Crosby Blitz Beach
How did I get here?
In January 2023, I discovered the remains of an old building on the banks of the River Ribble in Penwortham. I was intrigued. It wasn't until December 2023 that I discovered what it was. A member of the Preston Past and Present Facebook group posted some pictures with the description, "Preston Town Hall 1862-1947 R.I.P. built by George Gilbert Scott." I found it fascinating, so I went back for another look in early 2024. You can read about it here:
The Remains of Preston's Third Town Hall - https://www.mylancs.uk/2024/02/the-remains-of-prestons-third-town-hall.html
More recently, I was watching YouTube videos, and went on a journey through some recommendations (thanks to the YouTube algorithms). On this particular evening, I started with a video about building developments around Liverpool City Centre. It was created by a gentleman called Aidan, who goes by the handle of AidanEyewitness on YouTube. His channel also covers construction around Manchester City Centre and transport in the north west. I randomly bumped into him in August this year when having a look around the areas to the east of the Manchester Airport Runways, specifically photographing Listed Buildings in the Styal and the National Trust Quarry Bank areas. I had a spell watching the aircraft take off, and Aidan happened to be there doing the same. I said hello, and informed him that I enjoyed watching his channel. Anyway, none of that is directly related to the journey, I just thought that it was a chance coincidence that was worth briefly mentioning.
After I had watched Aidan's latest Liverpool video, entitled 'FOUR UNBUILT TOWERS AROUND LIVERPOOL - Shouldn't they have been built?', I got recommendations for a video about Three Queens arrive at Crosby Beach. The Queens in question where ships from Cunard’s fleet. The Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria met on the River Mersey for the very first time to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Cunard. This happened on Monday 25th May 2015. I'll put a link to the video at the end, for anybody who is interested. After that, was shown a video entitled, 'Crosby Beach : The Liverpool Blitz Connection, World War 2 History at Your Fingertips'. This caught my attention. It was definitely not something that I had heard about before. The story was remarkable. What is also remarkable is that I have visited nearby on many occasions and never seen it.
The near misses included visiting the beach further south and looking at an array of statues that constitute the artwork 'Another Place' by Antony Gormley. I have done this on a number of occasions. I have also walked an cycled along the 'Crosby Coastal Path' a number of times, passing only a few yards (metres for modern people) away from Crosby Blitz Beach without actually seeing any of the rubble. I had also walked south from Formby or Southport, past the rifle range at Altcar Training Camp, before getting stopped in my tracks by the River Alt several times. Thus not quite making it far enough south to arrive at Crosby Blitz Beach.
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One of Antony Gormley's 'Another Place' Statues at Crosby Beach |
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Altcar Training Camp - to the north of the River Alt, near Crosby |
I watched a couple more videos on the Crosby Blitz Beach subject and resolved to visit in the near future. It appeared to be like my interesting adventure along the banks of the River Ribble, but taking it to the next level. Not just one building, but hundreds that had been destroyed by German Bombs in World War II. The following weekend, the weather looked favourable, so I headed over to what is now Merseyside. I had a couple of hours in a place called Ince Blundel, again looking at listed buildings and then carried on to a place called Hightown, to park my car and walk to the beach.
Crosby Blitz Beach:
The Remains from the City of Liverpool
from before World War II
Roughly 5 miles north of Liverpool, remains from the city before World War II are strewn across approximately 2 miles of coastline, from Hightown southwards to Crosby. From pebble-sized remnants of bricks eroded by the adjacent Irish Sea, to large pieces of dressed stonework that were once part of of major civic buildings, the expanse of Crosby Beach is a haunting reminder of the conflict that consumed the world in the middle of the 20th century.
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Crosby Blitz Beach - 2 miles of rubble strewn across the beach |
Liverpool was one of the most heavily hit British cities by the German Luftwaffe, the Nazi air force, during World War II. The blitz came in waves, with barrages beginning in 1940 and continuing throughout the early years of the war. Liverpool experienced its first air raid in August 1940 and was targeted regularly through the autumn of 1940 with fifteen raids in September and a further nine in October. However, the first major raid came on 28-29 November when it was hit by 350 tons of high explosive bombs, 30 land mines and 3,000 incendiaries. Sadly, nearly 300 people were killed. During the first eight days of May 1941, the then Lancashire city was bombed almost every night. 1,900 people were killed, 1,450 seriously wounded and 70,000 made homeless. In Bootle, 8,000 out of 17,000 houses were destroyed or damaged. St Luke's Church, was one of many of the city's churches that were destroyed. Its ruins were kept as a permanent memorial of the May Blitz.
