Manor Road Maps
1875 & 1898
(click on maps to enlarge)
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Roads of Wallasey
Manor Road
Beginning at the Liscard Village end of Manor Road, during the 1930's, was, for many years, Griffith chemist. The building itself is very interesting as it is constructed on an usual angle between two roads (Liscard Village and Manor Road). Today it is a chip shop.
At No. 3 Manor Road lived Jack Williams who was a policeman and at No. 7 was Bob Herron who was a police fireman and Harry Dolan was a policeman next door. These buildings no longer exist as they were demolished and Wallasey Delivery Office car park now occupies the site.
On the corner of Queens Street stood the once Police Station and Law Courts. Erected in 1913 an extension was added in 1940. After the police forces of Birkenhead, Cheshire County, Stockport and Wallasey were amalgamated into the Cheshire Constabulary the old police station was proven inadequate and so a new building was planned which opened in November 1973.
At. No. 65 lived lived Miss. Jessie Miller, who them moved lower down the road to 'Homeside'. She was the first woman elder to be elected to the Session of Egremont Presbyterian Church. She passed away in 1969, aged ninety. Schoolmaster Adrian Benson lived at No. 81 and his widow, Millie, went to live at No. 55 Seabank Road and was the daughter of Frederick Ash, the manager of the Wallasey Ferries.
Mr. Beauchamp Hill was a singing teacher who lived at No. 87. David Andrew Shaw Nesbitt, V.D., J.P., lived in one the four tall houses which were next to 'Beach Villas' and were between Manor Road and Manor Lane and faced the river. They stood opposite where Manor Road School used to be and were named 'Beachbank' and may have been known as Beachbank Avenue. A large communal garden was in front of them, which ad a willow tree and there were iron railings along the Manor Road side.
A curved pathway ran through it to reach the front doors of the houses and led into the lane. This gentleman was the son of Henry Nesbitt of Aintrim in Ireland and was born in Belfast on 29th April, 1847 and was educated at Belmont Academy in Liscard. He was the head of D.A.S. Nesbitt and Company and was made a Justice of the Peace for Chester in 1907. He was also member of the Wallasey Urban District Council and was Chairman of the Gala Committee at one period. For thirty-three years he was in the Volunteer Movement and retired with the rank of Major and the Volunteer Decoration. He was a Liberal and when Wallasey became a Borough, he was one of the first Councillors to be elected.
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Manor Road School, 1905 |
Fire Station 1900 |
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Fire Station, 1915 |
Unitarian Church, c1900 |
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Manor Road, 1910 |
Masonic Hall, 1911 |
The foundation stone for the Wallasey Masonic Hall was laid on 9th May, 1911. It was dedicated as a Masonic Temple on 20th December 1911 and the Liscard Lodge, which was founded in 1897, held its first meeting in the new premises on 19th January, 1912.
Harold Cooper Bebington, the provision merchant, lived opposite the Y.M.C.A at 'Norton'. He was a keen amateur photographer and member of the Wallasey Amateur Photographic Society. On the corner of Penkett Road was the bowling green belonging to the Association.
On the opposite side of Manor Road in the 1920s, starting from Liscard Village end, was the Fire Station. The station was opened in 1898 and consisted of stabling and a yard. Wallasey had three stations, namely: Manor Road, Brougham Road and Wallasey Village. A new station was built on land adjacent to the existing building and opened on 23rd October, 1915. The station was moved to its present site in Mill Lane in 1974 and the buildings were demolished by the mid 1980's when the ambulance station, who shared the buildings, was transferred to Liscard Road. Today the site is occupied by 'Sherlock House' with the extensive land providing a pay and display car park.
Next to the Fire Station is the sandstone Grade II listed row of 'Firemen's Cottages' though properly named 'Stone Cottages'. >
Living at No.4 was was Tom Wilkinson who was a police sergeant and Dick Johnson, the police firemen lived next door. Another police firemen, Len Marsden, lived at No. 12 where Firemen Bill Heron used to live. Dick Webster was another firemen next door and George Roberts was police firemen at No. 18. Sam Pritchard, the furniture remover, lived at No. 20 in 1925. Next door was was a music teacher, Mrs. Simpson. In the next house was the sea captain, Frank Farrell and to complete the boys in blue, we had Ted Fradley at No. 30 and Police Sergeant at No. 34. Manor Terrace was built in the 1800s and was demolished in 2006 to make way for apartments. It was used by Whitby's Dairies and later as a photographic business.
