Town in Wirral, Merseyside, England
Town in England
Birkenhead
(
) is a town in the
Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
,
Merseyside
, England;
historically
, it was part of
Cheshire
until 1974. The town is on the
Wirral Peninsula
, along the west bank of the
River Mersey
, opposite
Liverpool
. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 88,818.
[1]
Birkenhead Priory
and the
Mersey Ferry
were established in the 12th century. In the 19th century, Birkenhead expanded greatly as a consequence of the
Industrial Revolution
.
Birkenhead Park
and
Hamilton Square
were laid out as well as the first street
tramway
in Britain. The
Mersey Railway
connected Birkenhead and Liverpool with the world's first tunnel beneath a tidal estuary; the
shipbuilding
firm
Cammell Laird
and a
seaport
were established.
In the second half of the 20th century, the town suffered a significant period of decline, with
containerisation
causing a reduction in port activity. The
Wirral Waters
development is planned to regenerate much of the dockland.
Toponymy
[
edit
]
The name Birkenhead probably means "headland overgrown with birch", from the
Old English
bircen
meaning
birch
tree,
[3]
of which many once grew on the headland which jutted into the river at
Woodside
. The name is not derived from
the Birket
, a stream which enters the Mersey between Birkenhead and Seacombe. The Birket is a later name which was introduced by
Ordnance Survey
.
[4]
History
[
edit
]
Medieval period
[
edit
]
The earliest records state that the
Mersey ferry
began operating from Birkenhead in 1150, when
Benedictine
monks under the leadership of
Hamon de Mascy
built a
priory
there.
[5]
[6]
The priory was visited in 1275 and 1277 by
Edward I
.
[7]
In a
royal charter
of 13 April 1330,
Edward III
granted the priory further rights.
[8]
19th century
[
edit
]
Distanced from the
Industrial Revolution
in Liverpool by the physical barrier of the River Mersey, Birkenhead retained its agricultural status until the advent of steam ferry services. In 1817 a steam ferry service started from Liverpool to Tranmere and in 1822 the paddle steamer,
Royal Mail
, began operation between Liverpool and Woodside.
[9]
Shipbuilding started in 1829.
[10]
An ironworks was established by
William Laird
in 1824, and he was joined by his son
John
in 1828. The business eventually became the shipbuilder
Cammell Laird
. Notable naval vessels built at Birkenhead include
HMS
Achilles
,
HMS
Affray
,
CSS
Alabama
,
HMS
Ark Royal
,
HMS
Birkenhead
,
HMS
Caroline
,
Huascar
, the pioneer submarine
Resurgam
,
HMS
Thetis
(which sank in Liverpool Bay during
sea trials
, and was refloated and
commissioned
as HMS
Thunderbolt
, only to be lost to enemy action with the loss of the entire crew),
HMS
Conqueror
and
HMS
Prince of Wales
. Merchant vessels were also built such as
RMS
Mauretania
and
RMS
Windsor Castle
.
In 1833 an act was passed to introduce street paving, lighting and other improvements in the town. These included establishing a market and regulating the police force.
[11]
The
Mersey Railway
tunnel opened in 1886, providing direct railway access to Liverpool.
20th century
[
edit
]
The
Grange Road West drill hall
was completed in 1900.
[12]
In September 1932 thousands of unemployed people protested in a series of demonstrations organised by the local branch of the
National Unemployed Workers Movement
. After three days of rioting, police were brought in from elsewhere to help quell the rioters.
[13]
In addition to the ferries and the railway, the
Queensway road tunnel
opened in 1934 and gave rapid access to Liverpool. This opened up the Wirral Peninsula for development, and prompted further growth of Birkenhead as an industrial centre. Bolstered by migration from rural Cheshire, southern Ireland and Wales, the town's population had grown from 110 in 1801 to 110,912 one hundred years later and stood at 142,501 by 1951.
[14]
Birkenhead was struck by
an F0/T1 tornado
on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.
[15]
1989 saw the completion of a large shopping development within Birkenhead town centre, known as the Pyramids.
[16]
Conway Park station was opened in 1998 as part of a development that saw Wirral Metropolitan College open a new campus nearby.
[17]
21st century
[
edit
]
The Wirral Waters development was announced in 2006, with work starting in 2011 and expecting to last for around 30 years.
Wirral Council announced in 2020 the formulation of a 20 year development plan known as the 'Birkenhead 2040 Framework'.
[18]
The plan aims to regenerate parts of Birkenhead, with the creation of a new park (
Dock Branch Park
), new housing and an improved greener environment.
Governance
[
edit
]
Birkenhead lies within the
Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
, with
Wirral Council
providing most local government functions. Wirral forms part of the
Liverpool City Region
, which is led by a directly elected
Metro Mayor
.
