution factor and see why nothing was done about it sooner

The expression 'Last Resort' keeps springing to my mind. Think someone may have done a book or photographic exhibition on the subject of New Brighton and it's decline. Try asking for it at the library or see if it comes up on Google.

CLICKY CLICK

pretty certain a group of us spoke to him one time when he was taking photo's as we thought it was a bit odd the stuff he was photographing.

The pictures from Martin Parr's Last Resort are in this thread.

Wallasey council seemed to target planning and funding towards residential development in the 1960s, rather than improving New Brighton as a resort..

As mentioned earlier, package holidays and the lack of investment, as attractions closed due to age and deterioration they were never replaced. The investment never came because they couldn't compete with what was on offer to travel abroad. At the same time the likes of the IOM fell in to decline along with many other seaside resorts, also Blackpool was just up the road and had more to offer for those who wanted to stay in this country. Once Freddie Laker and the likes started offering cheap flights to Spain, etc, the British working classes realised they could holiday abroad cheaper than they could here, British hotels and Boarding houses couldn't compete. Even during Harold Wilson's time and the pound was going through a difficult time and Harold put a £50 cap on the amount of money one could take out of the country, this never deterred anyone, it was more than enough to holiday for a fortnight abroad.
As for pollution of the Mersey, well its never been anything else, certainly never been blue, i think the decline of New Brighton came about long before people started to be concerned about the condition of the water.
Thinking about it, lying on a beach watching topless beauties walking past or a donkey ride at New Brighton, difficult decision.

biggest problem with the mersey is that its always, until recently, been an outlet for industrialised and human effluence.

The river is now the cleanest ive ever seen it but with it being a silt estuary its never gonna look "blue"


NB needs attention but more shops

I would like to read a full report on the shifting sands. As a kid in the 50's I remember a lot of red sandstone at New Brighton but after Seaforth Dock was built the sand returned. Also all the new groins were built to keep it there.