The Wirral Peninsula A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND TO-DAY (1952)

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stevehind
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Location: Higher Poynton, Cheshire

The Wirral Peninsula A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND TO-DAY (1952)

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In April 2020, I uploaded an article onto this forum, which was originally published in one of the old entomological journals about the Great Prominent at Delamere in 1852.

A lot of the old Entomological Journals can be accessed online and I always find it interesting to read in them reports from Cheshire, so here is another old article I have found recently about The Wirral, which I hope others may also find of interest:

The Wirral Peninsula
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND TO-DAY (1952)

(By R. Prichard)

In this survey of the Wirral peninsula, I have sought to compare the collecting grounds of 100 years ago with the same localities to-day.

The 19th century introduced a band of enthusiastic entomologists, who, thanks to the earlier classification of the order by Linnaeus, Fabricius and others in the latter half of the 18th century, followed by Kirby and Spence in the early 19th, had a sound basis for the identification and classification of their captures. This fact, coupled with the development of printing and publication, led to a spate of entomological literature, notably local records published by Societies or individuals. Wirral has figured prominently in these lists, but usually only as part of a more extensive area.

In Stainton’s Manual, published in 1857, Birkenhead is featured as one of the favoured localities, though the term Birkenhead should be taken to refer to the whole area within easy access of Birkenhead. It probably includes the major part of Wirral and certainly includes the Wallasey sandhills.

The earliest published local Lepidoptera list, so far as 1 have been able to ascertain, is contained in “The Fauna of Liverpool” by Isaac Byerley, published in 1850. This was compiled to supplement “The Flora of Liverpool” published in 1851, by Dr. Dickinson, and the two books cover a radius of several miles around Liverpool, the Wirral peninsula, at least as far south as Hooton, being included. The fauna list is pretty comprehensive, covering the entire animal population, and it enables us to appreciate the rural nature of the peninsula at that time. It includes such interesting records as:—The lesser horse-shoe bat from Storeton, hedgehogs, shrews and moles common, badgers at Hooton, Oxton and Caldy, otters, stoats and weasels common, the polecat still found in Wirral, a marten at Hooton, foxes not now so abundant, falcons at New Brighton and buzzards in Wirral, sand lizards on the coastal sandhills and common lizards at Bidston, ringed snakes common in Wirral, and an adder or common viper killed at Leasowe.

His Lepidoiptera records, for which he acknowledges thanks to Messrs. Brockholes, Warrington, Diggles, Almond, and others, are very extensive, and are incorporated in my summary of Wirral records.

This list was followed by “The Lepidoptera of Wirral” by J. F. Brockholes, published in 1864, in the Transactions of the Literary and Philosophic Society of Liverpool, a list which contains numerous records, with localities which still afford excellent collecting.

In addition numerous articles on Wirral were published by C. S. Gregson in the Transactions of the Historic Society of
Lancs. and Cheshire. I have not had access to these articles, but his records have been incorporated in subsequent lists, so I think I have them all pretty well covered. In 1890 Dr. J. W. Ellis, who was at that time Hon. Secretary of our Society, published “The Lepidopterous Fauna of Lancs. and Cheshire,” his report being based on records submitted by our members and incorporating the records contained in the Gregson papers and the Brockholes list. This Ellis list was revised and brought up to date by Mr. W. Mansbridge, also at that time Hon. Secretary of our Society, his revision being published in parts in our Proceedings covering the years 1913 to 1939 and issued as a complete publication in 1940.

Meanwhile the Cheshire entomologists had also been active and lists were published by G. O. Day and A. O. Walker.

The most recent publication is that of our President, Mr. Gordon Smith, whose “Butterflies and Moths of Cheshire” and certain N. Wales Counties, published in 1948 by the Chester Society, with supplements in 1949 and 1950, provides an admirable record of the Macro-Lepidoptera of the present time. The smaller moths are now in course of preparation by Mr. H. N. Michaelis, and the first instalment of his list covering Meyrick’s phyla Pyralidina and Psychina, is published in the 1950 Proceedings of the Chester Society.

With this mass of records to work on, plus my own records and observations over the past 12 years, I have found a study of the vagaries and fluctuation of our insect population a fascinating subject.

