Bidston Hill

After the gales and stormy weather earlier this week it was good to get out for a walk on Thursday afternoon. We went to Bidston Hill, one of the highest points on the Wirral. There's a hundred acres of heath and woodland to explore, and a wealth of historical buildings with tales to tell.

There's been a windmill here since 1596 grinding corn into flour. The first one would have been wooden, but was later replaced with brick after it caught fire.  Obviously no longer in use, it is fully restored and open to the public once a month.

This is a poor photograph, but it shows the views from the top of the ridge across to LIverpool. 

On a good day you should be able to see the three sides of our peninsula and beyond to Wales and Lancashire, but it was too murky for that today.

It was lovely to be out with Inca again. She's had a poorly leg for about six weeks, and has been limping quite badly, but she's all healed up now and made the most of the deep puddles as usual. Labradors are drawn to water like a moth to a flame. There's nothing she likes more than a spot of dog snorkelling .... except food!!!

Further along the ridge is Bidston Observatory, which was of great national importance during the second world war and predicted the tides for the D-day landings among other things. The telescopes housed in the observatory were used to watch planetary bodies in order to calculate the exact time, which was needed for nautical navigation. It was transferred to the ships by the firing of the 'one o'clock gun', which could be heard all over Liverpool too, on the other side of the Mersey. I remember listening out for the one o'clock gun a a child, hurrying back to afternoon school after lunch at home.

Of course, it's long gone ... no longer needed.

The building is now empty .... everything is now controlled in the University of Liverpool.

 

There has been a lighthouse on Bidston Hill since about 1771, when the first Bidston Lighthouse was built, further from the shore than any other lighthouse in Britain. 

It was used by ships sailing in to the port of Liverpool.

We went down the hill through the woods. These will be a blaze of colour when the rhododendrons are out in early summer.

At the bottom  is Bidston Hall, which dates back to 1595. There are grisly tales of murders, and ghosts and even a visit by Shakespeare. At one time it was used as a shooting lodge by the Stanley family, who owned land throughout the North West, when this area was a deer park. Now it's a private home.

My husband's first teaching job was in a school at the bottom of Bidston Hill, and filled with youthful enthusiasm, he was part of a working party that produced a booklet of nature and historical trails used by all the local schools. We haven't been back here for years and years but it was nice remembering old times.

Tam O'Shanters Urban Farm is next to the car park so we popped in for a quick look at the animals. It's run by a charitable trust and lots of the workers here are young people with disabilities. It's a wonderful place.

Happy Easter xxxx