Administrative history
[
edit
]
Birkenhead was historically a
chapelry
in the
ancient parish
of
Bidston
, which formed part of the
Wirral Hundred
of
Cheshire
.
[19]
As the town began to develop rapidly in the early nineteenth century, there was a need for more urban forms of local government. In 1833 a body of
improvement commissioners
was set up covering the chapelry of Birkenhead.
[20]
The commissioners' district was enlarged in 1843 to take in the township of
Claughton with Grange
and part of
Oxton
.
[21]
Local government districts
were subsequently established for
Tranmere
in 1860 and Oxton in 1863.
[22]
In 1877 Birkenhead was incorporated as a
municipal borough
, with its territory covering the combined area of the old commissioners' district and the two local government districts of Oxton and Tranmere, which were abolished. The new borough also took in the
Rock Ferry
area from
Bebington
.
[23]
[14]
When elected county councils were established in 1889, Birkenhead was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it was made a
county borough
, making it independent from the new
Cheshire County Council
, whilst still being deemed part of Cheshire for ceremonial purposes.
[24]
The council built itself
Birkenhead Town Hall
on Hamilton Square to serve as its headquarters; the building was opened in 1887.
[25]
[26]
The borough was enlarged in 1928 to absorb
Landican
,
Prenton
and
Thingwall
, and again in 1933 to take in Bidston,
Noctorum
,
Upton
and
Woodchurch
.
[27]
The borough of Birkenhead was abolished in 1974 under the
Local Government Act 1972
, with the area becoming part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and being transferred to the
metropolitan county
of
Merseyside
. In 1986
Merseyside County Council
was abolished, with Wirral Council then taking on the county council's former functions in the area. Since 2014 Wirral and the other Merseyside boroughs and neighbouring
Halton
have been covered by the
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
, which has been led by a
directly elected mayor
since 2017.
Constituency
[
edit
]
The current (2019- ) Labour Member of Parliament for the
constituency of Birkenhead
is
Mick Whitley
.
Geography
[
edit
]
The
Birkenhead Urban Area
, as defined by the
Office for National Statistics
,
[28]
includes Birkenhead,
Wallasey
, Bebington,
Ellesmere Port
(which is outside the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral) and the contiguous built-up areas which link those towns. In the
2011 Census
, the area so defined had a total population of 325,264,
[29]
making it the 19th largest
conurbation
in England and Wales.
Places adjacent to Birkenhead
|
---|
|
Economy
[
edit
]
Shipbuilding
[
edit
]
Shipbuilding and ship repair has featured prominently in the local economy since the 19th century.
Cammell Laird
entered
receivership
in 2001. The shipyard was sold and became 'Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders' (NS&S), which grew into a successful business specialising in ship repair and conversion, including maintenance contracts for the
Royal Fleet Auxiliary
. In September 2007 NS&S acquired the rights to use the Cammell Laird name. The company was renamed 'Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders' on 17 November 2008,
[30]
seeing the famous name return to Birkenhead after a seven-year hiatus. In 2010, Cammell Laird secured a £50 million contract to construct the
flight deck
for
HMS
Queen Elizabeth
,
[31]
the first of two
Queen Elizabeth
-class
aircraft carriers
. In 2015, Cammell Laird was selected as the preferred bidder to construct
RRS
Sir David Attenborough
, a
Royal Research Ship
.
[32]
[33]
Commerce
[
edit
]
Birkenhead's first market was established in 1835 in a purpose-built building in Hamilton Street near its junction with Market Street. This building also contained the town hall, commissioners' offices and a lock-up. It is often said that the first market was opened on the site of the later town hall in Hamilton Square. This is untrue. In fact, part of the eastern side of Hamilton Square was deliberately left empty until 1887, when the main town hall was built on that designated site. The Hamilton Square town hall site was never used as a market, despite that myth being propagated in many accounts of Birkenhead's history, including official sources. The large market hall which was a famous feature of Birkenhead was built behind the original market, along Albion Street, opening in July 1845. This market hall was built by
Fox, Henderson & Co
, who later built
The Crystal Palace
.
[34]
Michael Marks
, of
Marks & Spencer
, opened one of his first seven 'Penny Bazaar' stalls here during the 1880s.
[35]
On 31 January 2018, Marks & Spencer announced the closure of their store, in the town centre of Birkenhead, happening in April.
[36]
[37]
During the 1970s, the commercial centre of the town was redeveloped around the principal shopping area of Grange Road. Following two fires at the expanded Birkenhead Market in 1969 and 1974, it was moved to new premises adjoining the Grange Shopping Precinct development in 1977.
[38]
Commercial expansion continued in the early 1990s when the Pyramids Shopping Centre was opened. The previous market site has been redeveloped with the construction of two office buildings, primarily to house
Land Registry
and
Department for Work and Pensions
offices.
