Storeton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Storeton is a small village on the Wirral Peninsula in England. It is made up of Great Storeton and "Little Storeton" which is classified as a hamlet. There are viking connections with Storeton and it is alleged that the nephew of King Arthur resided at Storeton Hall. It is thought that the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight refers to Storeton Hall. Most of the village is built from locally quarried stone from Storeton ridge. The stone is a creamy sandstone and was also used for cladding the Empire State Building in New York. In October 1944 an USAAF Liberator Bomber number 42-50347 from the 445th Bomb Group exploded without explanation over the fields between Little Storeton and Landican with the loss of all 24 servicemen on board. The loss included 15 commissioned officers who were being taxied back to Tibenham after seeing more than 30 successful combat missions. In recent years a memorial stone has been erected by a local man who witnessed the aftermath of the crash as a teenager. The stone is coloured in the USAAF colours blue and yellow, with 24 yellow bricks each representing a life lost.
[edit] Storeton Woods
On the ridge above the village of Storeton are Storeton Woods that are owned by the Friends of Storeton Woods and cover 31 acres.The woods were purchased in 1989 after a campaign by the local Green Party as there were concerns about the deteriorating condition of the woods and the possibility that the land might be bought by developers. The trust later also attempted to purchase the adjacent Hancock's Wood to extend the nature reserve by a further 25 acres but the deal with the Leverhulme estate fell through at the last minute. Although the offer remains open there is the concern that this could lead to the eventual development of the area of woodland for housing.
[edit] Storeton Quarries and Tramway
The woods have grown up on the site of a quarry that was present since the times of the Roman occupation. The quarries were up to 60m deep at the beginning of the 20th century and, from the 19th century, a tramway (a single track, standard gauge railway) was used to transport stone to the docks at Bromborough. A portion of the tramway embankment still exists as footpath and a section of the rails have been re-installed by the society. Some rails are still embedded in the roadway on Rest Hill road down the hill from the woods. The Tramway ran along the southern border of the current woods, into Hancock's Wood and through a tunnel under Mount Road. It then ran in a sweeping curve to the docks at Bromborough [1] . Much of the route of the Tramway can no longer be seen as it has been lost under housing development or levelled for the playing fields of Wirral Grammar School but the present Quarry Road and Quarry Road East in Bebington follow the track of the Tramway and the original tunnel under the Chester - Birkenhead railway is still in use as footpath opposite the end of Quarry Road East.
Stone from the quarry has been used in many buildings and constructions including Birkenhead Town Hall (in Hamilton Square) and Sankey Viaduct in Cheshire. The quarry was filled in with spoil from the excavation of the Queensway Tunnel in the 1920s and the site is currently a tranquil nature reserve enjoyed by walkers.
The quarry was also the site of the discovery of dinosaur footprints, the species was named Chirotherium Storetonese after the site of discovery. Examples of these footprints can be seen in World Museum Liverpool in Liverpool and the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead, and also in Christchurch, Kings Road, Bebington.