To pursue this study, we first of all consider the terrain. Wirral, as everyone here knows quite well, is the peninsula
formed by the estuaries of the Rivers Mersey and Dee. It is about 15 miles long by 7 miles wide and lies roughly N.W. and S.E. (which for convenience I am treating as north to south), with the sea coast on the north side, the Mersey on the east, and the Dee on the west.

The southern boundary I have adopted is the main Wales to Warrington road, which runs from Queensferrv on Deeside to Helsby and Frodsham on the Mersey side.

Physically, of course, the peninsula is practically unchanged, apart from slight coastal erosion or partial land reclamation. It consists almost entirely of a raised plateau, 50 to 100 feet above sea level, with a short range of hills on the east or Mersey side and a longer and somewhat higher range on the west or Dee side. Its streams, with one or two very short exceptions flow into the Mersey. In the north, the Birket, rising behind West Kirby and fed by small brooks from Arrow and Greasby, links up with the Fender which flows northwards along the Barnston valley, and empties into the Wallasey pool at Bidston. In the south, the Dibbin, flowing through the still delightful Dibbinsdale, and fed by streams converging at Raby Mere for which the Dibbin provides an outlet, empties into the Bromborough Pool.

Geologically the plateau is almost entirely Keuper marl, its two ridges being formed of Bunter sandstone, with areas of Keuper sandstone on the more northerly hills. At Burton in the S. W. and behind the northern sea coast are two alluvial patches, the Burton marshes and the Bidston marsh. A third alluvial strip extends along the Mersey coast at Ince, running inward to Stoke and Trafford and forming the Ince and Stanlow Marshes. The northern coastline contains a narrow area of blown sand, which constitutes our coastal sandhills. This was the Wirral of 100 years
ago and it is also the Wirral of to-day, albeit somewhat modified by modern progress.

The roadways shew more change, not so much in their number and direction as in their width, their surfaces and the extent to which they are used. THE main road of Wirral is the one from Birkenhead to Chester. This is of very early origin and was built coastwards from Chester. Leaving Chester, the road forked about half a mile past Northgate, the right fork, or eastern road passing by Upton, Backford, Great and Little Sutton, Childer Thornton, Eastham, Bromborough and Bebington to Tranmere. It had to take this inland sweep at Bromborough, to afford a crossing of the Bromborough Pool, which was made at the Spital Dam, but in 1840 a bridge was built over the Pool and the road was then continued straight from Bromborough to Rock Ferry whence it was later continued to Woodside. This is the main
road linking Liverpool with Chester, North Wales, the Midlands and London.

The left, or western fork, from Chester went by Mollington to Neston. From here it was later continued to Gayton, where it turned inland through Barnston, Thingwall and Arrow, then dividing, the right fork coming down to Tranmere and the left, through Upton, over the Pass of Thermopylae (Bidston) to Woodside Ferry. The continuation of this road from Gayton along the Dee coast, over the Heswall and Thurstaston commons to West Kirby, was a much later development. Numerous small roads or lanes, often little better than footpaths, and most of them inclined to be very muddy in wet weather, linked the villages or hamlets with each other, or with the main roads already mentioned. These various roads and lanes indicate the routes followed to-day. but their condition, width and surfaces have been altered beyond recognition. They were banked by tall hedges of hawthorn, briar and honeysuckle, with wide drainage
ditches where the smaller vegetation flourished, and along them carts and pedestrians maintained their leisurely three to four miles an hour. To-day these quiet lanes have given way to asphalt-or-macadam-surfaced roadways, edged with close cut, dust-laden hedges or barbed wire fences, with a sunken pipe drainage scheme, where only the law restricts traffic to a modest 30 m.p.h. and which the pedestrian is well advised to avoid. In fact, once the traveller reaches the area where the roads are bounded by hedges, and not by shop fronts or houses, even the 80 m.p.h. limit is lifted and his speed is restricted only by his own prowess and the capabilities of his vehicle.