In the haste to clear the streets and make the city liveable again, some of the rubble was shipped abroad, to be used as ballast. However, much was transported north out of the city, to Crosby Beach, just to get it out of the way. It was unceremoniously dumped there. Some people report that the rubble was set there as a barrier to erosion from the Irish Sea, others say the rubble may have been placed there to impede a potential German invasion by foot. There doesn't appear to be any conclusive evidence for either of the claims.
Since then building materials from more recent demolition work have been added to the debris at Crosby Blitz Beach. Over the years, additional construction materials, waste, and landfill from various post-war demolition projects have been layered on top of the original wartime rubble. Today, Crosby Blitz Beach still occasionally reveals previously unseen pieces of historical rubble and debris, making it an interesting yet complex blend of past and more recent construction remnants.
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Crosby Blitz Beach - 2 miles of rubble strewn across the beach |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - 2 miles of rubble strewn across the beach |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - 2 miles of rubble strewn across the beach |
The debris includes concrete, bricks - many of which have been rounded like pebbles, brick fragments, glass fragments, tile fragments, significantly sized pieces of dressed stone and large sections of former walls. The dressed stone would have been on some very grand and elegant buildings in the past.
Each piece has its own story to tell. Many of the bricks still have the manufacturers names visible on them, giving you a sense of where they were made. Many come from East Lancashire, and I found a number from North Wales. The masonry also would have its own particular journey. 'Where was it quarried?', and 'who was the mason?', are both questions that spring to mind. Some of the larger pieces did appear to have mason's marks on them, which would possibly give an indication of who the craftsman was.
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Crosby Blitz Beach - A large section of a former wall |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Sections of former walls and rounded bricks |
I was hoping to find brick that originated from my home town of Preston, but I had no luck. I did manage to find several relatively local (to me) manufacturers. These included Accrington, Darwen and Withnell.
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Brick from Huncoat - Accrington |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Brick from Place & Sons Ltd in Darwen |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Withnell 'Plastic' Brick |
The stone itself is quite varied and includes buff coloured sandstone, (probably local - to Liverpool) red sandstone, limestone, marble and granite, at least that I could spot. The hardness of each particular variety has had its own effect on the weathering processes and the the tidal erosion. The red sandstone is clearly the softest and the pieces have often been rounded to such an extent that it is difficult to distinguish their original worked stone form.
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Large pieces of dressed sandstone |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Large pieces of dressed sandstone |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Large pieces of dressed sandstone |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Large pieces of dressed sandstone |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Large pieces of dressed sandstone |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Large pieces of dressed sandstone |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Large pieces of dressed sandstone |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Large pieces of dressed sandstone |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Large pieces of dressed stone |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Large pieces of dressed sandstone |
I also came across a number of sections of what appeared to have been tiled concrete floors.
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Possibly the remnants of a tiled floor |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Possibly the remnants of a tiled floor |
In 2019, Emma Marsh, an archaeology student from Durham University did a project attempting to identify the origins of what could be then found on the beach. She used the help of the Twitter (now know as 'X') community, to see if she could determine which buildings the various pieces of rubble had come from. She was hoping to get at least get some signs in place, to at least explain what the rubble was and the history of the Blitz in the area. Alas, I couldn't see much evidence of that. Unfortunately, all that I could see, as I left the site, were signs saying that the coastline was dangerous, and requesting that people stayed on the path. Subsequently, they will be totally oblivious to what was on the beach. Just like me on my previous visits to the area.
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Crosby Blitz Beach - Warning Sign |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - 2 miles of rubble strewn across the beach |
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Crosby Blitz Beach - 2 miles of rubble strewn across the beach |
I will certainly be going back at some point, in the not too distant future, to have another look around. The tide was only just going out when I visited and there is much at the edge of the sea that I didn't have much opportunity to look at. Most of that is covered in coastal plant life, which some might refer to as seaweed.
Also, there was so much material that I am bound to have missed some things. Obviously, there is no way you are going to be able to see all the bricks and smaller pieces. However, I was not even able to look at all the very large pieces of worked stone. From looking at other people's photographs and video footage, I am beginning to think that a number of manageable artefacts have been gradually been working their way into people's private collections. I will confess to bringing home a few small pieces of tile.
To be continued...
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Further Reading, Viewing and Sources of Information
Crosby Blitz Beach - Atlas Obscura
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Liverpool’s Crosby Beach Is a Mile of World War II Blitz Rubble - Atlas Obscura
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The Liverpool Blitz - Imperial War Museums
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Crosby Beach : The Liverpool Blitz Connection, World War 2 History at Your Fingertips
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History pieced together on Crosby Beach - JMU Journalism
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Three Queens arrive at Crosby Beach | Liverpool Ships & Sailors on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4yc61Ve7L0
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