In the painting you can see Green Lane and the railway bridge no sign of the station, the Brittannia or the Queens nor does it look like New Chester Road had been built
Given that the Castle Hotel was at the junction of Green Lane and New Chester Road, one would assume that it's New Chester Road running across the picture in the foreground...
The 1874 - 1875 1:2500 OS map corresponds quite nicely with the detail in the painting. The map can be viewed here - OS Map over Green Lane 1874 I'm just trying to put the painting into relationship with other things we know.
In 1830, New Chester Road was constructed. I've not seen any reference to the nature of the road surface, but it was supposed to be higher than the highest tides would reach, due to the building of an embankment. In 1840, the railway from Chester to Green Lane opened and in December 1863 the Tranmere (pool) branch opened. On 1st April 1878 Green Lane junction to Birkenhead opened.
As has been noted about the painting - we have New Chester Road in the foreground, and the Green Lane railway bridge but no obvious station. I've noticed that over to the right is a large gatepost with a ball shaped top. If you look at the map, parallel to New Chester Road there is a road called Foundry Lane, which appears to be gated and internal to the shipyard. Could this be part of its gates?
On the map, just north of Green Lane, a branch of the railway goes east to serve the southern end of the shipyards. Then at Waterloo Place the railway line divides and branches off to the west, via a cutting under the Haymarket, to serve the docks, while the right-hand branch tunnels its way under Ivy Street Lower, to emerge on the north side of Ivy Street, by its junction with Church Street, and then on towards Monks Ferry. A few years later the tunnel to Woodside was dug next to it and Town Station was created. One little point of interest is that on the map, what now call Tunnel Road is named as Old Chester Road (There are other posts about this). One thing the map does not confirm is if it was called Tranmere Pool at the time. This is most probable as it is next to Tranmere Beach.
With a little artistic licence, I'm sure the painter could well have had the tide that high above the high water mark on the OS Map.
Does anyone know the actual date of it? At the moment I'd say that it was shortly before 1874.
Norton; I don't think there was ever a station at Green Lane on the Chester-Birkenhead line. The terminus was at Grange Lane. That would be why there's no evidence of a station in the painting.
Looking at the large scale 1875 OS plan, it is clear that the end of Foundry Street was blocked off in some way, so I suspect the gatepost was connected with the entrance to Maxwell's Tranmere Foundry - particularly as by the time of the 1899 OS revision both the Foundry and the gateway had gone. It's definitely nothing to do with the Ferry, as the entrance to this was much further down towards the ferry slip, next to the Shipbuilding Yard.
I have a nice photo of the Tranmere Ferry Gates that I will post tonight, together with a couple of pics of the old Tranmere Castle Hotel, which will provide an interesting comparison with the painting. The old Hotel, which had been a free house, was bought by Thelfall's in April 1896 and they submitted plans for a new building in December 1897. The new Castle Hotel (ex-Hotel California, now Revolver) opened in December 1899, after which the old building was demolished, the site now forming the car park of the present pub.
As promised here are the pics of the Tranmere Ferry pay-gates and waiting-rooms, and the then Royal Castle Hotel. The Hotel photos date from between May 1896 and November 1899, when David Cross was the licensee under Threllies. The Ferry pic is undated, but may well have been taken by the same photographer. Note the typical castellated architecture, similar to that evident on 19th-century pictures of both Woodside and Birkenhead Ferries.
. Note the typical castellated architecture, similar to that evident on 19th-century pictures of both Woodside and Birkenhead Ferries.
Would the castellated architecture have been a current fad at the time or meant as a defensive structure in case we were ever invaded by a foreign army? Thanks for posting the plcs, I do like how clear they are, did you scan them if so at what resolution please?
The style of architecture is typical of the late Gothic Revival, or Gothick, style that became immensely popular in the first half of the 19th century. Large numbers of houses and many public buildings were built all over the country decorated with elements derived from Medieval cathedrals and castles, and many existing buildings, even humble farmhouses and pubs, had elements such as battlements and towers added to give them an air of faux-antiquity. Many of the properties were even given names incorporating words like 'Castle', 'Abbey' or 'Priory', to add to the illusion. Well-known local examples include Childwall Hall, where even the farm outbuildings had battlements, the neighbouring Childwall Abbey Hotel, and Anfield Priory, a small crenellated house that gave its name to Priory Road, Anfield, and was demolished to make way for the Crematorium. On Wirral, of course, we had the likes of Liscard Castle on Seaview Road and Heswall Castle on Telegraph Road, and countless mid-Victorian villas that incorporated features such as church-style windows and battlemented bays and cornices.
The photos were scanned from some glass lantern slides that once belonged to J E Allison, the local historian and author of 'Sidelights on Tranmere'. I'm fairly certain they were done at 1200 dpi; any more resolution than that would have resulted in a huge file size and no real gain in quality. The original scans are clear enough to make out the Licensee's name over the door!