Economic statistics
[
edit
]
In February 2010, the town had an overall unemployment rate of 8.2% (males 12.4%, female 4.1%) as against a national average of 4.4%.
[39]
Demography
[
edit
]
In 2011, Birkenhead had a population of 88,818. The wider Urban Subdivision
[
clarification needed
]
had a population of over 142,000. However, this latter figure includes areas such as
Greasby
and
Frankby
, which are separate from Birkenhead.
These are the 2011 ethnic groups for the town:
[40]
Landmarks
[
edit
]
Birkenhead Park
is acknowledged to be the first publicly funded park in
Britain
.
[41]
The park was the forerunner of the Parks Movement and its influence was far reaching both in Britain and abroad ? most notably on
Frederick Law Olmsted
's design for
Central Park
in
New York City
.
[42]
Designed by
Joseph Paxton
(later Sir Joseph Paxton) in 1843 and officially opened in 1847, with great festivity.
[43]
The park's
Grand Entrance
, modelled on the Temple of Illysus in Athens,
[
citation needed
]
and its 'Roman Boathouse' are notable features. There are sandstone lodges at the three entrances, each with a different style of architecture,
Gothic
,
Norman
and
Italianate
. There are also two lakes and an ornate 'Swiss Bridge'.
William Laird
, a Scot, and his son
John
, were influential in the design of the town. Parts were laid out in a grid-iron pattern like
Edinburgh New Town
with similar architecture. The chief architect was
James Gillespie Graham
from Edinburgh.
[44]
This grid pattern was centred around
Hamilton Square
which was started in 1826 and, apart from
Trafalgar Square
in London, contains the most
Grade I listed buildings
in one place in England.
[45]
including
Birkenhead Town Hall
. A short distance from Hamilton Square are two other notable landmarks: the
Queensway Tunnel Main Entrance
and the
Woodside Ferry Terminal
. The film
Chariots of Fire
had scenes shot at Woodside. These scenes were as a representation of
Dover
in the 1920s.
[46]
Other notable landmarks include
Bidston Windmill
on a ridge behind the town, Flaybrick Watertower and
Birkenhead Priory & St. Mary's Tower
.
Transport
[
edit
]
Buses
[
edit
]
Horse-drawn buses began operating in Birkenhead in 1848, to be replaced with motor vehicles after the
First World War
.
[47]
Present-day services are run by operators including
Arriva
and
Stagecoach
, which are coordinated by
Merseytravel
.
National Express
provides long-distance coach services to other UK cities, with direct routes including London, Glasgow,
Bangor
and
Newcastle
.
[48]
Bus station
[
edit
]
The bus station was opened in 1996. It is adjacent to The Grange shopping centre and Birkenhead Market.
It has a total of eleven stands and incorporates a travel centre. The main bus operators at the station include
Arriva North West
and
Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire
.
Services using the bus station operate around the town of Birkenhead, throughout the Wirral and to the nearby city of
Liverpool
via the
Queensway Tunnel
. The station also has frequent services to as far away as
Chester
.
Railways
[
edit
]
The major underground station in Birkenhead is
Birkenhead Hamilton Square
, the nearest station to the ferry terminal. Hamilton Square station is linked to the Liverpool Loop of the
Wirral Line
, which includes
Liverpool James Street
,
Moorfields
,
Liverpool Lime Street
and
Liverpool Central
stations; all of these are underground. Other stations in the town include
Birkenhead Central
, which is open but below ground level;
Green Lane
, below ground level;
Rock Ferry
;
Conway Park
, below ground level;
Birkenhead Park
;
Birkenhead North
; and
Bidston
.
The Wirral Line from Birkenhead travels south to
Chester
and
Ellesmere Port
, north to
New Brighton
and westwards, across the Wirral Peninsula, to
West Kirby
. Bidston (in the north of Birkenhead) is at one end of the
Borderlands Line
, it serves the rural centre of Wirral, near
Shotton
it leaves England for Wales, serving
Wrexham General
and terminating at
Wrexham Central
,.
[49]
Railways reached Birkenhead in 1840, when the
Chester and Birkenhead Railway
began services.
[50]
Birkenhead Grange Lane station
opened at the same time, becoming the town's first terminus.
[50]
Birkenhead Dock station
opened in 1866, as the eastern terminus of the
Hoylake Railway
.
[51]
With the opening of the
Woodside and Birkenhead Dock Street Tramway
in 1873,
[52]
this station probably became the world's first
tram
to train
interchange
.
[51]
In 1886, Birkenhead and
Liverpool
were linked by an
underground railway
system, which today is part of the
Merseyrail
network.
From 1878 until its closure in 1967,
Birkenhead Woodside station
was the town's mainline railway terminus. Originally sited close to Woodside Ferry Terminal, the site had been redeveloped as part of Cammell Laird ship builders. Latterly, the adjacent dry dock at Cammell Laird was filled in and the area redeveloped to provide flats, a bus depot and offices for
HM Land Registry
and the
Child Support Agency
.
