Fair Eastham Ferry mid 1920s

[Wilbs]

My grandfather William Thomas Bagby (born Wolverhampton 1900) met his future wife Marie Louisa Green (born Liverpool 1904) at a fair at Eastham Ferry in the mid 1920s.  (The couple married 1927).  Marie Louisa traveled across the Mersey by Ferry and William was living by the docks in Ellesmere Port at the time.

Were these fairs agricultural (like the Cheshire Show) or pure pleasure with rides, candy floss and sideshows?

Has anyone any details of the fairs that were held around about that date.  Photographs or a web article would be wonderful.

Thank you

Wilbs

[Hollander]

Hi Wilbs.

There were pleasure gardens at Eastham Ferry until the 1930s, and it used to be a popular resort for a day trip for people from Liverpool and the Wirral area.

[Wilbs]

Thank you Finbar.

Yes, I agree that they probably met at the Pleasure Gardens and Google has masses of information on it.  It appears that the Gardens contained a zoo, with "rare and tropical birds, Arctic Seals & Polar Bears, African Lions, Indian Leopards, Elks, Ocelots, Cassowaries, Black, brown & silver bears, Aviary, Monkey House," as well as landscaped gardens with Rhododendrons, Azaleas, ornamental trees and fountains.

Also an open air stage, tea rooms, bandstand, ballroom, boating lake, water chute and a loop-the loop roller coaster. Entertainers performed in the gardens during summer, and included Blondin, the famous tight-rope walker who once wheeled a local boy across a high wire in a wheelbarrow.

What a day out!

Best wishes

Wilbs

[Colin D Gronow]

Some pictures of what it looked like when your Grandfather went, and what it looks like now can be found here:
http://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/367580/1.html

[Certacito]

Did your grandfather have anything to do with canals?  Just wondering why he was in Eport and came from Wolverhampton?

[Wilbs]

Hi Certacito

My (maternal) Granddad was an only child, having lost his mother at a very early age.  In 1905 great granddad (his father) was one of the workers at the Wolverhampton Corrugated Iron Company that moved to Ellesmere Port to the newly created Mersey Iron Works (later to be renamed Burnells Iron & Steel Company and in the 1960s British Steel).

http://www.scars.org.uk/cuttings/volume6/issue6-12/corrugated.html

When old enough (12-13?) granddad went and worked with his father.

The company chose Ellesmere Port because of the canal, so to answer your questions, yes, the canal played a major part in relocating our family.

Incidentally, the canal also moved my other (paternal) grandfather from Frodsham.  He was a brick maker and moved to Ellesmere Port  to make the bricks to build not only the canal but also Cambridge Road School.

[Certacito]

Fascinating stuff. Never realised there was a mass migration from Wolverhampton.  Thanks for that.

[WarwickD]

Hi
picked this chat up rather late. I am interested in any information on families coming to the steelworks at Ellesmere Port in the early 1900's. The story was of my grandfather William Hampton moved from Wolverhamton by way of the Shropshire Union Canal.

[Wilbs]

Hi Warwick

In 1994 I bought a book "The Old Photographs Series - Ellesmere Port" compiled by Pat O'Brien for just under 8 pounds.  I don't know if this book is still in print, or available from the library, but it has several photographs that relate to the Iron Works and the "bottom end of the Port".

It also shows some of the streets that housed the workforce, including Shropshire Row and the canal basin at the end of Cromwell Road.  It was 1919 before Ellesmere Port Council build any houses so with the large influx of workers into the town it was up to the individual companies to provide accommodation. 

My family was living in Woodfield Road at the time of the 1911 census, which shows 7 people occupying 4 rooms.  All the adult males were born in Wolverhampton and worked at the Iron Works, so it's fairly safe to say that the area around there was its housing.

Do you know where your grandfather lived in 1911?  This may confirm some of the family story.

Best wishes

Wilbs