The Railways were in their infancy 100 years ago. The only line in Wirral was one which ran roughly parallel with the Mersey from Birkenhead to Hooton, thence to Chester. This was only built in 1840. A branch line ran from Hooton through Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port and Ince to Helsby, and another from Hooton to Neston and Parkgate. It was some years later before this line was extended to West Kirby. A line from Wallasey Pool to Hoylake was opened in 1866; this was taken over by the Wirral Railway in 1884 and extended at both ends to run from Seacombe to West Kirby. The line from Seacombe across Bidston Marsh, around Bidston Hill, and along the valley of the Fender to Barnston, thence to Neston, Burton and across the Dee to N. Wales, was only commenced in 1884. Mr. W. H. Gladstone cutting the first sod. (This provides the answer to what Gladstone did in 1884.) The railway tunnel under the Mersey was opened in 1885 and was not electrified until 1903.

The Manchester Ship Canal was started in 1885, and it was not until 1894 that the first portion, from Eastham to Runcorn, was opened.

It is politico-geographically that Wirral has altered most in the past 100 years, owing to the development of Liverpool as a seaport, the enormous increase of industry on Merseyside and the exodus of Liverpool’s population to more airy sleeping quarters.

In 1820 Birkenhead had a population of only 200 and was described as “a small hamlet with a few residents, mostly brickmakers and fishermen,” while Oxton, the fashionable residential area of to-day. is described by Ormerod as ‘‘a village mean and small, composed of straggling huts, roads almost impassable, with no degree of civilisation and with bleak barren moors stretching in all directions.” It was not until 1877 that Oxton, Claughton and Tranmere were linked with Birkenhead to form the present Borough. It is interesting to note a record by Prince, who was a member of our Society from 1800 to 1904, that he found Large Emerald on the Oxton moors.

Hoylake in 1840 is described by Ormerod as “a few scattered houses, a rabbit warren, two hotels, and a racecourse.” The two hotels still flourish, the racecourse has been given over to golf, and the rabbit warren is either a built up area or golf links.

To-day the old villages of Birkenhead and Wallasey are two vast Boroughs with the entire area between them built up. The old marshes surrounding Bromborough Pool have been drained and are now occupied by the village and works of Port Sunlight and by the Candle Works and Chemical Works nearer the river front. The river frontage between Bromborough and Wallasey Pools is given over to shipyards and warehouses, and the Wallasey sandhills are mostly sunk under vast layers of concrete and are now represented by an extensive promenade. The portion not yet concreted has been acquired as a golf links, with the exception of a narrow strip used as a garbage dump by the nursery gardeners operating just behind. Hoylake and West Kirby have suffered an identical fate, promenades, tennis courts,
bathing and boating pools having obliterated the sandhills, the only stretches remaining of natural terrain being the areas devoted to golf.

Further south in the peninsula, the great Oil concerns have acquired the Ince and Stanlow marshes, surrounded their territory with a ten-foot barbed wire fence, and littered the area with partially submerged storage tanks. More recently, our progressive planners have chosen the delightful rural area of Capenhurst as a site for an atomic plant, so that they may in the future, be able to eliminate mankind with even greater thoroughness than they have so far displayed in the elimination of our Lepidoptera.

A study of the early lists mentioned above reveals numerous collecting localities, which I have considered worthy of investigation. The principal locality was, of course, the coastal sandhills of New Brighton, Wallasey and Leasowe. This locality, as already mentioned above, has been considerably curtailed, but thanks to the golf links and the narrow strip as yet unconverted, there is still a very useful collecting ground here and many of the species recorded between 1850 and 1900 are still to be found there.

Next, Bidston. The Hill is now National Trust property and is accordingly preserved from the builder, but my own experience of its smoke-grimed tree trunks with soot-laden leaves and its hard trodden playing fields has not been very encouraging, so I have given it very little attention, but I gather that Mr. C. M. Jones has had some useful records there in recent years. The Bidston moss or marsh has undergone a radical change. There is still a somewhat derelict area studded with ponds behind the Wallasey Pool, which might repay investigation, but it seems to have lost all resemblance to a moss and the flora is mainly confined to coarse grasses. Eastham, a favoured locality of old,
still holds many possibilities. There are some good stretches of woodland and quiet strips of uncultivated land which the last two or three years have shewn to contain some very interesting species.