The town has one operational railway depot,
Birkenhead North TMD
; one disused,
Birkenhead Central TMD
; and two demolished,
Birkenhead Mollington Street TMD
and a further depot adjacent to Birkenhead Park station. The remains of the
Birkenhead Dock Branch
are still extant in a
cutting
through the centre of the town, which was used primarily for freight services. Much of the peripheral railway infrastructure, around the docks, has been removed since the 1980s.
Former tramways
[
edit
]
Birkenhead had the first street tramway in Britain. Opened on 29 August 1860, the first line ran from
Woodside
(adjoining the terminal of the Mersey Ferry) to
Birkenhead Park
. This early system was horse-drawn and was the brainchild of flamboyant American,
George Francis Train
.
[53]
[54]
A preserved tram was on display in the Woodside ferry terminal booking hall.
The system was later electrified and operated from 1901 as
Birkenhead Corporation Tramways
; it closed in 1937.
[55]
Two replica trams, imported from Hong Kong, have been brought into service as part of a heritage tramway between Woodside and
Wirral Transport Museum
;
Birkenhead Corporation Tramways
car No.20 is preserved on this line.
As part of the
Wirral Waters
development, a street car service has been proposed, to be called
Wirral Street Car
.
[56]
Roads
[
edit
]
Junctions 1 and 3 of the
M53 motorway
facilitate access to the national motorway network. The
A41
trunk road
connects Woodside with
Marble Arch
in London. Two road tunnels, the
Queensway road tunnel
from Birkenhead and the
Kingsway road tunnel
from Wallasey, run underneath the River Mersey and connect the town to Liverpool.
Maritime
[
edit
]
Birkenhead's
dock system
is part of the
Port of Liverpool
, operated by the
Mersey Docks and Harbour Company
under the ownership of
The Peel Group
. The
Twelve Quays
ferry terminal allows a direct freight and passenger vehicle service to
Dublin
and
Belfast
. Daily Belfast services are run by
Stena Line
, using their
RoPax
ferries
MS
Stena Edda
and
MS
Stena Embla
from 2020 to 2021,
[57]
which replaced
MS
Stena Lagan
and
MS
Stena Mersey
.
[58]
The
Mersey Ferry
at Woodside operates a passenger service to Liverpool and chartered cruising.
During winter months, the
Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
operates a service from Birkenhead to
Douglas
using
MS
Ben-my-Chree
. Due to weather conditions, this service temporarily replaces the route that normally operates from the Liverpool landing stage using fast craft.
Aviation
[
edit
]
The nearest airport is
Liverpool John Lennon Airport
(formerly known as Speke Airport), about 8 miles (13 km) from Birkenhead.
Manchester Airport
is approximately 40 mi (64 km) away. Other nearby aviation facilities include
Hawarden Airport
and
RAF Woodvale
. Former airfields in the area include
RAF Hooton Park
and
Bidston
Aerodrome.
[59]
Education
[
edit
]
Schools
[
edit
]
Birkenhead has a number of maintained schools, including
Birkenhead Park School
(formed after the merger of Rock Ferry High School and Park High School) and the only all-boys Catholic grammar school in the area
St. Anselm's College
.
Birkenhead also has two independently run schools. The oldest is
Birkenhead School
.
[60]
It was exclusively a boys' school from its founding in 1860 until 2000, when its sixth form became co-educational. It became fully co-educational for pupils aged 3?18 in 2008.
[61]
"Old Birkonians" (as former pupils are known) include the lawyer
F.E. Smith
(Lord Birkenhead);
Andreas Whittam Smith
(chairman of the
British Board of Film Classification
(BBFC) and founder of
The Independent
newspaper); mountaineer
Andrew Irvine
;
Philip Toosey
(hero at the
Bridge on the River Kwai
); and
Tony Hall
(former
Director-General of the BBC
).
Birkenhead High School Academy
, formerly Birkenhead Girls High School, is an all-ability state funded girls'
Academy
. It was founded in 1885 and caters for girls aged 3?19. Its sponsor was the
Girls' Day School Trust
, but is now publicly funded. Its alumnae include the actress
Patricia Routledge
. Birkenhead Girls High School decided to become a state-funded
Academy
school in 2009, increasing the availability of its education.
[62]
Like the change to co-education at Birkenhead School, this decision was largely driven by falling pupil numbers;
[
citation needed
]
however to this date, it remains a single-sex school.
Birkenhead Institute Grammar School
[63]
existed from 1889 in Whetstone Lane, before being moved to Claughton in the 1970s. The school closed in 1994.
[64]
The school's alumni include
Wilfred Owen
.
