Otterspool Promenade Development

Otterspool Promenade

It is thought that the Romans were the first people to live next to the River Mersey at Otterspool. Roman coins and pieces of a Roman road were found under Otterspool Park over a century ago.

The City Engineer, John Brodie, was keen to see the Otterspool shoreline developed into a leisure attraction. In 1919 Brodie put together a scheme for reclaiming 43 acres of land on the Otterspool shoreline. He was the first person to put forward the idea of a two and a half mile promenade from Dingle Point to Garston Docks. Brodie believed that this development was needed as the Pier Head was the only place in Liverpool where people could go to sit or walk next to the river.

It was not until 1925, however, that work at Otterspool started. The group in charge of constructing the Mersey Tunnel was looking for an area of land to tip large amounts of excavated material from the new tunnel.

Liverpool Corporation gave them permission to tip these materials along the Otterspool foreshore.

Brodie had retired before seeing his ideas become reality and it was left to his successor, Mr. Peirson Frank, to take his scheme forward. Work began on constructing the river wall at Otterspool in July 1930. The wall had to be strong enough to put up with a constant battering from the strong water currents in the River Mersey. Concrete was chosen as the most robust material for the river wall. The wall was finished in 1932.

The land between the new river wall and the original shoreline was filled in with domestic refuse. A total of two million tons of refuse material was tipped at Otterspool!

The reclaimed land was then landscaped. Not only was there a riverside promenade for people to stroll along, but there were bowling greens and a caf?. There was an official opening ceremony for the new promenade on 7th July 1950.

LRO

The Cassie (Cast iron shore) was its nickname.

I was hoping to read what or when they plan on redoing the promenade now?
Read they took up the star stones in another thread..??? Any more news on the developement of the Brittania and promenade NOW..?

The star stones have gone, the ones I saw were smashed to pieces. The pub is being totally refurbished over the next month or so I think.

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Originally Posted by Ged

The Cassie (Cast iron shore) was its nickname.

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That was the part of the shore just near the Dingle Oil Jetty. My mother told me many people would use the beach at weekends - few went into the water. It had good quality sand.

Mersey sand is excellent for building. During WW2, and during the 1930s, many convoy ships would load Mersey sand for ballast returning to the USA. Much of this sand was used to build many of the New York skyscrapers. So Liverpool has a real tangible connection with New York, as parts of it are actually Liverpool.

A couple of weeks ago all the benches along the promenade were marked with the word 'out' (plus the last large funnel and mast from the IGF). I expect they've been removed by now.
In the 70's the area of the promenade North of Jericho Lane was still fenced off (the rubbish tip was still in use), but it was possible to get to St. Michaels if you climbed the fence. You cut inland just before the oil jetty and then came out at the old cast iron shore entrance (today, Priory Woods area). The rest of the promenade/Dingle Esplanade was completed for the IGF.

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Originally Posted by Ged

The Cassie (Cast iron shore) was its nickname.

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It became well known in England from the film "THESE DANGEROUS YEARS" staring the legendary Frankie Vaughan in the 1950s.

Who else saw the film and can you remember (in the film) the cave he hid in ??
The ?cave? was just a site in the film. It had plenty of people looking for it though lol.

Such are the memories of youth.

Phredd

Im very interested to know as much as possible about the Prom extension which started late 50's from the end of Jerrico Lane to Dingle Jetty taking with it the Cassie shore. Living in Aigburth in my early teens I have memories lying my bed at night hearing the continual sounds of 'bonk 'bonk' bonk' (stop laughing) which I believe were steam hammers driving vertical pylons into the seabed forming part of the new prom. I also remember later around 1965 when the prom wall was built a scheme by the Liverpool corporation was launched to get old cars off the road where you recieved ?10 for it to be dumped and used as landfill. I remember during evenings wearing my winklepickers when it was all shut up getting inside the compound where dozens of cars would be lined up ready to be added to the hundreds, maybe thousands of others compacted on top of each other. We used to rip the badges off like Triumph Mayflowers and Rover 12's and all those pre-war and early post war treasured classics. Then I recall they were all covered by general city rubbish. Anyone who has memories or corrections to this would be much appreciated. As an artist im currently painting a number of evocative Liverpool scenes circa 1955 to date such as Ive described and trying to get as much detail as possible. Ive attached all I can find from the Liverpool records library. They are photos of the start of the 2nd stage extension around 1958 to 1960 but would love to find photos taken about 1965/6 showing the scrapped cars.

fantastic, a wonderful selection of pics :)

There's a 1952 Morris 1000 of mine under the grass there somewhere. In the late 60s I worked briefly as a driver for Cranes, the music shop in Hanover Street. They used to do a part-ex for people buying new pianos which meant their basement filled up with the ones we'd taken away when we delivered the new one. Some would be restored and resold but the dud ones we'd take to Otterspool tip and just shove out the back doors of the van, where they'd tumble down a sort of cliff made up of compacted rubbish.

Thanks so much for that. One of my cars a 1938 Rover 12 which I bought for ?3 and a micrometer !! then sold on to a 'mate' for ?5 and he got a tenner to dump it! and it had a wonderful wind up windscreen too... Pianos !!! fantastic and sure I heard music in the air last visit in August driving over same spot in my VW Passat with all the usual mod cons....... I also remember the tat men who used to sift through the city rubbish looking for any metal stuff... who had some sort of ok agreement with the site workers with diggers working away and 1000's of gulls all around.

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Originally Posted by birdseye

Some would be restored and resold but the dud ones we'd take to Otterspool tip and just shove out the back doors of the van, where they'd tumble down a sort of cliff made up of compacted rubbish.

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I wonder what else found its way to Otterspool and lies buried. Years ago I read a detailed history of Hornby Dublo model railways. These were made by Meccano at Binns Road. However in the mid 1960s when Meccano was acquired by Rovex - Triang and the original Dublo models were discontinued - they continued selling Dublo items until stock was exhausted. The Tri-ang Railways being manufactured at Margate, Kent.

Though I distinctly remember the text of the book mentioning that a couple of unpopular overstock items which were still on the lists by around 1969 found their way to landfill - though I can't recall it saying where.

Presumably it could have been Otterspool?

John