Some of the old haunts are now completely eliminated, notably Clifton Park Birkenhead, the valley of the Rubicon (reputed to be somewhere in the vicinity of Borough Road, Jackson’s Wood in Claughton, Dacre Park in Rock Ferry, the Tranmere Woods and the Oxton Moor. These have all been completely built over and now form part of the thickly populated Borough of Birkenhead. Other sites, however, have been left practically unchanged. Burton, Ness, Puddington, Spital or Bromborough, Raby, Willaston and Storeton have all, so far, escaped the jerry builder, although tree felling, improved drainage, and increased cultivation have reduced the potentialities. Nevertheless recent records from these localities have confirmed most of the records of our predecessors of a century ago. The last few weeks. Have seen the builder at work on the Spital or Bromborough site. I do not yet know the extent of their intended operations, but an heterogeneous collection of drainpipes, concrete slabs, builders’ junk, bulldozers and steam rollers, promises a development which will bring more pleasure to the Minister of Housing than to the nature lover or entomologist.

Strange though it may seem, two of our most promising localities of to-day, the heaths of Caldy and Thurstaston, are hardly mentioned in the early lists. It may be they are covered by the general locality, West Kirby, or they may have been too difficult of access (remember the Dee road turned inland at Gayton and the railway to West Kirby had not been made), or possibly, having so many good localities nearer to hand, they may simply have been left for future study. Whatever the reason for their apparent neglect in the past, they well repay attention to-day; their perfection is only marred by their popularity with the general public, whose critical attention can be a serious deterrent to the self-conscious wielder of the net.

My study of the records is incorporated in the Wirral Survey I have prepared. This is compiled from the records of Stainton, Byerlev, Brockholes, Ellis, Day, Walker, Mansbridge and my own diaries. (Note. This survey, which is too comprehensive for inclusion in these Proceedings, was placed on the table for examination by members and can be seen on application to the Hon. Secretary).

I was very surprised, when comparing the Mansbridge revision of the Ellis list with earlier lists, to note how, as regards the larger moths and butterflies, Wirral appears to have dropped almost entirely out of favour with collectors. Admittedly the list covers a large area, of which Wirral forms but a small part, but whereas in all the earlier publications Wirral had figured prominently, in the Mansbridge list fresh Wirral records are few.
This observation does not apply to the smaller moths, in which branch a small band of workers, notably Mr. Mansbridge himself, F. N. Pierce, Dr. C. B. Williams, H. B. Prince and W. A. Tyerman, with, more recently, B. B. Snell, has done excellent work in Wirral, and the localities they frequented are mainly still available. Wallasey sandhills is the chief locality, Thurstaston and Caldy both shew records by Mr. Mansbridge, and Eastham, Storeton, Sealand, Bromborongh and Prenton are all mentioned. All these localities excluding only Sealand are still reasonably
unaltered and accessible. Burton has now taken the place of Sealand for salt marsh species.