Colleges
[
edit
]
Previously situated at Borough Road, Birkenhead's college has campuses at Europa Boulevard and Twelve Quays. The college was originally Birkenhead Technical College, and has been known as
Wirral Metropolitan College
since the 1980s.
[
citation needed
]
The college had a theatre on Borough Road named after one of its most famous former students,
Glenda Jackson
, the
Oscar
-winning actress and Member of Parliament, herself a Birkonian, born in 1936. The Borough Road campus and the Glenda Jackson Theatre were demolished in late 2005, to make way for
flats
, although Wirral Metropolitan College flourishes on other sites across Wirral. The theatre secretly housed an emergency command centre for the region in its basement, accessible via the college.
[65]
Politicians and officials would have retreated to this secure
bunker
in the event of nuclear war to co-ordinate the recovery effort. By the 1990s, after the end of the
Cold War
, the bunker had been decommissioned and the surrounding complex of rooms was used by the college as a rehearsal space and recording studio.
[65]
Other colleges include the
Birkenhead Sixth Form College
, in the Claughton area of the town, formerly the site of Corpus Christi Catholic High School.
Religion
[
edit
]
Religion in Birkenhead dates back to 1150 when Hamon de Masci founded
Birkenhead Priory
for the
Benedictine
order.
The current
Anglican
churches are
St. James' Church
,
Christ Church
and the
Church of Christ the King
which are all within the
Diocese of Chester
.
Julie Conalty
is the current
suffragan
Bishop of Birkenhead
.
Roman Catholic
churches include the
Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception
and
St. Werburgh's Church
which are within the
Diocese of Shrewsbury
.
The other religious buildings include the
Wirral Christian Centre
of the
Elim Pentecostal Church
and the
Islamic
Shah Jalal
Mosque
.
[66]
The
Jewish
Birkenhead
Synagogue
existed from 1890 and closed prior to 2006.
[67]
Flaybrick Memorial Gardens
contains the town's former main cemetery, which is situated near to St. James' Church. Flaybrick Hill Cemetery has been superseded by
Landican Cemetery
, opened in 1934.
Healthcare
[
edit
]
Birkenhead has one of the highest mortality rates among men over 65 in the UK.
[68]
Birkenhead is served by
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
(through its
Arrowe Park Hospital
,
St Catherine's Health Centre
and
Clatterbridge Hospital
sites) and Wirral
Primary Care Trust
. Formerly, Birkenhead was also served by
Birkenhead General Hospital
on Park Road North and St. James' Hospital in Claughton, now demolished and redeveloped for housing.
[69]
Arts, sports and leisure
[
edit
]
Arts
[
edit
]
The
Laird School of Art
was the first public school of art outside London and was given to the town by John Laird. It opened on 27 September 1871. The
Williamson Art Gallery
was opened in 1928 and houses a fine collection of paintings, porcelain and pottery.
In 1856, Birkenhead Library was opened as the country's first public library in an
unincorporated
borough.
[70]
The library was situated in Hamilton Street until 1909, when it moved to a new building in Market Street South,
[71]
near Birkenhead Market. In the 1930s, this building (along with much of the surrounding area) was demolished to make way for the entrance to the
Queensway Tunnel
. The present library,
Birkenhead Central Library
, is situated on Borough Road and was opened by
King George V
in 1934.
[71]
Despite being in England, Birkenhead (known as
Penbedw
, in Welsh) hosted Wales'
National Eisteddfod
in 1917
[72]
as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1879. As in Liverpool,
[73]
migrants from Wales, especially North Wales, contributed greatly to the growth of the town and its cultural development in the 19th century. The first local Birkenhead Eisteddfod, a precursor of the national events, took place in 1864.
[74]
The 1917 National Eisteddfod was notable for the award of the chair to the poet Ellis Humphrey Evans, known as
Hedd Wyn
. The winner was announced, and the crowd waited for the winner to accept congratulations before the chairing ceremony, but no winner appeared. It was then announced that Hedd Wyn had been killed the previous month on the battlefield in Belgium, and the bardic chair was draped in black. These events were portrayed in the
Academy Award
nominated film
Hedd Wyn
, and were apparently intended as a protest against the war policies of
Prime Minister
David Lloyd George
, who was present. There is a commemorative stone for the event in Birkenhead Park.
[75]
The first meeting of the international
Celtic Congress
also took place at the Birkenhead Eisteddfod.
[76]
The
Argyle Theatre
was a major theatre and music hall which opened on 28 December 1868
[38]
and became notable for the calibre of artistes who appeared there. Later in its life, it was also used as a cinema. The theatre was destroyed by bombing in 1940.
[77]
The
Theatre Royal
, opened on 31 October 1864, was in Argyle Street and had a capacity of 1,850.
[38]
This theatre was closed in 1919 and demolished in the 1930s.
