Railway Brambles

My wife spent a few weeks in the summer of 1977 visiting an old Wirral railway line on a daily basis. She studied the flora of a typical “man-made” wildlife area for her dissertation at the University of Liverpool and the corridor provided by the former rail route fitted the bill admirably.

The Hooton to Parkgate section opened in 1866, followed by Parkgate to West Kirby twenty years later. A separate station was built there, adjacent to the terminus of the Seacombe, Hoylake and Deeside Railway [later the Wirral Railway], which today remains as part of the Merseyrail electric system. Hooton was a junction on the Birkenhead to Chester main line, operated jointly by the London North Western Railway and the Great Western Railway, as was the new branch serving the western side of the Wirral peninsula. The line was crossed at Neston by the Wrexham, Mold and Connah’s Quay/Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway joint venture, that was later to become part of the Great Central Railway.

Chris’s study looked at “Some Ecological and Human Aspects of the Vegetation of a Country Park.” Having examined nearly every inch of the former track side, she concluded that there was nothing outstanding about the composition of the vegetation, except in a cutting at Neston that had already been looked at in detail by somebody else. However, she noted that the existence of the abandoned railway provided a refuge for flora and a variety of habitats for animals, insects and birds. Cuttings, embankments and the amount of shelter all had an important influence on ground flora composition, with the degree of slope being the single most important factor affecting the distribution of individual species. Country park management policy towards the planting of trees and bushes also affected flora composition in terms of the subsequent amounts of shade they provided. The effects of trampling and plant collection by visitors also had an impact. 

The West Kirby to Hooton line closed to passengers in 1956, to freight in 1962, and the rails were removed in 1964. In 1973, the Wirral Way was opened in its place and became Britain’s first country park, in the form of a twelve-mile, linear footpath, cycleway and bridleway.

The park’s current visitors’ centre stands next to the site of Thurstaston station where the platform edges still survive, as can be seen in this view taken in November 2015, looking north. Though single track throughout, there had been a passing loop at this location.

One year prior to the opening of the park and immediately after our wedding at Wallasey Town Hall, our guests were all invited to join us for a kick-around on a grassy area overlooking the River Dee, adjacent to the then derelict track bed at Thurstaston. We then moved on to take refreshment at the Old Quay public house in Parkgate and after that to a party at the Sandpiper Hotel, run by my in-laws, in New Brighton. Our wedding cake, which my wife had made, was a chocolate reconstruction of Stephenson’s Rocket. My dad said it was the best wedding he had ever been to.