Burbo Bank - the Brick Beach

[tpoo22]

We spent a lovely Saturday afternoon wandering north from Crosby Coastguard station, an area I've coined the 'Brick Beach'. The coastline here consists entirely of rubble: bricks, plinths, granite pillars, doorsteps etc.
I can only imagine that this area served as a dumping ground after the Blitz, with the secondary purpose of slowing coastal erosion. Can anyone confirm this? I've been unable to find anything concrete (ha!) on the web, and would love to read any first-hand accounts or anecdotes. I'm moved by the sight of so much human endeavour, laid waste by warfare and now pounded by the sea back into sand.

[geoffrey]

I'm a bit rusty on the geography of that area so i don't know if it's relevant but certainly at Hightown some buildings were just abandoned to coastal erosion and this page mentions builders' rubble being chucked in to try and control the Alt at its mouth.

http://www.seftoncoast.org.uk/articles/99winter_erosion.html

[tpoo22]

Thanks geoffrey - that page seems to be talking about the dumping of rubble to backfill the sea wall. Here's a Google Maps link (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.497741,-3.059075&spn=0.002278,0.005021&t=h&z=18&om=0)to the area I'm talking about. On the satellite view you can see the red tinge of the bricks. I haven't walked that far yet, but it does appear to stretch as far as the mouth of the Alt. There's clear evidence of erosion, since the rubble forms a cliff in places. But where did it all come from? I'd love to know if anyone can confirm that this is from the Blitz

[gregs dad]

It was used to dump materials from buildings being demolished.You can see
large pieces of sandstone which look as if they might be parts of some old churches. I think the idea was to try to stop the erosion by the tide.
The actual Burbo Bank is the large sandbank which appears off shore at low
water where Liverpool`s old fishermen would clean the keels of their boats.
I used to there with my brother and his boat.you would be surprised at the amount of coal and broken crockery you could find. We always brought the coal home for the fire.

[tezmac]

I like walking and when i have been around there i always think it looks very untidy to it,s surroundings

[phredd]

The wife and I paid a visit to the Crosby Coastguard Station a few years back and noticed the brick ?infill? on the beach.
All I could think of was the Slum Clearance of the 60s and 70s.

I was born in Celt Street, West Derby Rd. All the streets in that area, as I knew them, have long gone:-
Grey Rock Street.
Red Rock Street.
White Rock Street.
Norwood Grove,
and most of the others from there down to Belmont Road.

Take that and all of the demolition of Scotland Road and you have a good idea of where the bricks on the beach came from.

Norwood Grove also had a Church and Church Hall on the corner with West Derby Road. That may explain the Sandstone bits found on the beach.

At the age of 70 next week the brain cells are going fast so some of the above may be wrong.

Phredd

[wsteve55]

Hi Phredd,
me and the missus went for a walk along there on Boxing day, and wondered where "fort Crosby" used to be? I think it was demolished in the late 50's,early 60's, but I cant find any info' on this!:snf (41):

[Sirob]

From the beginning of the last century, the mouth of the River Alt began to migrate along the foreshore towards Liverpool. This had the effect of lowering the beach, allowing waves to reach and erode the sand dunes, gardens and large houses along Burbo Bank Road. In fact Burbo Bank Road North itself disappeared at one point.
In 1936, the Alt was diverted out to sea by a breakwater between Hightown and Hall Road. Due to the lowered beach, erosion continued and Blitz rubble and Bootle Tinworks waste was tipped to provide a barrier. Later demolition rubble followed, until the construction of a promenade over part of it. The shore level has now risen enough for erosion to become accretion. Planting of Marram grass on the dunes north of Hall Road has stabilised that section.
Fort Crosby was located in the dunes, in line with an acess crossing the railway, half way between Hall Road and Hightown. In the 1960's, Rainfords extracted sand from that area, but I don't know if they demolished it. It consisted of a long concrete structure, buried at it's seaward side, with barracks and other buildings in the hollow behind it.

The pictures are by the late R. K. Gresswell, who studied this coastline.

[Mayorz]

Ahh yes, fort Crosby

Me and my girlfriend have walked along the beach many times looking for this piece of history. one day we found what was left, and even managed to get into about 3 of the many different bunker type structures by digging a small hole in the sand - once inside they are rather large - but messy :disgust:

[anti dock]

that area used to be called the black rocks. { by the locals }
were you see the sea wall by crosby baths down to were the rubble is
was loads of big black stones and anti tank blocks.
there used to be wooden sea defence wall in the area you are talking about
it was used as a rubble dump

as for the fort it was further down towards hightown there was allso couple of pillboxes there
an episode of z cars was filmed there.

[Waterways]

.

What dock are you anti?

[groundy]

The wife and I paid a visit to the Crosby Coastguard Station a few years back and noticed the brick ?infill? on the beach.
All I could think of was the Slum Clearance of the 60s and 70s.

I was born in Celt Street, West Derby Rd. All the streets in that area, as I knew them, have long gone:-
Grey Rock Street.
Red Rock Street.
White Rock Street.
Norwood Grove,
and most of the others from there down to Belmont Road.

Take that and all of the demolition of Scotland Road and you have a good idea of where the bricks on the beach came from.

Norwood Grove also had a Church and Church Hall on the corner with West Derby Road. That may explain the Sandstone bits found on the beach.

At the age of 70 next week the brain cells are going fast so some of the above may be wrong.

Phredd

Hi Phredd, I used to live in the prefabs in Sheil park I remember Celt St and Goth st very well, Alfie Kehoe in Celt st, and Joey Duvall who had the pub at the corner of goth st,Thanks for the memories Alex