Many thanks to Ian Powers for sending in this detailed article about the sewage outfalls near Meols:

If you walk along the sea wall from Meols slipway to Moreton, you might notice that there is a kink half way along the route. As well as defending us from the sea, the sea wall was also used as a defence from potential invaders during WWII.  Positioned on the kink was a large concrete pill box which has now vanished.

This area was also the scene of a major civil works project, and those works were the subject of very heated discussion. A lot of seaside towns were seeing population growth, and they wanted to dispose of the increased sewage in the sea. There was much discussion both locally and in Parliament throughout the 1960s. During one YMCA Pantomime, our resident dame Bill Stanley composed a parody on Eartha Kit’s “Old Fashioned Millionaire” where he sang “I’d build a huge Atomic Sewage Scheme” during civic night when Hoylake Councillors attended the show.

I believe Hoylake originally had a number of sewage outfalls, including the Dovepoint Road outfall and one at this location called Crawford’s sewer.

To dispose of the increased sewage, the North Wirral Sewage scheme was created, and in 1971 a 900mm steel pipe encased in concrete was assembled on the grass at this point. At high tide a tug pulled the pipe out to sea over Spencer’s Spit whilst welders attached length after length of pipe together. When the pipe was about a mile and a half in length, it was sunk to the sea bed and buried with jets of water. The striped post in the photographs marks the sewer, and you can see a disturbance in the water of the gulley as it goes over the concrete protection.

I am not sure what happens to the sewage today, but I think the effluent was screened before entering the pipe and there was a macerator at the far end. The sailing club knew where the far end was, and they tried not to capsize anywhere near that point!

The capacity of the pipe was about 4.5 million gallons a day, and the Atomic Sewage Scheme parody nearly became true when Capenhurst applied to dispose of low level waste down the pipe.

Hoylake cine club used to hold an annual competition for amateur movie
makers, and I remember one winning entry was a film about the whole project called “Outfall”. I wonder if a copy of this film still exists?

Sewage Outfalls is a post from: Meols.org

Someone had mentioned to me that there used to be a house(s) in Greenwood Road, in the location of where Meols Park is today. After asking for help, a couple of Hoylake Junction readers remembered an old house there and Syd Bird searched through his archives and found these old photos.

The above view is from the Dovepoint Road end of Greenwood Road and you can see the old house opposite St Andrews Church. The photo is from circa 1907, when the road was named Park Drive. The Church has obviously changed a bit of the intervening years.

The photo below shows the view from the other end of the road ie looking from Birkenhead Road. This photo is circa 1913 and we believe the road at that time was called Park Road. In this view it’s St Andrews that is most visible whilst the house on the other side of the road is somewhat hidden amongst the trees.

Another little mystery solved!

Friday Photo: Greenwood Road is a post from: Meols.org

Every Thursday at St Johns Church there’s a coffee morning at the church centre from 10am til 12pm. Along with a warm welcome, tea, coffee, biscuits and sometimes bacon sandwiches are served. Once a month the Community Support Officers (from Hoylake Police station) have a table where you can talk to them and voice any concerns/ideas.

The now-removed scaffolding was there whilst the gutters were repaired late last year. St Johns has also had a new heating system installed over the last few months.

Tea & Toast At St Johns is a post from: Meols.org

Situated in School Lane opposite Meols Park, the well maintained bowling green has proved to be popular for many years. Older Meols residents will recall that on the other side of the much-improved club house there used to be a few lawn tennis courts. I can even remember buying the odd ticket myself from the lady in the ticket office back in the late 70′s

Great Meols Bowls Club is a post from: Meols.org

Here’s the view from the platform at Meols Station taken on a recent family trip out to Liverpool. It only cost £4 return for all of us thanks to the Christmas Cracker fare promotion.

You’ll be seeing some improvements being made to the station soon – Meols has been selected as one of 7 stations on the Merseyrail network to receive funding from the National Stations Improvement Programme. I can’t find details of improvements are to be made …so we’ll just have to wait and see!

Friday Photo: Meols Station is a post from: Meols.org

Can anybody tell me what’s inside this little green cabinet that’s on the corner of Parkway (Park Road end)? It’s quite an unusual looking cabinet and I guess it holds a meter or phone equipment of some sort?

The padlock looks reasonably new suggesting the cabinet is being maintained.

Friday Photo: Green Cabinet is a post from: Meols.org

Do you ever have those moments when you see something somewhere and you ask yourself …is that new or has it always been there?

Well I had such a moment with this post box that’s on Bennets Lane, just past Guffitts Rake. I was kind of sure it was reasonably new but then I started to doubt myself. Fortunately, I know that it is reasonably new because in the photo below taken in June last year (when they resurfaced the road) it wasn’t there. So how long has that post box been there then?

Friday Photo: Bennets Lane Post Box is a post from: Meols.org

I took this photo at around 8.30 this morning and as you can see, the Irish Sea at Meols was dead calm. I suspect that won’t be the case over the weekend though as some pretty horrible weather is on it’s way.

Does anybody know if these fishing boats are still in commercial operation? Please feel free to leave a comment below.

Friday Photo: Dead Calm is a post from: Meols.org

Friday Photo: Church Spire is a post from: Meols.org

Although Meols is predominately a residential village it does have some commercial premises. There are the shops, doctors surgery and (empty) offices at Station Approach and the old Barclays Bank on the main road is now a beauty parlour. Additionally and pictured above is a building used as commercial premises in Forest Road.

A small number of businesses are operating from the building including an ironing company, a freight forwarding business and an office for building contractors. As Forest Road is possibly the most prestigious road in Meols for houses it seems funny that this building is being used for ironing!

I’m not sure but years ago I think it may have been a joinery yard?

Friday Photo: Forest Road Offices is a post from: Meols.org