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From a
Supplement to the Birkenhead News - Saturday, March 22, 1974 |
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Birkenhead 1877 - 1974 |
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Midnight on March 31 will be an historic hour for Birkenhead.
On the stroke of twelve, the Corporation, whose motto is "Wherever there is faith,
there is also light and strength", will cease to exist.
It is being meged with four other Wirral authorities - Wallasey, Bebington,
Hoylake and the Wirral urban district - to form the new Wirral District Council, which
will assume responsibility for the future development of the combined area.
Sadly, the Corporation, which was created by Royal Charter in August 1877,
takes its final bow only three years before it was due to celebrate its centenary.
Sweeping changes in local government also brings Birkenhead's mayoralty to an
end, but borough status has now been conferred on the new Wirral district and its first
mayor will take office next month. |
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Horses and carts provided the stalls for the open
section of the market at the time of this picture (about 1910) |
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How
it all Began |
The granting of Birkenhead's Charter of Incorporation on
Monday, August 13, 1877,must have seemed an anti-climax to the majority of local
residents.
It was marked by a solemn declaration by the Privy Council, typically formal,
which gave no hint of the preceding battle of words between those "for" and
"against" incorporation that had held the rapt attention of townsfolk during the
summer and autumn of 1876.
Throughout those months, ordinary people watched every move and listened
intently to every argument as excitement built up following the submission to the Privy
Council of a petition, signed by "over five thousand ratepayers in eight days,"
for a charter.
On July 27, 1876, a special committee responsible for its promotion,
proclaimed proudly in a notice signed by honorary secretary Charles Willmer, that they had
on that day "received official intimation" that the petition would be considered
by the Privy Council at its next meeting to be held on Friday, September 1.
Meanwhile, however, those opposed to the belief that overall benefit would be
derived from joining Birkenhead (pop:52,581), Claughton (2,937), Oxton (3,500), Tranmere
(18,517) and part of Bebington (Rock Ferry, 3,000) under one elected governing body, were
busy marshalling their forces and raising funds.
Powerful Tranmere's anti-incorporation committee sent a circular dated August
23 to "owners of property" appealing for contributions to a defence fund
"to defray the cost of further opposition to the Charter", it was signed by
honorary secretary F. H. Peters of Holt Hill, and carried the names of 11 others.
By late 1876, the gentlemen who were fully committed to incorporation,
including John Laird who was later to become Birkenhead's first Mayor, were openly
claiming that public feeling favoured their petition.
This prompted a sharp retort from David Allen, of the Tranmere Defence
Committee, who in December wrote to Charles Willmer, referring to an "unwarrantable
assumption" and pointing out that there was ONE petition for incorporation and SEVEN
against. Tranmere did not, said Mr Allen, intend to "abate opposition to YOUR scheme
of incorporation.
Nevertheless, on historic August 13, 1877, Birkenhead Corporation was born,
heralded by the Privy Council's "we therefore do hereby grant and declare that the
inhabitants of the said town of Birkenhead, embracing the whole of the township of
Birkenhead and the several districts of Claughton, otherwise Claughton-cum-Grange, Oxton,
Tranmere and part of the township and district of Higher Bebington, and their successors,
shall be for ever hereafter one body politic and corporate in deed, fact and name, and
that the said body corporate shall be called 'The Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the
Borough of Birkenhead'." |
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BIRKENHEAD Town Hall, standing newly polished, proud, and near the
end of its time as a headquarters of local government, has seen its share of hard times.
The first town hall, in Hamilton Square, was begun in 1883 when the
Mayor, Mr T. S. Deakin laid the foundation stone. The building was completed in 1887, 10
years after the Borough of Birkenhead was incorporated.
The fine sandstone structure was the envy of many north west towns at
the time, but disaster was to hit the pride of Birkenhead in less than 15 years.
On July 10, 1901, it was destroyed by a fire which lasted four hours,
and completely demolished the clock tower, leaving the building warped and useless.
It was a year before the building was restored, during which time the
council met in the Sessions Court behind the town hall.
The Town Hall was again menaced by fire 34 years later, when the
sessions court was engulfed in flames, which threatened to spread to the main building.
The Town Hall - as can be seen today - survived this blaze and still stands of a monument
to the origins of Birkenhead. |
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The story of a town's
fight for survival |
Thirty years before Birkenhead Corporation was born, the town
found itself in the grip of a sudden slump and struggling for survival.
Boom was replaced by gloom within a few months in 1847 - a year which came in
like a lion and limped out like a wounded lamb.
On April 5 that year, Birkenhead's streets were bedecked by flags as its
first two docks - Morpeth and Egerton - were officially opened by Viscount Morpeth, who
arrived for the ceremony aboard a small paddle boat, the Lord Warden, which was built by
Laird's.
Feasting and gaiety were the order of the day as "great crowds,"
according to newspaper accounts, crossed the Mersey by ferry boat and mingled with
jubilant townsfolk to celebrate the christening of Birkenhead Port. |
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From a
Supplement to the Birkenhead News - Saturday, March 29, 1974 |
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A local change of face |
The new Wirral borough outlined above will have its
headquarters in Wallasey Town Hall |
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Wirral Borough Council, part of the national reorganisation
of local government, officially comes into being next Monday, April 1, 1974, all existing
local authorities, other than certain parishes, cease to operate. They are replaced by two
classes of new authority - county and district council (metropolitan and
non-metropolitan).
Merseyside was designated one of the country's six metropolitan counties.
This meant the elections in April and May, 1973, of a Merseyside County Council and five
district (or borough) councils - one of which is made up of the areas covered by the
former Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, Wirral and Hoylake county borough, borough or
urban district councils. |
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