IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Lillie Close, PRENTON, CH43 7YS

Facing Bidston Hall is Bidston Hall Farm, the buildings are now in the process of being converted into residential accommodation.

Bidston Hall is an early seventeenth century house associated with William Stanley, sixth Earl of Derby, who died 1627. It was more recently occupied by Sir Robert Vyner who gave the land on Bidston Hill for the observatory. It is built of yellow sandstone, the front approach is through a square court, with a handsome gateway having a singular arch highly ornamented with the cognizances of the Derby family. In some intermediatory purchase it is said Bidston Hall was won and lost at cards, to commemorate which a summer-house was built in the form of a club, the foundations of which still remain in the picturesque grounds attached to the hall.

The original Bidston Observatory & Bidston Lighthouse can be seen above the treeline of Bidston Hill. The picture is taken from Upton Park, the M53 Moreton Spur motorway junction is in between.

Long associated with weather and tidal research, the observatory was relocated from Liverpool's Waterloo Dock in 1866. Bidston Observatory is faced with sandstone excavated from the site. There was an equatorial telescope in the west dome, which was used mainly for the observation of comets, and a transit telescope in the east dome, which was regularly used for the determination of time from the stars. These telescopes are now in Liverpool Museum.

Britain's most inland lighthouse.

There has been a lighthouse on Bidston Hill since about 1771, when the first Bidston Lighthouse was built, further from the shore than any other lighthouse in Britain. The tower was octagonal, and the lamp room featured a massive parabolic reflector, 13’6″ in diameter, developed at the Bidston Signals Station by William Hutchinson, Liverpool Harbour Master and one-time privateer. This was a replacement for the second Leasowe lighthouse, which was out at sea. The light from Leasowe lighthouse would be aligned with the light from the bidston (or the previous Leasowe lighthouse) by ships and then they could use this as a navigational aid for shipping entering the Mersey Estuary. The present Bidston Lighthouse and Cottages were built by Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in 1873, after the original lighthouse was damaged by fire and demolished. The building is Grade-II listed and privately owned. Built in stone blocks with a "rock face" finish, it has four floors connected by a spiral stone staircase to the third level and thereafter by a steep wooden staircase to the lamp room which has an enormous window, in line with Leasowe lighthouse, and there is access to an external gallery with a cast-iron railing all round the upper structure. A 6 image stitch of Bidston Lighthouse Stitching was done using Autopano Giga 3.5 final PP'ing with Photoshop CS6 File Size : 7.4 mb Camera Make : Canon Camera Model : Canon EOS 500D Software : Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)

A stone cross with cast metal panels naming those who lost their lives in the first world war. For names see http://www.carlscam.com/warmem/bidston.htm