Enjoy Britain The Wirral way With the eyes of the sporting world on Wirral for July’s Open Golf, Barry McLoughlin finds this windswept headland boasts an unlikely array of attractions

The revolutionary German torpedo that may explain the mystery behind the submarine’s sinking. It’s now a tourist attraction for the Wirral M 6 CHOICE FEBRUARY 2014 FEBRUARY 2014 CHOICE 7 Enjoy Britain

The Mersey ferry with M Liverpool’s unmistakeable Liver URREAL IS a word that’s Building in the background been devalued by over-use, often wheeled out to describe anything vaguely unusual. This, though, was truly surreal… I was standing on the promenade in wShat seemed a quintessential seaside resort, with a beach, funfair, amusement N I L

arcades and an early-19th century fort H G U O

guarding the estuary. L C M

Across the river, however, were the Y R R A

cranes of a busy container port, and three B miles away to the south I could see the Brooding Fort Perch Rock and, in the distance, the derricks of Liverpool’s dockland skyline of Liverpool with its two famous cathedrals and ‘Three Graces’ waterfront. The scene was in New Brighton, a walking and cycle routes, countryside with This summer it will receive another once-faded resort on the tip of the Wirral leafy lanes, heritage and cultural huge boost when the Open peninsula – the edge of England – that is attractions, 14 golf courses, stockbroker-belt Championship is staged at the Royal now beginning to blossom again as a mansions, suburbs and even some Liverpool golf course at Hoylake. tourist attraction. In its heyday New traditional heavy industry. Wirral’s always had a symbiotic Brighton had a tower taller than Wedged between Liverpool and North relationship with its big neighbour across Blackpool’s, a pier and a massive open-air Wales, between the Mersey and Dee the river, so it was fitting we started our tour swimming pool. estuaries, Wirral is an oblong of with a trip on the famous Mersey ferry, said I was last there nearly 50 years ago when land containing some startling contrasts – to be the oldest ferry service in Europe. it was still just about clinging to its a 12th century priory next to To the plaintive strains of Gerry ‘seaside’ status before it became the renowned Cammell Laird Marsden’s Ferry ’Cross the Mersey , we took something of a sad anachronism. But a shipbuilding yard, for example. a 50-minute triangular tour between £60m investment – including a new Tourism is on the rise, with Wirral’s Liverpool Pier Head and the two Wirral £60m New Brighton rebirth “I was last there nearly 50 years ago when it was still just about leisure and retail development – has led to visitor economy now valued at more than terminals at Woodside and Seacombe. The idiosyncratic coastal town of New clinging to its ‘seaside’ status, but £60m investment has led to it it being rebranded ‘Brand New Brighton’. £310m a year. The tourism sector provides (When I used to visit New Brighton as a Brighton once had grand hopes being rebranded ‘Brand New Brighton’” Indeed, this sort of tourism regeneration more than 4400 full-time jobs and attracts child in the Sixties, there was also a direct of supplanting rival Blackpool as the is taking place across the Wirral, a almost seven million people annually. ferry there, but it stopped running in 1971.) playground for industrial workers in peninsula that’s a potpourri of just about In 2011/12, the visitor economy grew by The voyage is a must – if only for the the North. remained a popular day-trip destination hotel, restaurant, superstore and digital every aspect of modern British life. four per cent, jobs in tourism increased five stunning views of Liverpool’s World Even its somewhat grandiloquent name for Merseysiders. cinema. The historic Floral Pavilion There’s 25 miles of coastline, nature sites, per cent and short breaks by 13 per cent. Heritage Site waterfront. seemed to hint at ambitions that, Standing on the edge of Liverpool Bay, Theatre is now a popular conference and ultimately, were largely unfulfilled. New Brighton also had strategic performance venue. In the second half of the 19th century it importance. The forbidding landmark of I New Brighton Heritage and Information Wirral Waters developed as a popular resort for Ford Perch Rock, a Grade 2* listed coastal Centre, tel: 0151 639 3555 Liverpool and industrial Lancashire, with defence battery, has dominated the I Fort Perch Rock, tel: 07976 282120. A £4.5bn redevelopment has been a pier, promenade and a competition- estuary since it was built in 1829. Open proposed for Wirral by the Peel Group standard open-air bathing pool. throughout the year, it features an aviation The U-Boat Story as part of two complementary New Brighton Tower, at 567ft, was the archaeology museum and permanent At the delightfully restored Woodside waterside projects either side of the tallest building in Britain when it opened exhibitions about the ill-fated submarine terminal of the Mersey ferries in Mersey. Described as the “largest and most visionary regeneration project in in 1898-90, designed by the firm behind HMS Thetis – on which 99 men died Birkenhead, there’s a compelling but the UK”, Wirral Waters seeks to Blackpool Tower, Maxwell and Tuke. It during sea trials in Liverpool Bay in 1939 – more sinister maritime attraction. One of create more than 20,000 jobs by was almost 50ft higher than Blackpool’s. and air raids over Merseyside during the war. the last surviving German U-Boats from transforming the derelict docks in After neglect during the Great War, There’s an ‘Elvis meets the Beatles’ display the Second World War, U-534, has been Birkenhead into a world-class however, the tower was dismantled and and tearoom, and it also hosts concerts. cut into four sections with glass viewing waterfront. sold for scrap but the ballroom at its base Next to it is the New Brighton Lighthouse, partitions to give an intriguing insight into It involves construction of millions continued in use until damaged by fire in originally the Perch Rock Lighthouse, which life on board these deadly vessels that sunk N I 1969. The Beatles played there no fewer is now family-maintained. millions of tons of Allied shipping the

L of square feet of office space H G

U alongside bars, restaurants and as than 27 times. New Brighton’s fortunes have received North Atlantic.

