YOUR LOCAL AREA

Members of NRRA are very concerned about the recent felling of so many trees on Noctorum Road. All trees in our area come under the Tree Preservation Order, so any works to them, even trimming boughs, need permission from the TPO officer. If you see trees being felled and are concerned no permission has been sought, please contact the Council asking for the Tree Preservation Officer. In the event trees are being damaged without permission, Wirral Wildlife Trust’s advice is to contact Merseyside Police Wildlife crime unit <Rural.Wildlife.Heritage@merseyside.police.uk> 0151 777 8535, or in emergency 999 and say a crime is being committed by felling/damaging a TPO tree without permission.

Esteemed journalist and author Michael McCarthy has written the following piece about the Particular Environmental Character and Value of the Suburb of Noctorum. 

I am a writer and journalist. I was the Environment Editor of The Independent newspaper from 1998-2013 and before that I was the Environment Correspondent of The Times. Now I write books about nature and the natural world. A book I published in 2015, The Moth Snowstorm – Nature and Joy, was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize, the principal UK nature writing prize, and well-received in the US – it was described by The New York Times as “wonderful.” I say this merely to establish my bona fides. 

I am also a native of Birkenhead, born and raised in the town, and I remain a proud Birkonian and return when I can. I attended St Anselm’s, very happily, from 1958 to 1965 and in fact it was during my years as an Anselmian that I began to appreciate the very special nature of Noctorum as a suburb, because twice every week during those seven years I walked the two miles from the school at the top of Manor Hill to the games field, located in The Ridings at the top of Beryl Road, and as may be appreciated, this route goes right through Noctorum’s heart.

I was aware almost from the first of how beautiful the area was, especially in autumn, but many years on I think I now have the understanding to say why. I love Birkenhead as my home town, so perhaps I am entitled to say that architecturally, it is unfortunately not inspiring as a piece of townscape, although Birkenhead Park of course remains a marvel. However, the one part that is inspiring as townscape consists of the three mid-Victorian suburbs of Oxton, Claughton and Noctorum, laid out along the sandstone ridge which runs from Storeton to Bidston on the eastern side of the Wirral Peninsula. 

These adjoining suburbs are blessed with many beautiful old houses, usually with gardens filled with trees, the general effect being one of exceptionally pleasant leafiness, and it is in Noctorum that this reaches a peak. The reason is that the very big houses planned and built there by leading 19thcentury architects such as Edmund Kirby had gardens that were very big themselves, and in big gardens you can plant big trees, and this is what happened. The natural trees of the area are those you can still see on Bidston Hill, principally oak and silver birch, but what the Victorian gardeners did in Noctorum was bring in marvellous trees which are naturally scarce in the Wirral, such as lime, sweet chestnut, and above all, beech. For me beech, Fagus sylvatica, is our most beautiful tree and its autumn foliage is unsurpassed, yet it is a tree of the south of England; there are no beechwoods in the Wirral. 

However, Noctorum is full of wonderful beech trees, planted nearly 150 years ago and now at their peak, many well over 100ft high. Their autumn colour is little short of sensational, and taken with the sweet chestnuts, and the limes, and indeed the oaks and silver birches which are native to the area, they form a sort of astonishing, marvellous natural arboretum. It is not the trees alone, though, which give the area its quite outstanding quality, it is its general rural feel – walking through it, you can feel lost in a green world. 

Virtually every case of housing infill reduces this rural feel, to a greater or lesser extent. On my last visit in October I was dismayed to see that an ongoing case in Noctorum Road of what is sometimes known as ‘garden grabbing’ had taken out seven mature beeches. Is there no stopping this? It is heartening to see that Wirral Council has had the fortitude to reject two recent planning applications, especially the egregious case of the 33 houses proposed for the lovely open field between Noctorum Road and Noctorum Lane; I hope the council will show similar strength of purpose in rejecting the subsequent appeals, and I add my voice to this.

I would like to make it clear that in this matter I am disinterested. I am not defending my own threatened amenities. I have no skin in the game. I could not afford to live in Noctorum. But I can walk there, and appreciate its beauty, especially in autumn, as I have done all my life, and rejoice that my home town contains somewhere which environmentally is very special, and should be preserved. Indeed, I am astonished that Noctorum is still not a conservation area, which was suggested as long ago as 2006. 

In the famous series edited by Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England, in the volume on Cheshire, Noctorum is described as “a Victorian paradise” – I am not sure how widely appreciated this judgement is locally. I certainly hope that it does not end up as Paradise Lost. Or to put it more succinctly, as Joni Mitchell did – Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?

Michael McCarthy 13.11.23

mjpmccarthy1@gmail.com

The name Noctorum is Old Irish in origin, the original is Cnocc Trim, meaning “Dry Hill”. Noctorum and “Chenoterie” (Norman French) appear in the Domesday Book of 1086. The six-inch OS map of 1870 shows both Chenotrie and Noctorum.

Noctorum Field includes a playing pitch and large pavilion, which belong to Birkenhead School (pictured).  The Field has been part of the school’s heritage for more than 100 years. The school first rented the field in 1905, then bought it in 1910. Generations of the local community have played outdoor sports here. 

The pavilion housed a war memorial, an inscribed brass plaque (WM reference 47789). The inscription read “In honoured memory of the members of the Old Birkonian Football Club who gave their lives for their country in the World War 1939-1945 (followed by 29 names) Their Name Liveth for Evermore”.