I think the explanation of this apparent failure of Wirral productivity lies in the greater mobility of collectors, affording easy access to more promising areas further afield. Thus Delamere became the Mecca of all collectors; the Lancs, sandhills afforded much more scope than the narrow Wirral strip, and the mosses of N. Lancs, and Shropshire provided fresh fields. The theory is supported by the records in the recent Cheshire list. The curtailment of travel, brought about by petrol restrictions and reduced railway facilities during the recent war, caused collectors to work their home territory much more and as my survey shews, the records from 1940 to 1950 considerably outweigh those of the previous 40 years and compare favourably with the records of 1850 to 1900. Some species, it is true, appear to have become extinct, but this is inevitable, in view of the changing face of nature. Wood White, the fritillaries, Purple Hairstreak, Silver-studded Blue, Small Blue, and Small Skipper, amongst the butterflies and Lackey, Small Eggar, Great Brocade, Heath Rustic (I have since succeeded in rearing Heath Rustic from larvae found at Caldy) Dotted Rustic and Barred Umber, amongst the larger moths, appear to have died out, but practically all the remaining earlier records have been confirmed in recent years and there is good reason to believe that the renewal of interest in Wirral will demonstrate that our Lepidopterous Fauna is as flourishing as ever it was. Records of casual immigrants or accidental single occurrences should only be taken into account if they recur. The extinction of some species mentioned above, is compensated by the acquisition of other species, notably Comma, Holly Blue, Triple-spotted Clay, Golden Plusia, Small Phoenix, the several species of pugs recorded by Mr. Snell, and Leopard Moth, species which possibly, having found modern progress even more pronounced in other parts of the country, have retreated into the quiet backwater of Wirral and become established. There is plenty of scope for conjecture over the reappearance of species in the localities in which they were recorded 100 years ago. particularly when such species are not recorded elsewhere in the district. Can they have gone on quietly perpetuating their kind and preserving the old home for 100 generations? If not why should their successors, after such a long interval, select the identical locality of their ancestors? Whichever way we view it, it is remarkable. It is as easy to credit them with the viability to survive 100 generations as it is to credit the habitat with some definite attraction for the species which can survive 100 years. The following reappearances provide matter for conjecture on these theories;—
Holly Blue, taken at Eastham by Gregson reappears there in 1947.
Dingy Skipper, on Spital railway bank (1864) taken there in 1949 and 1950.
Shuttle-shaped Dart, at Storeton by Gregson, still there in 1945 and 1948.
Dog’s Tooth, at Denhall by Brockholes, taken at Ness (adjoining) in 1948.
Grey Shoulder-knot, at Upton 1859, at Barnston in 1989 (the same valley of the Fender).
Merveille du Jour, at Eastham by Brockholes before 1864, again there in 1948.
Suspected, at Storeton by Gregson, again there in 1945.
Burnet Companion, at Eastham and Mother Shipton at Spital, both still there.
Chalk Carpet, at Hoylake by Gregson in 1845 and again by C. M. Jones in 1948.
Sharp-angled Carpet, at Puddington (1864) reappears at Ness in 1948.
Streak, at Bromborough by Brockholes, reappears in 1945/46.
Spring Usher, at Eastham and Patrick’s Wood, Bromborough, recorded from both these localities in 1948.
Belted Beauty, Oblique Striped and Northern Drab, exclusive to the Wallasey sand hills 100 years ago, after a lean period, are all there in 1950.

The following two instances are known of migrants finding the locality favoured by their ancestors :—
Camberwell Beauty, found at Prenton in 1782 & 1947.
Death’s-head Hawk-moth, at Raby in 1834 and again in 1947 and 1950.

The selection of Wallasey by Bedstraw Hawk-moth, in preference to any other part of the country, in 1870, 88 and 97, led to a great controversy in Entomological journals as to whether or not it was permanently established there.

After a lapse of ten years, during which time the controversy died out, it reappeared there in 1907, but has not apparently been recorded there since.

It is true that collectors are usually only concerned with those species they need to fill gaps in their cabinets and are heedless of the “common” species. The result is that only those species which are out of the ordinary tend to be recorded. Mr. Gordon Smith. I know, keeps an accurate record of all species taken at his light and can thus verify which are common or general and which are scarce, but even he, when he is reporting on his captures will
record “90 species taken including............... ” mentioning only the scarcer ones. This is, of course unavoidable as space would not permit the publication of full records. Recording only the rarities makes good journalism, but it might lead to very inaccurate records. For example, if Large Yellow Underwing were suddenly to become extinct, I doubt if any of us would realise it for a number of years. Lists would continue to repeat the former dictum “plentiful in all Locs.,” and it might only be when some young collector, unable to find the species for his collection, sought the co-operation of the older collectors that its absence would be realised. The species I have used for my example is still abundant, but one species I would mention, Turnip, would seem from my own experience, to be far less common than our lists would have us believe. In 1938 and 1939 I got a fair series of this species at Barnston, but wishing to renew some of my worn and poorly set insects, I have been looking for this insect for the past three or four years and have not come across it. I do not wish to suggest that it is now scarce, but only the experiences of several collectors will confirm or refute my own experience.

I think the Society should keep a loose leaf book with a page for each species. Members should keep an accurate record of all species observed and these records should be handed in to a recording secretary, who would enter the date and locality under the species. By this means we would have a reasonably accurate account from year to year, of the frequency, scarcity or absence of each species. I have attempted this myself for the past 12 years, the results appearing in my survey, but the records of one individual can give no indication of general distribution, whereas
similar records from all our members, duly collated, would give a very reliable account of the distribution and frequency of all our species, and I feel sure that the Lepidopterous fauna of the Wirral peninsula, as thus revealed, would bear comparison with any area of similar dimensions, in the country to-day, or with the excellent lists of our predecessors of 100 years ago.

Extracted from the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society Annual Report & Proceedings Vol. 74:35-43, 1950-51
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