Birkenhead

Encyclopedia : B : BI : BIR : Birkenhead

This article is about Birkenhead in northwest England. For other meanings of the word and places with this name, see Birkenhead (disambiguation)

Birkenhead is a town on the Wirral Peninsula, on the left bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool. The town was famous as a sea port and as a centre for ship building as it was close to the maritime activity of Liverpool. The town is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside. Birkenhead, with the rest of the Wirral Peninsula, was (prior to 1974) under the administration of the county of Cheshire. The Member of Parliament is Frank Field

Contents

1 History
2 Notable vessels built at Birkenhead
3 Trivia
4 External links

History

The name Birkenhead is possibly from the Old English bircen meaning birch tree, of which there were many, once growing, on the headland which jutted into the river, at Woodside.

The first Mersey ferry began operating from Birkenhead in 1150 when Benedictine monks under the leadership of Hamon de Mascy built a priory there. Distanced from the ravages of the Industrial Revolution in Liverpool and the North-West by the physical barrier of the River Mersey, Birkenhead retained its agricultural status until the advent of the steam ferry service in 1820. Ready access from Liverpool now opened up the Wirral Peninsula for development and prompted the rapid growth of Birkenhead as an industrial centre. This access was further improved by the building of the Mersey Railway tunnel in 1886 and later by the building of the Queensway Tunnel in 1934.

Birkenhead Park is acknowledged to be the first publicly funded park in Britain. The park was the forerunner of the Parks Movement and its influence was far reaching both in this country and abroad - most notably on Olmsted's design for Central Park, New York. Designed by Joseph Paxton (later Sir Joseph Paxton) in 1843 and officially opened in 1847 it was an immediate economic and social success. The history of the park is inseparable from that of Birkenhead town, itself.

Michael Marks, of Marks & Spencer, opened one of his first seven Penny Bazaar stalls here, in Birkenhead Market, during the 1880's.

Ship-building started in 1829. The business eventually became Cammell Laird. John Laird, a Scot, was influential in the design of the town and so parts were laid out in a grid-iron pattern like the New Town in Edinburgh with similar architecture.

Notable vessels built at Birkenhead

Trivia

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 mentioned 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.
Despite being in England, Birkenhead hosted Wales's National Eisteddfod in 1917, as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1879.
The first Boy Scout group in the world was founded as the 1st Birkenhead YMCA in 1906. The original Scout headquarters were in Park Road West. In 1929 the 3rd World Scout Jamboree was held at Arrowe Park, Birkenhead.
Birkenhead had the first street tramway in Europe. Opened on 29 August 1860 the first line ran from Woodside (landing stage of the Mersey Ferry) to Birkenhead Park. (A preserved tram can be seen at Woodside today.)
Birkenhead and Liverpool became the first major conurbations in northwest England to be served by an underground railway system, which became part of "Merseyrail" in the 1970s and 1980s. The major underground station in Birkenhead is Hamilton Square, the nearest station to the ferry terminal. Hamilton Square is linked to the "Liverpool Loop Line", which includes James Street, Moorfields, Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool Central stations, all of which are underground.
Birkenhead's oldest independent school is Birkenhead School. It was exclusively a boys' school from its founding in 1860 until 2000 when its Sixth Form became co-educational. It also has a preparatory school for boys aged 3–11 and a co-educational nursery from 3 months. Former "Old Birkonians" (as former pupils are known) include the lawyer F. E. Smith, who took the title of "Lord Birkenhead" when he entered the House of Lords, Andreas Whittam Smith, chairman of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and the founder of The Independent quality daily newspaper, Andrew Irvine, famous for attempting Mount Everest and Philip Toosey, hero at the Bridge on the River Kwai.
Birkenhead's technical college in Borough Road, now called Wirral Metropolitan College, had a theatre named after one of its most famous former students and Birkonian (born 1936), Glenda Jackson, the Oscar-winning actress and Member of Parliament. Sadly the college and the Glenda Jackson Theatre were demolished in late 2005, to make way for apartment blocks, although Wirral Metropolitan College flourishes on other sites across the Wirral. A little known fact is that the theatre secretly housed an emergency command centre for the region in its basement, accessible via the college. Politicians and officials would have retreated to this secure bunker in the event of nuclear war to coordinate the recovery effort. By the 1990s the bunker had been decommissioned, and the surrounding complex of rooms was used by the college as a rehearsal space and a recording studio.
World War One poet, Wilfred Owen, although born in Oswestry, was educated at the Birkenhead Institute. A road on the site of the re-located school has been named after him: Wilfred Owen Way. Another recently created road also bears his name in the form of Wilfred Owen Drive.
Birkenhead is the home of No.400 Squadron of the Air Training Corps.
Actor Lewis Collins, who portrayed the character of detective Bodie in the 1970s ITV series, "The Professionals", was born in Birkenhead.
Patricia Routledge, best known for being Mrs. Hyacinth Bucket (pron. 'Bouquet'!) was born here in 1929 and attended Birkenhead High School where she sang in the choir and ran the Sunday School.
The former England rugby union player Matt Dawson was born in Birkenhead on 31 October 1972. He was part of the England squad which won the Rugby World Cup in 2003.
'Dixie' Dean, record-breaking footballer, was born at 313 Laird Street in 1907
Comedian and TV host Paul O'Grady (also known as Lily Savage) was born in Birkenhead & was a pupil at St. Anselm's College.
Apart from the Boo Radleys, cult 80's indie band Half Man Half Biscuit hail from Birkenhead.

External links

Districts of North West England
Allerdale \| Barrow-in-Furness \| Blackburn with Darwen \| Blackpool \| Bolton \| Burnley \| Bury \| Carlisle \| Chester \| Chorley \| Congleton \| Copeland \| Crewe and Nantwich \| Eden \| Ellesmere Port and Neston \| Fylde \| Halton \| Hyndburn \| Knowsley \| Lancaster \| Liverpool \| Macclesfield \| Manchester \| Oldham \| Pendle \| Preston \| Ribble Valley \| Rochdale \| Rossendale \| St Helens \| Salford \| Sefton \| South Lakeland \| South Ribble \| Stockport \| Tameside \| Trafford \| Vale Royal \| Warrington \| West Lancashire \| Wigan \| Wirral \| Wyre
Counties with multiple districts: Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside

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