Forbidding Fort Perch Rock and O L C

M many as 15,000 flats. It could take 30 The resort suffered a swift decline after a massive fillip with the £60m Marine The massive submarine was recovered New Brighton Lighthouse Y R M R years to complete. the Second World War, although it Point development, including a casino, from the sea bed off Scandinavia in 1993, A B

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being transformed into a multi-million M community space thanks to a Heritage and is accompanied by some remarkably The U-Boat Story at Birkenhead Lottery Fund grant of nearly £400,000. well-preserved artefacts in the adjoining Led by Wirral Council, the project will museum, including a German Enigma conserve the buildings to remove them coding machine. from the At Risk register and improve Our enthusiastic tour guide Chris Ince visitor facilities. explained how Merseytravel, which runs I Birkenhead Priory, tel: 0151 652 4177. the ferries, had used the U-boat display to help revitalise the area. He outlined the Port Sunlight often grim conditions in which the crew Like the priory, Port Sunlight is an lived and worked and the mystery over enchanting oasis amid the industrial why it refused to surrender before being landscape of riverside Birkenhead. Soap sunk by an RAF bomber with the war in pioneer William Hesketh Lever, later Europe virtually over. German high Lord Leverhulme, built this garden command had ordered all U-boats to village of arts-and-crafts style houses for his surrender but for some unknown reason workforce, complete with school, library, Main: The Dell at Port Sunlight U-534, heading north towards Norway, church, village hall and pub in 1888. Inset: The Wilfred Owen Story didn’t. Amazingly, all but three of the 52 The pub was originally temperance but crew survived. the enlightened Lord Leverhulme, a Some have speculated it contained teetotaller, put it to a ballot of both his Lady Lever Art Gallery, which the Nazi gold or war criminals escaping to male and female workers – and they voted philanthropist opened in 1922 in memory South America. The more probable for an alcohol licence. of his wife, Elizabeth Ellen. The gallery explanation is that it contained a hugely The village covers more than 130 acres. has an outstanding collection of art and expensive new torpedo that was being Designed by more than 30 architects, crafts, including pre-Raphaelite classics shipped to Japan to continue the war. This every house is different, and there are no and a fine display of Wedgwood pottery. 21ft-long torpedo is now on display. fewer than 800 listed buildings – some of I Port Sunlight Museum and Garden one of its most famous sons, the Great I U-Boat Story, tel: 0151 330 1000, which can be hired for holidays. The leafy Village, tel: 0151 644 6466, website: War poet Wilfred Owen (though this may website: (www.u-boatstory.co.uk). Left: Depth-charge damage that sunk German submarine U-534. Right: This is a full-size roads and open spaces were designed to (www.portsunlightvillage.com). Lady Lever change with this year’s centenary reconstruction of one of the first submarines ever built. Designed by Birkenhead curate provide a breathing space for Art Gallery, tel: 0151 478 4136/4178, commemorations). the Rev George Garrett, the iron and wood vessel was built in 1879 and was the first to be Birkenhead Priory Leverhulme’s employees at a time when website: (www.liverpoolmuseums. The museum was set up by local successfully propelled mechanically underwater. Manned by a crew of three, and named org.uk/ladylever/). From the tower of the former church at Resurgam – Latin for ‘I shall rise again’ – it sank in a storm off North Wales in 1880 many workers elsewhere were crammed singer-songwriter Dean Johnson who, like 12th century Birkenhead Priory, you can into unsanitary slums. Owen, was educated at Birkenhead look straight into the busy shipyard of In the heritage centre there’s also an The Wilfred Owen Story Institute. The poet lived in Wirral for ten Cammell Laird, on whose prosperity the child was head to remark to its mother: only four surviving Benedictine sites in informative exhibition and film, and a great It’s easy to miss this small but moving years as a child. town was founded. “Mummy, why did they build a church the North West, it is a Scheduled Ancient café serving afternoon teas on three-decker museum in a former high street shop. “Our aim is to help people find their It’s an extraordinary juxtaposition to next to an industrial estate?” Monument and includes a range of stands. Dominating the village is the Birkenhead doesn’t make a great show of own voice and use it to the same cathartic look down on these two sites separated by Founded around 1150, the priory is the Grade 1 listed structures. The monks so many centuries. Indeed, one young oldest building on Merseyside. One of looked after travellers for 400 years and supervised the first ferry in 1330. Ironically, the ancient priory has The Williamson Art Gallery The strikingly rendered exterior and Museum outlived the 19th century church that was of the former St Mary’s Church Housed in an imposing Twenties built alongside it, though St Mary’s tower at Birkenhead Priory building in Birkenhead, the Williamson still stands and provides unrivalled views has one of the North West’s finest art of the Liverpool waterfront. collections, featuring paintings – both Knowledgeable museum assistant historical and contemporary – porcelain, Philip Ballinger told us how the site has and an eye-catching collection of model an ‘ethereal feel’ on autumn evenings as ships connected to Cammell Laird’s. the sun goes down and reflects on the British watercolours and work by newly restored buildings. local artists join highlights of the The former chapter house of the priory decorative arts collections, such as is now the chapel and remains largely Liverpool Porcelain and Della Robbia unaltered from its original Norman pottery, and staff are friendly and design. In the museum in the former eager to help. undercroft, there’s a huge variety The imposing frontage of the I Williamson Art Gallery, tel: of exhibits, including a genuine set of Williamson Art Gallery and Museum 0151 652 4177. fossilised dinosaur footprints. The priory is

