
It was the only dry and sunny day of the Easter weekend. Flaybrick was once the principal cemetery of the well-to-do merchants of Birkenhead, but it is now closed to new burials and is managed as a historical garden and arboretum. It has several champion trees. At this time of year bluebells are coming out in the dappled light, and we also spotted Primroses and one large patch of Wood Anemones. The Garlic Mustard was also out, my first this year.




A few butterflies were moving in the distance, including a Small White (or was it an Orange Tip?) and our first Holly Blue of the year. We stopped to look at the memorial tree to Stephen Titley, the first ranger of Flaybrick, who died in 2002. His tree is a Red Oak, now about 20 years old. I think I remember being shown it when if was quite small, and now it’s way over our heads, putting out its catkins and dainty little leaves. Over the summer the leaves will become much, much bigger, ending up as huge oak leaves, half as long again as your hand.

A Jay appeared to be eating the pink blossom of a ‘Kanzan’ cherry, but it flew off before we could see what was going on. Near the Tollemache Road entrance was another Cherry tree, with dainty pale pink, semi-double blossom on long dangling stalks. It must be in the last flowering group, and I think it is the variety ‘Pink Perfection’, a cross between ‘Longipes’ and ‘Kanzan’. A very lovely one.


In the cemetery we saw the usual city birds, Magpies, Wood Pigeons and a Blackbird. Chaffinches were singing and a possible Thrush flew by. We lunched on the picnic tables at Tam O’ Shanter urban farm where we also heard Robins and Great Tits. There were lots of little kids running around, excited by the Easter activities, but we watched a bee-keeper tending the hives on the edge of the Alpaca field. He (or she) was kitted out in the full bee suit with a smoke can.
We had been talking about our earliest walks, led by Bob (“the Birdman”) Hughes and vaguely remembering mysterious Wirral destinations such as Noctorum and the path called “Thermopylae Pass”. Where had he taken us? After lunch Margaret (who had recce’d earlier) led us eastward along Upton Road, into Noctorum Lane, past some cul-de-sacs of lovely-looking modern houses and into a park we had never been to, called Bidston Court Gardens. It is built on a west-facing slope, with terraces stepping down by winding brick paths. It was once the setting for a house called Bidston Court, built in 1891 by a soap manufacturer called Robert William Hudson. Then It was owned by John Laird of the Cammel Laird shipbuilders, and then by Sir Ernest Royden. In the late 1920s Royden had the house dismantled, moved and rebuilt in Royden Park, where it is now known as Hillbark. Only the grounds remain as Bidston Court Gardens.

We made our way down the sloping paths to the lowest level, where an avenue of trees led us to the junction with Windermere Road and a bus stop to take us back to Liverpool.

Later, at home, I realised we had been on the “Thermopylae Pass” footpath for part of our wanderings in Bidston Court Gardens. It starts at the gate we entered by and ends at the avenue we left by, although it appears to pass through the gardens in a straighter (and possibly steeper) line. It’s purpose seems to have been to cut across the great northward loop of Upton Road and it was probably named by one of the classically-educated previous owners of the old house.
Public transport details: Bus 437 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.04, arriving Upton Road / Bidston Road at 10.30. Returned on the 433 bus from Upton Road / Warren Drive at 1.56, arriving Liverpool 2.25.
No walk next week. On 4th May we plan to go Fazakerley Bluebell woods. Meet Queen Square 10 am.
Anyone is welcome to come out with the Sunday Group. It is not strictly part of the MNA, although it has several overlapping members. We go out by public transport to local parks, woods and nature reserves all over Merseyside, and occasionally further afield. We are mostly pensioners, so the day is free on our bus passes, and we enjoy fresh air, a laugh and a joke, a slow amble in pleasant surroundings and sometimes we even look at the wildlife!
If you want to join a Sunday Group walk, pack lunch, a flask, waterproofs, binoculars if you have them, a waterproof pad to sit on if we have to have lunch on the grass or a wet bench (A garden kneeler? A newspaper in a plastic bag?), and wear stout shoes or walking boots. We are usually back in Liverpool City Centre by 3pm at the latest.
If you are interested in the wildlife of the north-west of England and would like to join the walks and coach trips run by the Merseyside Naturalists’ Association, see the main MNA website www.mnapage.info for details of our programme and how to join us.