The Wirral

I wanted David to see the little village I lived in and meet my very close friends Anna and William Stead, so off we went to Bebington.

After they picked us up at Bebington train station we headed to their house for a nice drink.

The boys went to William’s allotment and got some fresh strawberries.  After the drinks we moved to some beer.

We had a wonderful meal and then off to bed.

The next day we were going to show David the Wirral.  I wanted to show him Port Sunlight. In 1887, Lever Brothers began looking for a new site on which to expand its soap-making business, which was at that time based in Warrington. The company bought 56 acres (23 ha) of flat unused marshy land in Cheshire, south of the River Mersey. It was large enough to allow space for expansion, and had a prime location between the river and a railway line. The site became Port Sunlight, where William Lever built his works and a model village to house his employees. William Lever personally supervised planning the village, and employed nearly thirty different architects. Between 1899 and 1914, 800 houses were built to house a population of 3,500. The garden village had allotments and public buildings including the Lady Lever Art Gallery, a cottage hospital, schools, a concert hall, open air swimming pool, church, and a temperance hotel. Lever introduced welfare schemes, and provided for the education and entertainment of his workforce, encouraging recreation and organizations which promoted art, literature, science or music. It was raining, this was not a surprise because we were in England, while we were there.  We stopped for a little bit but then moved on and planned to come back which we didn’t do.

Not sure why the posts there had crocheted covers. I guess it was to protect you in case you fall after a pint.

 

Then was the whirlwind trip around the Wirral.
Wirral (/ˈwɪrəl/), also known as The Wirral, is a peninsula in northwest England. It is bounded to the west by the River Dee, forming a boundary with Wales, to the east by the River Mersey, and to the north by the Irish Sea.
The roughly rectangular peninsula is about 15 miles (24 km) long and 7 miles (11 km) wide. Historically, Wirral was wholly within Cheshire; in the Domesday Book, its border with the rest of the county was placed at “two arrow falls from Chester city walls.” However, since the passing of the Local Government Act 1972, only the southern third has been in Cheshire, with the rest in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in the modern county of Merseyside.

 

We ate lunch at Remember When. It was a very nice tea room and food was good.

 

We headed back to Anna and William’s house.  We walked to the allotment where we pulled weeds and picked currents.

 

When we returned Anna made us a wonderful meal.  David got to eat pheasant for the first time.  We then had an ice cream that Anna topped with the strawberries and currents that we had picked.  We had a nice couple of bottles of wine and had some good laughs.  Anna told us how when she was at the university they had to stand with different sandwich boards to make money.  She actually still had one.

The next day we had to leave our dear friends to head back to London.  I am so glad that they had a few days to spend with us because they have been running around like a chicken with its head chopped off and its wings flapping. They have been going to Wales, Ansty and Bebington trying to take care of 3 houses.  Luckily, they just got the one in Wales sold.  Now all the work will begin on their one in Antsy which is an old thatched roof house. Thanks again Anna and William for showing us a good time.