[38]
Another theatre, the
Hippodrome
, which was converted into a cinema in the 1930s, stood on the site of what became the
Co-operative
department store in Grange Road.
[78]
The Little Theatre was established in 1958 from a converted former
Presbyterian
church. The Pacific Road Arts Centre in Woodside opened in 1999, but in 2015 was converted to a “Business Hub”.
Media
[
edit
]
Birkenhead is served by the
Liverpool Echo
local daily newspaper. The local weekly newspaper is the
Wirral Globe
and the online-only news website is
Birkenhead News
.
The local radio station
Heart Wirral
is based in offices at the Pacific Road Arts Centre. In addition, there are five other local radio stations that transmit to Birkenhead:
BBC Radio Merseyside
,
Radio City 96.7
,
Greatest Hits Liverpool
,
Capital Liverpool
and
CityTalk
.
Birkenhead is situated within the television regions of
BBC North West
and
ITV
's
Granada Television
. The local television station
Bay TV Liverpool
also broadcasts to the area.
[79]
Leisure
[
edit
]
As well as Birkenhead Park, other recreational open spaces in Birkenhead include Mersey Park and Victoria Park.
Arrowe Park
is a large area of parkland at the western edge of the town. In 1929, the
3rd World Scout Jamboree
was held there.
The first two
Boy Scout
groups in the world are thought to have been founded as the 1st and 2nd Birkenhead groups at
YMCA
on the same night in 1908.
[80]
The 2nd Birkenhead Scout Group is still operating and therefore is the longest running scout group in the world.
[
citation needed
]
Sport
[
edit
]
The first known
football
club on the Wirral was Birkenhead F.C. which was founded in 1879 by Robert E. Lythgoe, a former
Druids F.C.
player. An unrelated, disbanded side had played under the name Tranmere Rovers Cricket Club in 1881?82. Other clubs included Belmont Football Club, founded in 1884. They adopted the name
Tranmere Rovers F.C.
the following year, and are a professional team who play at
Prenton Park
near the Tranmere area of the town. They were a founder member of
Division Three North
in 1921, and were a member of
The Football League
until 2015, when they were relegated to the
Conference
, the fifth tier of English football. They returned to the Football League three seasons later, after a 2-1 play-off final win against
Boreham Wood F.C.
Cammell Laird 1907 F.C.
is the town's semi-professional
football
club who play at Kirklands in Rock Ferry. They play in the
North West Counties League
Division One.
The
Birkenhead Park Football Club
was founded in 1871, the same year as the
Rugby Football Union
. The club originally played in the Lower Park but moved to their current home in the Upper Park in 1885.
[81]
Birkenhead Park also has its own
cricket
club.
[82]
Also in the town are the Birkenhead North End and Victoria Cycling Clubs. Olympic riders from the clubs include
Chris Boardman
,
Mark Bell
,
Steve Cummings
and
Rachel Heal
.
[83]
[84]
Birkenhead has been host to various
rowing
clubs since 1840.
[85]
At present, Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club operates from a facility at the western end of West Float.
[86]
Cultural references
[
edit
]
Birkenhead is indirectly referenced by "
the Birken'ead drill
" in
Rudyard Kipling
's poem "Soldier an' Sailor Too":
To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about, / Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin' to shout; / But to stand an' be still to the Birken'ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew, / An' they done it, the Jollies ? 'Er Majesty's Jollies ? soldier an' sailor too!
, as it refers to heroism by Royal Marines during the sinking of
HMS Birkenhead
, herself named after the town in which it was built.
Other authors
have done this as well.
Birkenhead is mentioned in the song "What She Said" on the album
Meat Is Murder
by
the Smiths
: "
What she read/All heady books/She'd sit and prophesise/(It took a tattooed boy from Birkenhead/To really really open her eyes).
" The town is also referred to in the song "Everything Is Sorrow" on the
Boo Radleys
'
C'mon Kids
album:
I worked in Birkenhead for you/It brings me tears even now.
A fairly detailed description of the town is given in
Paul O'Grady
's memoirs,
At My Mother's Knee... and Other Low Joints: The Autobiography
.
The 1998 book,
Awaydays
, and the 2009 film of the same name are set in Birkenhead.
In August 2022 the
Member of Parliament
for
Birkenhead
,
Mick Whitley
, supported the findings of local historian John Lamb that
Robert Louis Stevenson
had set his 1881 classic novel
Treasure Island
in the towns of Birkenhead and Wallasey. This followed a previous announcement by Alan Evans of
Wirral Borough Council
that the French science fiction writer
Jules Verne
had set his 1874 novel
The Mysterious Island
in Birkenhead. Their letters of support for Mr Lamb's claims were posted on the
Jules Verne and the Heroes of Birkenhead
website in August 2022.
