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13 unusual facts about Birkenhead


Bank Building

Bank Buildings, Birkenhead, on a corner site at 1–7 Charing Cross, Birkenhead, Wirral, England

Birkenhead, South Australia

A number of Port Adelaide Football Club players were born or have lived in Birkenhead, including dual Magarey Medalist Bob Quinn.

Charles Button

Charles Edward Button (23 August 1838 – 27 December 1920) was a solicitor, Supreme Court judge, Mayor of Hokitika and later Birkenhead, and an independent conservative Member of Parliament in New Zealand.

When Birkenhead Borough Council was formed in 1888, Button was elected unopposed as the borough's first mayor on 9 May.

Gerry White

The son of Gerard and Martha White, Gerry started life as butcher and established Hurstwood Meats in Birkenhead on the Wirral.

Great Western Railway accidents

The most serious accident however, occurred on 24 December 1874, when a double-headed passenger train from Paddington to Birkenhead derailed near Kidlington just north of Oxford and 34 passengers were killed.

Hamilton Square

Features of the square include the town's cenotaph in front of the town hall, a large Queen Victoria Monument at the centre of the gardens and a statue of John Laird, the first Member of Parliament for Birkenhead and the son of William Laird.

Landing craft tank

Later converted into a floating nightclub, in the late 1990s the vessel was acquired by the Warship Preservation Trust and was moored at Birkenhead.

Mechanician

The term seems to have originated in the era of the 7A Rotary system exchange, and was superseded by "Technician" circa 1960, perhaps because "Mechanician" was no longer considered appropriate after the first Strowger switch exchanges began to be introduced in 1952 (in Auckland, at Birkenhead, New Zealand exchange).

Michael Pickens

Michael Pickens (born 7 January 1983) is a racecar driver from Birkenhead near Auckland, New Zealand.

MS European Endeavour

She was chartered to DFDS Seaways in August 2010 and early September 2010 to provide refit cover on the BirkenheadDublin and Belfast routes.

Queen's Park, Glasgow

The park was acquired in 1857 and was designed by the world renowned Sir Joseph Paxton, also responsible for noted public parks in London, Liverpool, Birkenhead and the grounds of the Spa Buildings at Scarborough.

Skolta Esperanto Ligo

Almost 100 Esperanto speaking Scouts from 18 countries, as far away as Japan, took part in the 1929 World Jamboree in Birkenhead.


Anne Curwen

Anne Curwen was educated at Birkenhead High School and Harrogate College, attending Newnham College, Cambridge, where she gained a First in History.

Barclay Curle

As part of the Seawind Group, the company is no longer based in Glasgow but retains shiprepair facilities in Birkenhead, Merseyside, and at Appledore, Devon.

Bidston Hill

Up to 18 July 1969, at exactly 1:00 p.m. each day, the 'One O'Clock Gun' overlooking the River Mersey near Morpeth Dock, Birkenhead, would be fired electrically from the Observatory.

Bidston railway station

After the extension of this line to West Kirby in 1878 to the west and into a new station to the east at Birkenhead Docks (the current Birkenhead North station), through trains to Liverpool commenced in 1938 when the London Midland and Scottish Railway electrified the line to West Kirby.

Birkenhead Central railway station

Situated on the south side of Birkenhead town centre, it lies on the Chester and Ellesmere Port branches of the Wirral Line, part of the Merseyrail network.

Birkenhead Peak

--1846?--> in honour of the crew of HMS Birkenhead; nearby Seton Lake was named in honour of one of its crew who was his school-friend.

Bonar Colleano

Colleano died at the age of 34, when he crashed his sports car (a Jaguar XK140) in Birkenhead shortly after exiting the Queensway Tunnel.

BPFC

Birkenhead Park FC, a rugby club founded in 1871 in Birkenhead, Wirral, United Kingdom

Bradley in the Moors

Musician Pete McArdle was born on a farm in Bradley In The Moors, before moving to Birkenhead.

British Rail Class 97

They were powered by large batteries, and were based at Birkenhead North TMD and were employed around Birkenhead on the Merseyrail system (97701-702) or around North London (rest).

Conway Park railway station

The station was built in order to provide a station on the lines from New Brighton and West Kirby that was more convenient for the town centre of Birkenhead than either Birkenhead Park or Hamilton Square (which are otherwise the nearest stations).

