Friends of Bidston Hill

Bidston Observatory is for sale.

We are most concerned about the potential consequences for Bidston Hill, and we disapprove of the manner in which the sale is being conducted.

An advertisement appeared in Wirral News last week. The land on offer includes the Observatory and car park, as well as the site of the former Braehead Cottage. The car park and Braehead Cottage site are being marketed as potential development sites. Prospective buyers have only until 30th November to make their “best and final offer”, and to demonstrate that they have funds in place. The first viewings are scheduled for Friday, which makes it impossible for new buyers or a community co-operative to obtain a surveyor’s report or arrange a mortgage-in-principle in time.

Why such a rush now?

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has been trying, on and off, to dispose of its assets on Bidston Hill since 2004, when the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory relocated to a new building at the University of Liverpool. We can only surmise that NERC has already lined up a developer, and, not knowing the developer’s intentions, we fear the worst. It is ironic that NERC, which funds research into the environment, could well be jeopardising ours.

The Observatory is being sold with listed buildings consent for conversion into four residential apartments. We, the Friends of Bidston Hill, supported the application for listed buildings consent. We did so because the plans were sympathetic to the environment of Bidston Hill and the heritage of the building, because they provided a common area for heritage displays, and most importantly, because a residential use would be a better outcome than the status quo – unwanted, slowly deteriorating, office space.

We would support a community use even more whole-heartedly. We would oppose a return to offices due to potential issues of security at night. We would oppose residential developments in the car park of the Observatory, on the site of the former Braehead Cottage, and indeed on the site where the Joseph Proudman Building stood until earlier this year. If we can’t stop new residences, we’ll campaign to limit them to a few cottages in keeping with the tradition of Bidston Hill.

120 years ago, the Bidston Hill Committee campaigned to secure the land on Bidston Hill for the public. After many years and many setbacks they succeeded. They prevented the building of 400 dwellings along Vyner Road, and raised the money to buy some 46 acres of land on Bidston Hill. The parkland on Bidston Hill that we all enjoy today is thanks to their untiring efforts.

We need the Bidston Hill Committee to be re-born today. Their work is not quite finished. But we need time.

We appeal to NERC and to Wirral Borough Council to delay the sale. There are still a number of options for community use to explore.

We appeal to you to help spread the word, and lobby NERC, Wirral Borough Council, government — and anyone else you can think of.

Roy Caligari

Chair, Friends of Bidston Hill

Well, it’s that time of year again!

After a great summer we are back to the seasonal storms and the cold weather is on the way. Do not despair, we are working on future events to see us through to springtime!

After the success of our Windmill openings, Teddy Bears’ picnic, Rhododendron Walk and Fungal Foray during the summer, we have recently enjoyed a well attended (scary) Ghost Walk followed by a very interesting Tree Walk. I would like to thank all of the committee members and Friends for participating and making these events possible. I would like to say a special thank you to Mandy and Stephen Pickles for kindly opening up the Lighthouse for the benefit of Friends to enjoy.

At the Teddy Bears’ Picnic in particular, parents were telling us how delighted they were that their children so much enjoyed time on the Hill and in the woods, we certainly intend to repeat this event next year. Thanks to the efforts of our Ranger Nic, several schools are participating in Forest Schools on the Hill and the young people are learning outdoor skills which we hope will give them a positive grounding to respect and enjoy the countryside around the area.

You may be aware that Bidston Hill once again achieved the Green Flag status for another year, this shows how hard everybody has been working in order to maintain the required standards for the granting of this meritorious award.

I recently attended a Civic Reception at Wallasey Town Hall in recognition of the various local Friends Groups that helped to acquire this honour for their parks and open spaces. The Mayor & Mayoress of Wirral were in attendance and I am delighted to advise that they have agreed to our request to be present at the centenary of King George V’s opening of King George’s Way, to perform the unveiling of the renovated sign placed there all those years ago. This will take place at 2:00pm, Tuesday, 25th March next year.

Finally, I want to thank Terry for taking over the production of our Newsletter, this is his first edition and I think he has made a splendid job of it. Hope you enjoy reading the publication when you receive it. For keeping up to date with news and events, keep checking our website which is continually evolving. You can leave any comments you have here as well.

Since it is fast approaching, I thought I would take the opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and prosperous New Year.

Roy Caligari
Chair

QR code plaque

Have you noticed the black-and-white plaques that have recently appeared on the Heritage Trail posts? These are QR codes.

Heritage Trail Marker

QR, or Quick Response, codes are a kind of two-dimensional bar code that encode text. We’re using them to encode the URLs, or web addresses, of the Heritage Trail pages. Most smartphones have apps that can read QR codes and bring up the matching web page in your smartphone’s web browser.

Happy Trails!

Here’s some recent YouTube videos featuring Bidston Hill.

Don Woods’ Up On The Hill has some great aerial views of the Windmill, Observatory and Lighthouse.

Alan Parker’s Bidston Hill & Tam O’Shanter Farm has footage from 2008 (including an interview with ranger Nic Harding) and 2013.

Our Teddy Bears’ Picnic on Friday afternoon was a big success and very well attended.