[87]
[88]
[89]
Notable people
[
edit
]
- See
Category:People from Merseyside
Actors and performers
[
edit
]
In the arts, Birkenhead has produced several actors and performers including
Lionel Gamlin
,
Roger Abbott
,
[90]
Glenda Jackson
,
[91]
Anew McMaster
,
[92]
[93]
Lewis Collins
,
Megs Jenkins
,
[94]
Taron Egerton
,
Dominic Purcell
,
[
citation needed
]
Patricia Routledge
,
[95]
Paul O'Grady
(also known as
Lily Savage
),
[96]
soprano
Valerie Masterson
[97]
and baritone
George Baker
.
[98]
The dancer and actor
Lindsay Kemp
was born in the town but as a child moved to
South Shields
.
[99]
Opera director
Graham Vick
was born in Birkenhead.
[100]
Artists
[
edit
]
Some notable artists were born in the town, such as
Philip Wilson Steer
,
Robert Talbot Kelly
,
Tom Palin
,
Bessie Bamber
,
Annie R. Merrylees Arnold
,
Percy Bigland
, the workers at the
Della Robbia Pottery
and two cartoonists:
Norman Thelwell
and
Bill Tidy
.
[101]
Authors and journalists
[
edit
]
Birkenhead has produced poets and authors such as
A.S.J. Tessimond
,
Adrian Henri
[102]
and Michael Z. Williamson. The World War I poet
Wilfred Owen
, though born in
Oswestry
, lived in Birkenhead from the age of four and was educated at the Birkenhead Institute High School (now demolished) before moving with his family to
Shrewsbury
in 1907.
Andreas Whittam Smith
, founder editor of
The Independent
, grew up in Birkenhead, where his father was an
Anglican
clergyman.
[103]
Musicians
[
edit
]
There are several musicians linked to the area.
Freddie Marks
from
Rod, Jane and Freddy
grew up in Birkenhead, and
John Gorman
of
The Scaffold
was born there. Indie band
Half Man Half Biscuit
hail from Birkenhead, as did boogie-rock band
Engine
,
Paul Heaton
, lead singer of the
Housemartins
and the
Beautiful South
, singer/songwriter
Charlie Landsborough
, and
Desmond Briscoe
, the co-founder and original manager of the pioneering
BBC Radiophonic Workshop
.
Elvis Costello
moved to Birkenhead in 1971 with his mother,
[104]
who was from Liverpool, although Costello's father was himself from Birkenhead.
Tony Friel
(bassist from
the Fall
and
the Passage
), synthpop musician
David Hughes
(of
Dalek I Love You
,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
and
Godot
) and
Malcolm Holmes
(drummer with pop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) were born there.
David Balfe
(music manager, and member of Dalek I Love You,
Big in Japan
,
the Teardrop Explodes
) attended primary and secondary school there.
Miles Kane
, musician, singer and songwriter and member of
The Last Shadow Puppets
and
The Rascals
, was born in the town
[105]
as well as the opera singer
Hugh Beresford
. Classical composer
William Lewarne Harris
(1919?2013) was born in Birkenhead.
Politicians and public figures
[
edit
]
F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead
, a leading Conservative politician of the early 20th century, was born in the town,
[106]
as were
Liberal Democrat
politician
Malcolm Bruce
,
[107]
and
Tony Hall, Baron Hall of Birkenhead
, the
Director-General of the BBC
.
[108]
Also born in the town was
Theodora Llewelyn Davies
, a barrister and penal reform campaigner, who in 1920 was the first woman admitted to the
Inner Temple
.
Scientists and technologists
[
edit
]
Aerodynamicists
Gwen Alston
and
Melvill Jones
were born in Birkenhead.
Explorers and soldiers
[
edit
]
Sandy Irvine
, a participant of the
1924 British Mount Everest expedition
, was born in Birkenhead. There has been speculation that
George Mallory
and he reached the summit.
Alan Rouse
, a mountaineer who died in the
1986 K2 disaster
, was educated in Birkenhead.
Daniel Poole
, a recipient of the
Distinguished Conduct Medal
during World War I was born in the town.
[109]
Brigadier Sir Philip Toosey
, known for his time commanding British prisoners of the Japanese during World War II, was born at
Oxton
.
[110]
Sportspeople
[
edit
]
Birkenhead has also produced notable sportsmen such as
Matt Dawson
, the
rugby union
player;
'Dixie' Dean
(
Everton F.C.
),
[91]
record-breaking footballer, who was born at 313 Laird Street; and several other footballers including
Peter Davenport
,
Jason McAteer
,
David Thompson
,
Max Power
,
[111]
and
Jodie Taylor
(England international "Lioness").
[112]
The football manager
Nigel Adkins
also hails from the town.
[
citation needed
]
Others
[
edit
]
Gary Finlay, the
murderer of Graham McKenna
, was born in Birkenhead,
[113]
as was the prominent
occultist
Alex Sanders
.