David Lindsay Keir

Keir was born in Northumberland to William Keir and Elizabeth (Craig) Keir; his Scottish father was a Presbyterian minister, and moved several times during Keir's childhood, from Bellingham to Newcastle, Birkenhead, and finally Glasgow, where Keir attended the independent school, Glasgow Academy.

Earl of Birkenhead

Birkenhead was a member of the committee for the 1924 Olympic Games, and more than 50 years after his death he was portrayed by actor Nigel Davenport in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire.

Elton Welsby

Welsby is name-checked by the Birkenhead band Half Man Half Biscuit in the song "A Country Practice", found on their 1998 album Four Lads Who Shook the Wirral.

Emily Blatch, Baroness Blatch

Born as Emily May Triggs in Birkenhead, the daughter of Stephen and Sarah Triggs, she was educated at Prenton High School for Girls and at Huntingdonshire Regional College.

Flag of the Qing Dynasty

In September 1881, when two cruisers Chaoyong and Yangwei ordered from Birkenhead, England were sent to China, Li Hongzhang realized a triangular ensign was unique among naval flags of other countries.

Grand Entrance to Birkenhead Park

The Grand Entrance to Birkenhead Park is at the northeast entrance to Birkenhead Park in Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, England.

Hill Bark

The house was originally built in 1891 for the soap manufacturer Robert William Hudson on Bidston Hill, Birkenhead.

James McGaul

James Hannay McGaul (also known as J.H. McGaul) was born in Birkenhead, Wirral.

Liverpool and District Cricket Competition

First Division: Ainsdale, Birkenhead Park, Colwyn Bay, Formby, Liverpool, Newton le Willows, Northop Hall, Orrell Red Triangle, Parkfield Liscard, Rainford, Rainhill, Wigan.

Liverpool Marathon

The course begins on the Western side of the River Mersey in the Joseph Paxton-designed Birkenhead Park, the course heads north to New Brighton, a former seaside resort before returning to Birkenhead and heading through Queensway Tunnel linking Birkenhead to Liverpool.

Monument to the Mersey Tunnel

The Monument to the Mersey Tunnel stands in Chester Street, Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, England, near the western entrance to the Queensway Tunnel, one of the two Mersey Tunnels carrying roads under the River Mersey between Liverpool and the Wirral.

MS Moby Prince

Built in 1967 by the English shipyard Cammell Laird of Birkenhead as Koningin Juliana for ferry operator Stoomvaart Maatschappij Zeeland of the Netherlands, it was used on the Harwich to Hook of Holland route until 1984.

Norse Merchant Ferries

Note: The Liverpool services where transferred to Birkenhead Twelve Quays in 2002

North Wales Mineral Railway

There followed much legal wrangling and hostility concerning access agreements to Chester railway station; but this did not prevent the line becoming part of the G.W.R. main line to Birkenhead.

Peerless Brewing Company

Peerless Brewing Company is an independent microbrewery based in Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula, producing craft-brewed beers by combining traditional techniques and fine ingredients with a modern tang.

Rigby Swift

In opposition was "as formidable a team as ever conducted a prosecution" - Edward Carson, later Baron Carson, F. E. Smith, later Earl Birkenhead and Richard Muir.

Soho and Winson Green railway station

Soho & Winson Green was an intermediate station on the Great Western Railway's London (Paddington) to Birkenhead via Birmingham (Snow Hill) line, serving the Soho and Winson Green areas.

Statue of John Laird

He was born in Greenock, Scotland, and moved with his family as a child, first to Liverpool, then in 1824 to Birkenhead, where his father, William, founded a shipbuilding business.

Tramways Act 1870

Street tramways had originated in the United States, and were introduced to Britain by George Francis Train in the 1860s, the first recorded installation being a short line from Woodside Ferry to Birkenhead Park in the town of Birkenhead.

Warship Preservation Trust

The Warship Preservation Trust was based in Birkenhead, Wirral, England and hosted Europe's largest collection of preserved warships.

The collection was brought to Birkenhead in 2002 and was moored in the West Float of the Birkenhead docks complex.

William Stott

William Henry Stott (1863–1930), British Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Birkenhead West 1924–1929, and Birkenhead East 1924–1929