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Cammell Laird’s from the

M effect as Owen did,” he said. It’s packed top of St Mary’s tower with mementoes of Owen and the Great War, from letters and a shaving kit to an officer’s uniform and an entrenching tool. It’s the first designated cultural memorial to a poet anywhere in the North West. Admission is free. I The Wilfred Owen Story and Gallery, 34 Argyle Street, Birkenhead CH41 6AE, tel: 07539 371925, website: (www.wilfredowenstory.com).

Birkenhead Park The Heritage Lottery Fund has invested £11.6m in projects across Birkenhead – more than £7m on restoring Grade 1 listed Birkenhead Park. Officially opened in 1847, it was the first publicly funded park in the world. The ‘Park for the People’ was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, of Crystal Palace fame, is a £10m space-themed attraction an important venue for water sports, and and US architect Frederick Law Olmsted containing a variety of hands-on exhibits has hosted the world kite buggy later incorporated many of the features for and audio-visual experiences. Ideal for endurance record event, the European his design of New York’s Central Park children, it takes visitors on a fascinating Sand Yachting Championships and I Birkenhead Park visitor centre and journey through space, with several powerboat races. Wirral’s six sailing clubs Cappuccinos in the Park café, tel: 0151 652 themed galleries stage regular race meetings and regattas; 5197, website: (www.birkenheadpark.co.uk). I Spaceport, tel: 0151 330 1566, website: Royal Mersey Yacht Club is the second (www.spaceport.org.uk). oldest sailing club in the country. Wirral Transport Museum I For more information on water sports, Birkenhead played a pivotal part in Water sports contact Wirral Council’s Coastal Rangers, Britain’s public transport history. It was With sea and river on three sides, Wirral is tel: 0151 648 4371. the site of the country’s first street tramway, an idea imported from the Passport to the Wirral United States in 1860. The man behind the American tramways, George Francis Getting there Peel Hey Country Guest House, I By car: The M53 which runs through Frankby CH48 1PP, a friendly Train, had applied without success to run the peninsula connects to the M56 and and extremely comfortable street railways in London and Liverpool. M6. Two Mersey tunnels link Wirral to boutique-style B&B, built in The service from Woodside ferry to Liverpool 1885, with great breakfasts and Birkenhead Park continued until 1937 I By rail: The local Merseyrail system a relaxing rural atmosphere, tel. 0151 677 and then was partially revived in 1995. connects Wirral to the national network 9077, website: (www.peelhey.co.uk). When open, the museum runs a variety of via Liverpool Lime Street station. Contact vintage and modern vehicles linking it to National Rail Enquiries, tel: 08457 Where to eat the ferry terminal. Vehicles on display 484950, website: (www.nationalrail.co.uk) I We ate at the Riverhill Restaurant, include trams, buses, cars, motorbikes and I By bus: Wirral is well served by bus and Talbot Road, Oxton CH43 2HJ, home to bicycles. It also features a 26ft-long model coach. For public transport information, Claire Lara, winner of the BBC’s railway layout and a reconstructed contact Traveline Merseytravel, tel: 0871 Masterchef: The Professionals 2010, Thirties garage scene, together with views 200 2233, website: tel: 0151 653 3773, website: of projects in the museum’s workshops, (www.merseytravel.gov.uk) (www.theriverhill.co.uk); and at Marco’s such as the restoration of a Liverpool I By ferry: The Mersey ferry operates New York Italian, The King’s Gap, Hoylake ‘Green Goddess’ tram. daily from Liverpool Pier Head to CH47 1HE, tel: 0151 632 2073, website: I Wirral Tramway and Transport Museum, Woodside and Seacombe. Mersey Ferries, (www.marcoshoylake.co.uk). Both are Taylor Street, Biirkenhead, tel: 0151 647 tel: 0151 330 1000, website: recommended. (www.merseyferries.co.uk). 2128, website: (www.wirral.gov.uk). Find out more Where to stay I Tourist information, tel: 0151 666 3188, Spaceport I We stayed at the multi award-winning website: (www.visitwirral.com). Spaceport at Seacombe ferry terminal

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