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WIRRAL’S FORGOTTEN VILLAGE
BROMBOROUGH POOL
A
VILLAGE OF HISTORY AND MYSTERY
MEL ROBERTS
Riverside Wirral Tenants Association
&
Riverside Housing Association Wirral Division
Reprinted 2023 by The Friends of Port Sunlight Riverpark
MEL ROBERTS (THE BUTTERFLY MAN)
Mel Roberts was known locally as "The Butterfly Man". Not a native of New Ferry, he settled here in the 1960s and grew to love the place. He helped to set up the Butterfly Park in the early 1990s and worked both there and in New Ferry Residents Association's shop/drop in centre until he died in 2004. He was one of the founder members of the Residents Association when it was known initially as New Ferry Regeneration Action Group.
Here he is seen in a photo in one of the local newspapers showing off a collection of mounted butterflies.
https://newferryonline.org.uk/1990-1999
On page 33 of the book Melmakes the following comment.
What follows next is not my work although here and there I have added some material or comment. Some time ago I was given a photostat copy of a typescript history written sometime in the early 1960s.
My thanks and my apologies are due for what can only be called plagiarism, if we want to be nice, or stealing, otherwise. In my own defense I hope that its use here goes some way to fulfilling the author’s intent when the work was written. I am sure that like myself he or she wanted to see the village gain the recognition that is its due.
Bromborough Pool: A Village of History and Mystery
PREAMBLE
PREAMBLE
In France a chemist named Chevreul had discovered that fat, and in particular tallow, was something rather more complex than the simple material it had always been deemed to be. Other workers following his lead had discovered that the same was true of other fatty substances of organic origin such as vegetable waxes and oils. They discovered that fats and oils contained three basic elements, two fatty acids, one liquid one solid, both bound by a third, non-flammable sugary material. They gave the names Oleine to the liquid portion, Glycerine to the sugary product and to the solid one Stearine. It was the stearine that was of most interest, this it was thought would produce better candles than those made from pure tallow, the oleine could be used as a lamp oil although at the outset it, along with the glycerine was considered to be virtually a waste product.
The industrial undertaking of Price’s Patent Candle Company was founded 29th May, 1847, for the purpose of acquiring the business of Edward Price and Company of Vauxhall, London, which had been established at Battersea, London, in 1830, by Mr. William Wilson, and his partner, Mr. Benjamin Lancaster. That business was formed for the working of an acquired patent for the separation of imported coconut oil into its solid and liquid constituents, with a view of utilising the former, coconut oil stearine as a substitute for tallow in candlemaking, and the latter, coconut oil oleine, as a lamp oil.
In the month of August, 1853, the Directors of Price’s Patent Candle Company, of Vauxhall, London, commenced the construction of a factory on the banks of the River Mersey and its tributary, Bromborough Pool. In September of that year, they began building houses on land adjoining the factory, for occupation by their future labour force, who were to be employed in that establishment. The erection of these houses represents the founding of the model industrial village of Bromborough Pool, the subject of this narrative.
Map 1. Lower Bebington, in 1880. was still a mainly rural area with the main centre of population around the crossroads at New Ferry Tollbar. Further afield the coming .of the railway made it possible for businessmen from Liverpool and Birkenhead to build their villas outside of the settled area, e.g. Joseph Mayer
Brickmaking was still a small scale industry bricks being made more or less when needed. Many of the bricks used to build the Toll Bar area came from pits dug in nearby fields The pits are shown as irregular, shaded patches.
Map 2. 1914: By this time the population had greatly increased, and the Toll Bar area had already become an important local shopping centre. The pace of growth in the area had been such that the demand for bricks had put an end to the traditional brickmaker. Already one large mechanised brickworks had shut down, New Ferry Iron & Briskworks, its field worked out, to be replaced by New Ferry Brick & Tile Co. builders of a third industrial village shown in Green. Port Sunlight is coloured Blue, Bromborough Pool Red.
To download the book click on the link.
July 2030 - note: most illustrations and diagrams are not included at the moment, but overtime will be added.
There are numerous index details that need to be checked and corrected.
There are many maps, figures & tables that are incorrectly referenced or not referenced in the text.
email contact friendsofPSRP@gmail.com.
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