Leasowe - A Wirral Venice?

Leasowe is a low lying part of the Wirral on its northern shoreline with the Irish Sea.  It is so low, that most of it is in fact below sea level, and made habitable by the embankment built to keep the sea away.  It is because the area around the shore was so prone to flooding by rain because of it's low level that the remark about Venice was made.

House built on the land between Leasowe Road and the shoreline embankment had to be built on stilts to keep them above the floodwaters.  During the "rainy season" many houses could only be got to by boat or raft, while the lucky ones were able to use duckboards to make a pathway.

Such were the conditions at the turn of the 20th century.  They were described as being in a worse sanitary condition than many city slums, but despite that, the people who lived there were as healthy as the rest of Wallasey ( I suppose that doesn't say much for the rest of Wallasey does it!! )  In 1928 the area held more than 2000 unsanitary houses, which were sometime even converted tramcars and rail carriages.  Wallasey Council became responsible for the area in that year, and by 1939 almost 1500 of these had been replaced, new roads built, and good water supplies and drainage provided.  

What is now known as Leasowe is therefore a "modern" area, with little to show for it's past occupation.  The area was rebuilt before the high rise revolution happened.  There were once three three storey blocks of flats, but even these were demolished some 10 years ago and a new community centre is now being built on the site.  Each of the areas that make up Leasowe is built round small to medium open areas for children to play, and at one time, 1960's and 70's, there was even a proper park with a rose garden in the centre. ( The trellises were that strong they were used as climbing frames!)

Leasowe was once a wreckers paradise.  At one time there were two lighthouses serving the shoreline, but one was damaged by the sea, and was taken down.  This was replaced by the one on Bidston Hill in 1771.  The remaining lighthouse has the date mark of 1763.  (This is still there today, open to visitors on a few weekends during the summer, and is looked after by the Friends of Leasowe Lighthouse.)

Wreckers used to patrol the shoreline on stormy nights looking for the ships on their way into the rivers.  These ships would rely on the lighthouse for directions.  The wreckers had other ideas.  They would hang a lantern on the back of a donkey and slowly move it along the foreshore luring the unsuspecting ships onto the hidden sandbanks.  According to legend they even stood and watched the poor sailormen drown.

Another old "custom" of the area was smuggling.  Smugglers would bring their contraband ashore and take it along to the Red Noses area of New Brighton.  It is here that there is hidden away a secret tunnel leading to a tavern called Mother Redcaps.  There are tales of buried treasure hidden below the building.  The original building was built in 1595, and survived until 1888 when it was rebuilt.  Unfortunately this building has gone too.  Nothing was ever found at the site to confirm any of the tales of tunnels or treasure.  A home for the elderly now occupies the site.

If you are a fan of horse racing, you may be interested to know that "The Derby" was first run here on the sands at Leasowe.

There is even a Castle that overlooks the shore, with tales of ghosts.  This was built in 1593 by the Earl of Derby.   It has had a chequered history throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.  It was owned by the Cust family from 1802 to 1895.  Sir Edward Cust renovated the buildings.  It was sold on his death and became a hotel before being turned into a convalescent home for Railway men in 1911.  It was bought by Wallasey Corporation in 1970, and then in 1980 by a local businessman who turned it back into a hotel.  It is still a hotel today, and has been used by many famous actors and comics when the Leasowe Golf Club organises one of their Pro-Celebrity matches.  (Meals are a bit on the expensive side, but are nice, and are served in some pleasant surroundings.

Sadly no longer in existence is the castle's "Canute's Chair".  This was a wooden bench with the words "Sea come not hither nor wet the sole of my foot", and is depicted in Ormerod's History of Cheshire, 1882.  The bench became dilapidated after WW2 and was never repaired.

The following contains some of my modern remembrances

Leasowe became another World's First when a hovercraft started operating the first ever passenger service.  This was between Leasowe and Rhyl in North Wales.  Leasowe was chosen because it had the embankment already there as a hard landing site, and provided a gentle slope for the machine to come off the water to.  It was an extremely noisy event when the craft came ashore. It was an exciting event to see this, to me, being just a small boy at the time, huge machine just come straight off the sea onto land.  I can remember lots of noise and wind from the skirt fan and two rear propellers, and only a few people using it.  The service was stopped after a short time because so few people actually used it.

Hidden within the embankment that the hovercraft used is a reminder of ships of the past.  One stormy night a ship called "Emblematic" was driven ashore.  She proved to be too troublesome to remove, and was buried in the embankment.  When the embankment was renovated her remains were uncovered, but again buried beneath tons of concrete.

Much of the reclaimed land made available by the embankment is now used as "Market Gardens", and used to grow fruit or vegetables.  These lands were owned and farmed by the Webster, Sparks and Coventry families, but are now broken up into smaller holdings. As a child I used to go there to "help" on the allotment that my grandfather had in one of Sparks fields.  Cockling was, and still is, quite a large industry.  I can recall large sacks in the back garden every weekend, and I would often crack them open and eat them raw, straight out of the shell.  No problems with pollution back then

Until 1971 there was no secondary school for boys in Leasowe, they had to travel to Liscard or Breck Road, Wallasey Village  (link is the inscription on what is now a house, but used to be the school), for their higher education.  This changed when Wallasey Grammar School for Boys was built and opened in Leasowe.  See 1971 class photo.  The school had been in existence since at least 1595 when the burial of a headmaster is recorded in St Hilary's, Liscard, registers.  The school was in Liscard until 1971, and the old buildings are still in use as a school today, now Egremont Primary School,.  The School has undergone some name changes.  In 1973 the then pupils at the school had the choice of names when it went from a Grammar to a Comprehensive school by order of the Government.  I can't recall the three choices we had, but he most popular was the name "Henry Meols School".  This was after an old boy.  The school later amalgamated with the girls school, Oxley, that was on an adjacent site, becoming Wallasey School.  This is it's current name.

It is now undergoing major extensions and alterations.  The separate site is going, and a new primary school is being built there to replace the existing, but rather old, Leasowe Primary school.  

In 1963 a new primary school, Castleway, was built to take the Leasowe infants, but proved not to be big enough.  Pupils were moved from Leasowe to there to start with, but both schools were needed.  I was pupil no. 17 at Castleway, and moved back to Leasowe Primary after a year.  I can remember Mr. Wilson who also did sports, Mrs Jackson and Mr. Williams.  Books that we used for English were the Dick and Dora, Janet and John, Fluff and Nip.  We also did French language and Maths to a much higher level than today's primary schools do. Both schools now cater for pupils aged 4 - 11.

What is now known as "Solar Campus" on Leasowe Road is also a World "One and Only".  This was once called St Georges Middle School, and took pupils aged 11 to 13.  The secret of the building was the construction.  The South side is all windows, hence it's modern name, which were specially treated to react with sunlight.  Unfortunately this treatment soon went out of manufacture.  I recall the headmaster there, Mr. Bradshaw, used to walk the school with a cane tucked into his belt, and wasn't averse to using it when needed.  Teachers names I can remembers, 1969-71 were Mr. Hogan, history, and Mr. Nesbit, English. When secondary schools started taking in the 11/12 year ranges this school became the temporary home of St Mary's Catholic School until their new building in Wallasey Village was built.  As it's modern name suggests, the school is still in use as an educational and administrative building.

Along the embankment between Leasowe and Moreton there are the remains of fortifications built during WW2.  What is left today are old concrete bunkers that were machine gun nests.  The area was fortified with sea defences.  Even today there are reminders of that past as sea mines are occasionally dragged up by fishing boats.  The remains of planes that were shot down can be seen at Fort Perch Rock in New Brighton.