Anyone got any info on the brickworks that was were the playing fields are now...by the bypass and on the other side on the Mayfields were the allotments are. I know when the brickworks closed down it was used as the tip then years later it was grassed over and one half is the playing fields and the other half the allotments.
During the latter half of the 19th century, clay was excavated from the fields in the New Ferry area, including the site where New Ferry Park now stands.
The largest clay pit was dug where the Mayfields football pitches now stand. In the days before the silting ponds were built out into the river (in the late 1920s) a brickworks stood on the old shoreline. Bricks were pressed, baked in kilns and then loaded onto barges to be taken down the river either to Birkenhead or over to Liverpool.
The work must have been hard and the pay poor. In this picture, the boy on the right and the young man in the centre both have bare feet. The large chimney stack - behind the boy on the right - was demolished in 1924 (the event was photographed and appears on the next page). The brickworks were demolished to make way for the Bromborough Dock and silting pond (now the landfill site) that was built out into the river in 1931.
This very spot is now occupied by the United Utilities water treatment works which is next to the football pitches. The rest of the massive pit resulting from decades of clay extraction were used as a landfill site which today sits under the football pitches.
Please do not adjust your mind, there is a slight problem with reality
In 1974 I became a father for the second time and then realised I had no real idea of my family roots that I could pass on to my children. So I decided to carry out some research, my father had died some time earlier however before he died he had told me that every time he asked his mother who had re married in 1919 about his biological father, who she had married in 1909 she would get upset and tears would flow whilst asking 'what’s up is this father not good enough for you'? He also told me that he had heard his father’s family had owned a brick works in New Ferry on the Wirral.
I asked around family including my mother who said my grandmother had married my dad’s stepfather in a Babtist Church in Hall Street, St Helens. However my father's step sister said 'that's not correct I have my mother and fathers marriage certificate' which indicated that they had married in St Peters Liverpool in 1919. (They must have been amongst the last couples to be married at St Peters in that it was demolished in late 1919).
This led me to believe my mother had misunderstood my grandmother and possibly it was her marriage to my dads' real father that took place in Hall St Baptist Church. I checked with the then current Baptist Minister who re directed me to Prescot Registry where all non conformist marriage records are kept. The registrar asked me to give him an hour and come back, this I did, he asked me in an opened a large vault and produced the marriage record of my Grandmother and my real Grandfather William Barnes who's address was given as Mersey Bank Rock Ferry and naming his father as John Barnes.
I decided to try and find more information and found a Gores Directory 1913 had an advert for: John Barnes Brick and Terracotta Makers,Rock ferry, and a New Ferry Phone number at 46Beaconsfield Road.
This really brings me to write this narrative, in that I have read about Beaconsfield Road on your New Ferry Historical site with its excellent photographs and commentary.
After finding the above information I set off for Beaconsfield Rd only to find that it was cut short by the by pass. I knocked at number 46 but got no answer, asked at a yard opposite but they had no knowledge of the brick works or the family. I was about to give up when I noticed a Tudor style house which stood out against the rest of the terraced houses in Beaconsfield Rd and was drawn to knock and see if the inhabitants could shed any light on my quest. The door was answered I outlined that I was carrying out a genealogical research and told the lady my name. I was asked to wait a minute and she would ask her father, she returned after a short while and asked me inside. This is where I met Mr Jones 94 years of age and to whom I will be eternally grateful. I spoke at length to Mr Jones with many questions he told me the following information:
• That the Barnes family had lived in the house we were in (Beaconsfield Villa) and showed me the deeds which confirmed this. • He stated that John Barnes built the houses in Beaconsfield Road for his brickyard and field workers, the ones with a bathroom were for his foremen. • He also told me that the locals used to bake bread at the side of the brick kilns. • The nick name John Barnes was given locally was ‘Nacky Barnes’. • Mr Jones stated that when he was a kid he and others would open the gates for my Great Grandfather and William his son at the drive entrance to Mersey Bank House he also said that they had usually been to Chester races and often appeared drunk throwing the lads a sovereign. It must have been a fortune in those days. • He also said he wished he had a £1 for every bottle of whiskey they put away. (this he didn’t like to tell me) • He said that they owned 40 tipping carts and 10 race horses.
I asked him what had happened to my grand father he heard rumours that he had gone to Australia with his sister this found by my research could not have happened.
From further re search I have found that both sisters remained in this country until their deaths.
John Barnes my great grandfather was a JP, he was on the Mayer Trust He also owned Pennant House for a while before selling it to the council.
The Brickworks according to Kelly’s Directory 1902 & 1906 was called West Cheshire Brick Works (John Barnes, propr.), 46 Beaconsfield Rd, New Ferry, Birkenhead.
I have lots more details of John Barnes – Samuel Barnes my Great Great Grandfather having moved to Bebington from Bickerton, Cheshire if this is any interest to anyone.
However if anyone over there knows what Happened to my Grandfather William Barnes after 1913 I would be grateful I suspect he shamed the family with something pretty bad in that he disappears of the radar in 1913 where he attended his mothers death at Beaconsfield Villa.
Yewgarth.., transcentral, found that info already, was wondering if there were anymore pics, have seen the new ferry website, also wondering what was there before the brickworks? Was it farmland? Anyway thanks for your replys.
It was on Prenton Dell Road. Brickworks entrance was opposite the junction of Prenton Village Road. The main entrance and office was on the corner. The brickworks kilns, chimney and pits - together with narrow gauge railway are where the "newish" houses in Melford Drive now stand.
Yewgarth.., transcentral, found that info already, was wondering if there were anymore pics, have seen the new ferry website, also wondering what was there before the brickworks? Was it farmland? Anyway thanks for your replys.
Early maps confirm that the area occupied by the brickworks was just farmland before, consisting of five fields named Top Sea Hey, Compton's Croft, Pasture Field, and two named Damage. At the time of the 1844 Tithe Map the fields had a number of different owners (Sir William Stanley, Richard Green, Hugh Bennett, and John Wharton) and occupiers (Joseph Huntington, John Sparke, John Jones, and George Johnson Wainwright).
![[Linked Image]](http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9940/334766523006ccdm3.jpg)
Please do not adjust your mind, there is a slight problem with reality