On the corner of Grosvenor Street stands 'The Concert Hall'. Originally built in 1875 and made of common brick; the building once had a large glass veranda under which carriages picked up the clientele. The first floor of the hall had a large ballroom and offices and other rooms on the ground floor.
It was in this building that the Wallasey High School was born. It opened on 10th September 1883, having Miss Eaton as Principal and three assistants. The name of the school was put over the doorway. The founders included Canon Weatherhead and the Rector of St. Hilary's Church. In the school's first term there was fourteen but by the second term this had increased to sixty. They used two large rooms on the ground floor which were divided into four. The morning began at 9.00 am with Bible Reading and prayers. Miss Anna Vyner took when Miss Eaton left and the school moved to the corner of Stringhey Road and Manor Road, next to the Y.M.C.A gymnasium for drill etc. In April 1908 Miss. Limebeer was appointed Headmistress and the school moved the following year to the new school which had been built on the site of 'Mount Pleasant House' in Mount Pleasant Road. The school was officially opened on 18th September 1909 by John Baber, J.P., C.C. Fees were £6 6s. 0d. to £12 12s 0d. in 1918. Miss Barie was the Headmistress. She was a relative of the Scottish author and dramatist, Sir James Barrie. Miss A. Catnack, B.A., and Miss E. Perrot were the following two headmistresses. In 1939 it cost the parents 12s. 11d for a school blazer and 4s. 9d. for a blouse. P.L. Edwards of Seaview Road and Wallasey Village supplied the uniforms. The school was eventually closed and demolished in 2004.
In the early 1900s the Liscard Orchestral Society played in the Concert Hall with James-Alderson-Smith as their President. He was also locally the Treasurer of the Y.M.C.A. He was also a Freemason. Richard R. Smart was the orchestra leader. By the outbreak of World War II, the Wallasey Home Guard had their first headquarters in the hall.
Near the Concert Hall was Harrowby Tennis Club which later moved down Manor Road, next to the Masonic Hall. When it closed down the Masons acquired the land and made a car park.
The red brick Unitarian Memorial Church opened in 1899 and was designed by Edward Ware and Edmund Rathbone and could hold two hundred and fifty people. The interior displays a rare remarkable example of English 'Arts and Crafts'. Mrs Lillian Mathias was a music teacher at No. 48 Manor Road. Joe Williams was the Secretary of the Conservative Club who had taken over from Mr. Davidson. In February 1991 the then Prime Minister, John Major, visited local party members.
At No. 92 lived Thomas Rimmer who was a musician who taught music at home. He was also the conductor of the Tower Orchestra at New Brighton. Miss Wayne Rimmer was a dance teacher at the same address.
The foundation stone of the brick and sandstone Trinity Church was laid down in 1893 and opened on 12th July, 1904. Trinity Church and the adjoining caretakers Lodge was demolished in 1994 and 'Leighton Nursing Home' now occupies the site.
Manor Road School was built in 1903 to accommodate the growing population of Wallasey. It became Liscard Secondary in the 1950s and the Withensfield School in the 1960s. In the late 1970s Withensfield Middle School moved to the Grammar School site in Withens Lane and the old building was demolished for housing.
Walter Eastwood was a well-known butcher in Wallasey and he was a Town Councillor and later an Alderman. He served as Mayor of Wallasey between 1918 and 1919. He lived at a house called 'Claderbrook' in Manor Road. Rawdon Eastwood also lived at the same address.
The Y.M.C.A. was once the home of Henry Pooley and his family. The large house was called 'Homecroft' and was built in 1848. After Henry's death in 1878 the family moved to Penkett Road. Twenty years later the house was purchased by the Y.M.C.A Association, opening on 21st October, 1899 by the first Chairman, Alderman James Smith, J.P., who was later made President.
They had a bowling green on the corner of Seabank Road. This land was used for the building of the Presbyterian Church and the Association acquired the land on the corner of Penkett Road and Manor Road as a bowling green. In the 1920s Herbert Burgess was Secretary and Mr. J.W. Milner was President. They also had a gymnasium at the rear of the building which was made of corrugated iron and had a pitch pine floor with a stage that was hinged and could be let down when needed.