Down the Docks

A highlight of the John Dyer collection of photographs is this series of images taken on the Birkenhead and Wallasey dock system. Unlike the Liverpool docks which run parallel to the river and were built out into the main channel, the Wirral system occupies a natural inlet of the Mersey – the old Wallasey Pool. The LMS, GWR and LNER and their predecessors all made sure their lines reached the docks here, either via the mid-Wirral former GCR route or the former joint LNWR and GWR connection that ran beneath the streets of central Birkenhead from Rock Ferry. All these pictures are from 1962 and 1963 and show the 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 steam locomotive shunters of the Mersey Harbour and Dock Board’s own fleet at work on the sharp curves that served the wharf-side and transit sheds. These dark and grainy photos, often taken in winter and not on the best of days, weather-wise, are reminiscent of scenes we must have witnessed many times as youngsters, when crossing the docks on the number 10 and number 11 buses that joined the two towns. I know that I certainly didn’t give them the attention that they deserved at the time, so I’m very pleased that John had the foresight to do so.