Wallasey Pool was a natural tidal inlet of water that separated the towns of

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the mouth of the River Mersey, on the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic county bou ...

and

Birkenhead Birkenhead () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic co ...

on the

Wirral Peninsula The Wirral Peninsula (), known locally as the Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide, and is bounded by the Dee Estuary to the west, the Mersey Estuary to the east, and Liverpo ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Originally flowing directly into the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is a major river in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it h ...

, it was converted into the sophisticated Birkenhead Dock system from the 1820s onwards by

land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...

, with the main portion of the pool becoming known as the

Great Float The Great Float is a body of water on the Wirral Peninsula, England, formed from the natural tidal inlet, the Wallasey Pool. It is split into two large Dock (maritime), docks, East Float and West Float, both part of the Birkenhead Docks complex ...

. In 1933, with the exception of a small lake, the head of Wallasey Pool at Poulton was converted into Bidston Dock. By 2003, this dock had been filled in.

Redevelopment

A new development was approved for Birkenhead docks in 2010. The

Wirral Waters Wirral Waters is a large scale £4.5bn development currently being built by the Peel Group for Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. It is the sister programme of the Liverpool Waters project. Since 2012 the two projects have enjoyed ...

development will transform the docklands area into business, leisure and retail facilities.

Bridges

Four

road bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

s cross the former Wallasey Pool, over what is now Birkenhead Docks: Egerton Bridge is situated between Egerton Dock and Morpeth Dock and is a

bascule bridge A bascule bridge (also referred to as a drawbridge or a lifting bridge) is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- o ...

. It was built between 1928 and 1931, replacing an earlier

hydraulic Hydraulics () is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concer ...

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...

. The bridge and the machine house were completely restored in 1993 and opened to the public in 1995. A red girdered

at Tower Road connects the

Seacombe Seacombe () is a district of the town of Wallasey, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Administratively, Seacombe is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was p ...

district of Wallasey with Birkenhead. Known as the Four Bridges, as originally four movable bridges existed along Tower Road: two between the Great Float and Alfred Dock, one between the Great Float and Wallasey Dock and one between the Great Float and Egerton Dock. When originally built, all four were

types. In the 1930s most were replaced by bascule bridges. Joining the southern end of the Poulton district of Wallasey with the north end of Birkenhead, Duke Street bridge is also a bascule (see-saw) bridge but with painted green girders. Originally, it was also a swing bridge. Furthest upstream is the Penny Bridge, which crosses the head of the pool to connect Poulton with

Bidston Bidston is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. Administratively, it is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was part of th ...

in Birkenhead. Replacing an earlier wooden bridge of 1843, the name derives from the 1896 one

penny A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is ...

toll to cross in one direction. The bridge was replaced again in 1926 and provided access to Bidston Dock. The dock itself has been filled in and the bridge was replaced by a fixed roadway in 1996.

Bidston Moss

Bidston Moss was originally low-lying wetland

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

at the head of Wallasey Pool. In 1936 most of the land was given over to residential, commercial and industrial

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

. Since the cessation of waste disposal operations in 1995, Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority and the charitable trust Groundwork Wirral have undertaken environmental restoration works to

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

the site. The site is now known as the Newlands Project Nature Reserve, is in size, with a fishing lake and a of cycling trail. The site is also accessible, to the public, from Cross Lane and the Wallacre in

. The nearest car park is at Bidston station.

References

External links

History of Wallasey
* *
www.wirralwaters.co.uk
The New Docklands development Scheme {{authority control River Mersey Natural pools Wallasey