Wirral – Memories of the 1920’s and 1930’s

What was WIRRAL like between 1919 and 1939?

This video shows you film of the era. After a brief look at Wirral today, we move back in time to 1919 when we join a train at Bebington Station which gives us a lineside view of Port Sunlight Village. Lever's employees arrive in the village via Port Sunlight Station. In the village the Fire Brigade is practising whilst in the works, horse drawn traffic, water transport and steam trains move the goods. In 1929 the locomotives are exported from Birkenhead docks and the following year Birkenhead Trams negotiate floods on New Chester Road. In 1934 King George V and Queen Mary open the New Mersey Road Tunnel and Library. At Bebington Oval, England play France at Motoball (football on motorcycles), Lever's Founders Day events take place and in the same year there is the New Ferry Carnival. Cammell Laird launches its 1,000^th ship - the 'Clement' and later in 1938 the 'Mauretania'. Between 1929 and 1939 we look at days of leisure in New Brighton. King George VI's coronation is celebrated in Priory Court, Birkenhead, and Sir Alan Cobham's Flying Circus visits Upton with an array of aircraft of the era. In 1938 skaters enjoy frozen Raby Mere and Parkgate as a sandy shore instead of weeds. In the same year, steam traction gives way to electricity as the Wirral Lines of the LMS are electrified between Birkenhead Park, New Brighton and West Kirby. The last ferry operates from Rock Ferry to Liverpool in 1938, Seacombe Ferry links with the bus terminus packed with buses and in 1939 we join the New Brighton Ferry. Our journey into the past ends back in 1919 as Lever's staff leave Port Sunlight for home by train. These are just some of the remarkable contents of this video production.

Narrator: Monty Lister of Radio Merseyside