About the park
The Wirral Country Park was the first of its kind in Great Britain. Once a great western rail track from West Kirby to Hooton it was closed to passengers in the late 1950s then lay largely disused and abandoned and finally closed completely in 1962, when Captain Lawrence Beswick DSM started a campaign to utilise this 12-mile stretch of unique countryside.
With the assistance of the Countryside Commission, he persuaded local urban district councils to apply for grants to create the Wirral Way, with a Wirral Country Park Centre.
Work
started in 1969 and was completed in 1973 when Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire,
Lord Leverhulm officially opened the park. The commemorative plaque
on its sandstone plinth stands in the country park open space before the
visitors centre at Thurstaston. The visitor's centre overlooks
the magnificent vista of the River Dee Estuary, a site of special scientific
interest.
The creation of this interesting pathway involved removal of over 30 miles of rail track and thousands of sleepers, digging and forming drainage channels, levelling and consolidating thousands of tons of gravel or ballast and the removal of some brick built road bridges etc.
Very little of its rail heritage remains today, except part of the station platform at Thurstaston, and of course a preserved 1950 style railway station at Hadlow Road Hooton. Occasionally, you may see railway incline signs indicating a degree of climb or descent, buried in the undergrowth.
The whole track is accessible for walking, cycling, horse riding, and is for the most part completely off road, with no traffic. If not quite level, the Wirral Way has only easy gradients, making it ideal for gentle exercise for all ages including disabled access.
A view from the cliffs down to the magnificent beach formation and the Sailing club boats in the distance make an idyllic peaceful setting.
New wider Footpath cleared of some of the overgrowth allows a clear route and easier maintenance for the parks & gardens staff to keep brambles and weeds down to a more manageable level
However,
in 2005 work began at the West Kirby end to widen the pathway and construct
a decent footpath, cut back some of the undergrowth and over growth, remove
unwanted trees. With the provision of new fences, gates, signs, and
picnic areas the Wirral Way was transformed.
Pedestrian access to the beach is an exercise in physical enjoyment. No matter how many times people count the steps, nobody ever seems to agree on the total! En route you may encounter wild life native to the Wirral Country Park (WCP) plus many species of birds in this special shoreline environment.
The breathtaking views across the Dee to the North Wales coast are an established favourite of photographers with ever changing seasonal configurations of cloud, sea, sunrise, sunset, and panorama.
Kite
flying is also a popular recreation here. As is paragliding.
The Para Gliders use the cliffs to launch into space over the beach below.
So there is always something of interest to do or watch all year round.
Middle of the year 2010
Wirral Country Park, a truly fascinating place for recreation, with great open grass areas for picnics or just to laze about and watch the para-gliders when they are in action, dozens of seating locations to bask in the sun and appreciate the views, etc
Also a great place of learning, the Country Park Rangers an absolute mine of information from down on the beach, up to up in the sky with the birds, bees, and flying insects, down on the ground with even more birds, and crawling insects, not forgetting the abundance of flora & fauna.
Way back in 1866 a single line rail track opened from Hooton to Parkgate 20 years after that the line was then extended to West Kirby, the steam trains carried coal from Neston Coal Mine plus all the farming and dairy produce to the markets further afield.
For about 90 years this trains service carried goods and passengers, men going to work, children going to school, day trippers to the wonderful beach resorts like West Kirby, then on to trains that could take them to Birkenhead and Liverpool, in fact even the Queen travelled along this line on a special occasion in 1957, the very last train went from West Kirby to Hooton Rail Station in 1962.
But in 1969 Cheshire County Council applied to the Countryside Commission to turn this abandoned derelict rail route into the very first Country Park in Great Britain, and this was all down to Captain Lawrence Beswick, the commemorative plaque is situated in the middle of the green at Thursaston Country Park.
The park and all the trails, track and footpaths have evolved ever since into this delightful special location for relaxation, leisure, and learning.
Mainly down to the hard work dedication and great pride of the Country Park Ranger Service, working for Wirral Borough Council and Cheshire County Council. A reorganisation in 1974 saw the Wirral split into Cheshire at the Neston Hooton End, and West Kirby to Heswall end coming under the jurisdiction of the Wirral Borough Council.
The Wirral peninsular bounded on one side by the River Dee and on the other By the River Mersey, is full of historical facts and information, etc.
There are in existence great parks, open spaces, heathland and dales, but none so special as the Wirral Country Park, the very diversity of natural trees, shrubs, scrub, flowers, plants ranging from sea coast plants and wild life, to dense woodland and rolling fields, home to numerous native wild life species and exotic visitors during the changing seasons make This Country Park unique.
In the visitors centre at Thurstaston, you can pick up leaflets and pamphlets that give you a wide variety of topics to talk about, there are books and manuals about Walking, Cycling, Horse Riding, and visiting special places of interest like the Tinkers Dell, Cubbins Green, Thursaston Common, Hilbre Island, The Dungeons, Heswall Dales, Parkgate Promenade, Neston Coal Mine, etc
You can Walk, Cycle, Horse Ride for about 12 Miles for the most part off road passing through delightful avenues of trees, overlooking fantastic view across the estuary to the North Wales Coastline, rolling fields and carefully manicured greens of a golf course or two.
Take the footpaths that lead to delightful villages like West Kirby, Caldy, Thursaston, Heswall, Gayton, Parkgate, Neston, Thornton Hough, Ledsham, and Hooton, sampling the local hostelries and eating establishments on offer.
If you are not sure what wild life to look out for, ask the staff at the Country Park Centre for advice, they can guide you on what to look for, plus there are many photographs on display at the centre, and whatever you spot tell the rangers, they regularly collect information and data for collation to national organisations.
You may have read in a number of publications about dwindling flocks of birds or massive losses in the Honey Bee populations. Information quoting percentage losses in various species of wildlife.
Numerous articles about how global climate changes are effecting our own countryside and the complex interaction of the Flora, Fauna, Insects, and Wildlife have on our everyday living, well this is where all the valuable information gathered tells the true picture of our planet.
So just by a simple exchange of views you can have some input to gathering these valuable sightings and snippets of information that can make a huge difference on how we treat our open spaces, plus what is important to the population of humans on this planet.
Always remember from Little Acorns, Massive Oak Trees grow and flourish.
Sandy Cameron (member WCPFG)