[114]
Twin towns
[
edit
]
Birkenhead is
twinned
, as a part of
Wirral
, with:
Twin towns ? Sister cities
[
edit
]
Birkenhead also has a
Sister City Agreement
with:
Future
[
edit
]
The major redevelopment project under consideration is
Peel Holdings
' "
Wirral Waters
". This would allow for £4.5 billion of investment in the regeneration of the dockland area. This equates with an investment of over £14,000 for each of the 320,000 residents of the Wirral. At the
East Float
and
Vittoria Dock
, the development would include 5,000,000 square feet (465,000 m
2
) of new office space and 11,000,000 square feet (1,000,000 m
2
) for new residential flats. A retail and leisure quarter at the former
Bidston Dock
site would encompass another 571,000 square feet (53,000 m
2
) of space. The whole project would create more than 27,000 permanent new jobs, aside from the employment required for construction and other peripheral employment. The development would be expected to take up to thirty years.
[116]
See also
[
edit
]
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[
edit
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a
b
c
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- ^
Dunn, Justin (3 March 2009).
"1,100 gather for Graham McKenna's funeral"
.
Wirral Globe
. Retrieved
11 December
2020
.
- ^
"A Talk by Maxine Sanders" part 1,
Witchcraft and Wicca
Issue 3, p. 4. London: Children of Artemis.
- ^
Town Twinning
, Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, 1997,
ISBN
92-827-8272-7
, archived from
the original
on 3 July 2007
, retrieved
14 January
2008
- ^
Peel unveil plans for £4.5 billion "Wirral Waters" scheme
, Peel Holdings, 5 September 2006, archived from
the original
on 11 October 2007
, retrieved
14 January
2008
Sources
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Aspinall, Henry Kelsall (1903).
Birkenhead and its Surroundings
. Liverpool: The Liverpool Booksellers' Co. Ltd.
ISBN
9785874616144
.
OCLC
33990938
.
- Boumphrey, Ian; Boumphrey, Marilyn (1981).
Yesterday's Wirral: Birkenhead, Prenton and Oxton
. Ian & Marilyn Boumphrey.
ISBN
9780950725512
.
OCLC
16599808
.
- Boumphrey, Ian (1995).
Birkenhead: A Pictorial History
. Phillmore.
ISBN
9780850339888
.
OCLC
36548684
.
- Boumphrey, Ian (2007a).
Yesterday's Birkenhead
. The author.
ISBN
9781899241262
.
- Boumphrey, Ian (2007b).
Birkenhead at War 1939-45
. Ian & Marilyn Boumphrey.
ISBN
9781899241163
.
OCLC
650238915
.
- Broadbent, R.J. (1908).
Annals of the Liverpool Stage
. Liverpool: Edward Howell. pp. 377?386.
- Brocklebank, Ralph T. (2003).
Birkenhead: An Illustrated History
. Breedon.
ISBN
9781859833506
.
OCLC
56469838
.
- Collard, Ian (2010).
Birkenhead from old photographs
. Amberley.
ISBN
9781848685796
.
OCLC
503647633
.
- Davey, Elizabeth (2013).
Birkenhead: A History
. The History Press.
ISBN
9780750955522
.
OCLC
316434050
.
- Gamlin, Hilda (1892).
Memories of the chronicles of Birkenhead
. E. Howell.
OCLC
866209732
.
- Hayes, Cliff (2007).
A Century of Birkenhead and Wirral
. Sutton.
ISBN
9780750949040
.
OCLC
520460751
.
- Jones, Alan G. (2011).
Birkenhead Shipbuilding
. Fast Print.
ISBN
9781780352114
.
OCLC
773368902
.
- Kaighin, J.R. (1925).
Bygone Birkenhead
. Wilmer.
OCLC
77304339
.
- Lea, Myrra (1974).
Birkenhead, 1877-1974
. County Borough of Birkenhead.
ISBN
9780904582000
.
OCLC
1365533
.
- McCarron, Ken (1991).
Meat at Woodside: Birkenhead Livestock Trade, 1878-1981
. Merseyside Port Folios.
ISBN
9780951612927
.
OCLC
26313657
.
- McIntyre, W.R.S. (1948).
Birkenhead yesterday and today
. Philip.
OCLC
504769644
.
- Mortimer, William Williams (1847).
The History of the Hundred of Wirral
. London: Whittaker & Co.
OCLC
4976662
. pp305?405.
- Mott, Charles Grey (1900).
Reminiscences of Birkenhead
. H. Young and Sons.
OCLC
12987941
.
- Sadler, Michael E. (1904).
Report on Secondary Education in Birkenhead
. London: George Philip & Son Ltd.
- Sulley, Philip (1907).
History of ancient and modern Birkenhead
. W.M. Murphy.
OCLC
29557494
.
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