All of the children (and parents from comments we have received) had a great time and got involved with the events of the afternoon, from hunting Teddies, weighing and measuring their own favourite bear, to completing and designing/colouring their very own Teddy birth certificate. There were some fantastic ideas and I think the children were delighted with their work which they took home with pride!

Thanks to all the parents for attending and getting into the spirit of things, this is much appreciated and helps for the planning of future events on the Hill – we will certainly do this again.

Thanks also to the Friends team that helped on the day and for organising the event, a special thanks to Paris for designing and placing the posters and for getting involved.

Our next event will be the opening of the Windmill on Saturday, 14th September between 10:00 am and 12:00, the Lighthouse will also be open from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. Entry is free of charge however, you must be a member of the Friends of Bidston Hill to enter the Lighthouse, there is no need to book. We then have our popular Ghost Walks in October which has a small charge, information for booking this event will be posted on the website shortly. Details of events planned to date can be found on our Events Calendar.

Hope to see you again soon and thanks for your support.

Roy Caligari
Chair

Welcome to our new web site. We hope you like it.

Our thanks to VCA Wirral and Phil Davies for their help and co-operation during the transition, and for getting us on the web in the first place.

If you used the contact form recently and haven’t had a reply, it’s likely that we’ve lost your message. So please contact us again, and sorry for the inconvenience.

What is happening on the Hill?

The Windmill will be open again on Saturday, 10th August, between 10:00am and 12noon with last entry at 11:45am (admission is free). The Windmill has been well preserved internally and is certainly worth a visit with great views from the top. Bidston Lighthouse will also be open on the same day from 11:00am until 1:00pm again, admission is free but you must be a member of the Friends of Bidston Hill to enter. You can join on the day and a family membership is only £5.00 for 12 months.

On Friday, 30th August, we are having our Teddy Bears Picnic (weather permitting). This is especially for the little ones who should bring along their favourite Teddy to be measured and weighed. They will be able to take part in our Teddy Bear hunt and may even win a prize! (meet at the car park near the Tam O’Shanter Farm at 12noon).

A little later in the year, approaching Halloween, we will be holding our annual Ghost Walk, involving spooky tales by Tom Slemen which include some strange and mysterious happenings that have taken place on the Hill in the past. This was such a great success last year that we are extending the event over two nights, Friday, 25th & Saturday 26th October, commencing at 6:00pm. Places are limited and booking is essential, fees and booking details will be confirmed nearer the time so keep checking our website. (please note, this event is not suitable for the under 10s).

Our good and knowledgeable friend Stephen Lyus will be taking us on a guided Tree Walk of Bidston Hill on Wednesday, 30th October at 2:00pm. This will provide an opportunity to learn about and identify the various trees on the Hill and will give a fascinating and interesting insight into this subject. Again, this is free of charge and we will meet at the car park near the Tam O’Shanter Farm.

That’s all for now so keep checking our events calendar just in case there are any variations with times should any circumstances change.

Hope to see you on the Hill shortly.

Roy Caligari
Chair

We had a great day on Saturday and hope you enjoyed the opening of the Windmill and Lighthouse followed by the Rhododendron walk.

I would like to thank the Friends, members of the committee and Nic our ranger for making these events possible and I would particularly like to thank Mandy and Stephen Pickles for opening the Lighthouse to the Friends.

We are so lucky to have these historic buildings still in existence for all to enjoy and with the help of the Friends they will be here for a long time to come. The history of both of these remarkable structures is fascinating as I am sure you found out on the day.

I must say that I found the Rhododendron walk in the afternoon very interesting indeed, I had no idea that such a variety of these plants were on the Hill however, thanks to the huge depth of knowledge shown by Stephen Lyus who conducted the walk, we were all educated significantly enough to grow our own! (with a little more help from Stephen I think). A big thank you to Stephen and let’s hope there are more walks like this in the future.

If ayone would like further information on the Windmill, Lighthouse, Rhodies or anything else, just have a look around the website.

Thank you very much for your support and hope to see you again soon.

Roy Caligari
Chair

I would like to thank everyone that attended our AGM on Wednesday, we had a really good meeting which I felt was very informative.

I hope that all of the work the committee has been involved with over the last 12 months, with the help of the Friends and Rangers, was fully appreciated by all at the meeting. I am sure that our ideas for the immediate future in terms of event planning were of interest to those in attendance. It would be good if this information could be passed on to other family members, friends and relatives.

Keep checking the events calendar on our website for present and future activities and if you would like to join the Friends we would be delighted to hear from you. We are hoping to have a facility online to make it easy for people to join shortly, in the meantime, we can send a joning form by e-mail or post and it is only £5.00 a year for a family membership – great value when you consider all that Bidston Hill has to offer!

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments as I would be pleased to hear from you.

Hope you have a good summer and have the opportunity to spend part of it on the Hill.

Thank you for your continued support.

Roy Caligari
Chair

Just in case you have not received the current newsletter I thought I would put a reminder on the website about our forthcomng AGM. This will take place at the Tam O’Shanter Farm on Wednesday, 8th May at 7.30pm.

This is a public meeting and all are welcome, it is a good opportunity to fnd out what is happening on the Hill and to get involved with the election of the committee members for the next year. If there are any Friends that would like to consider joining the committee please let me know.

We will also have a guest speaker so you will be entertained as well!

Hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you next week.

Roy Caligari
Chair