IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Holmwood Drive, WIRRAL, CH61 1AU

On Barnston Road (A551).

Ball finial - 1 arm; Wirral Footpath post by the A551, Barnston Road, by the junction with Holmwood Drive, in parish of Thornton (Wirral District), Barnston. Surveyed Milestone Society National ID: CH_SJ2884.

During the 10th century, Wirral was a Viking mini-state with its own parliament (the Thing, or Ting). This was located on Cross Hill, across the main road from the reservoirs. Thingwall means 'assembly place'. Today, there is no indication there of its historical significance.

More on this at http://www.barnstonvillage.info/bvcamp.htm

It is unlikely that many helicopters land here - the hospital is private and doesn't deal with emergencies. It may be required for the consultants though - the hospital owners, Spire, list almost a hundred as being available at Murrayfield, and the majority of them spread their workloads between three our four Spire premises. Licences are not required for helipads that do not anticipate being used for more than 28 days a year. On the other hand, however, there is a four year old document by the Civil Aviation Authority which stretches to 135 pages, detailing the dos and don'ts for hospital helipads. Whilst it must obviously only apply to the 28 day plus variety, it still seems excessive; I often think life would be simpler if our document authors had had to study the Highway Code as part of their training. This pad seems quite straightforward: a cross to show you're at the hospital; four normal lamps to light up the landing area; and an upward-pointing red/green light at each corner of the square. The green obviously indicates it's good to land and the red that it's not. I would hope that the helicopters themselves also have lights on their tops, just in case the helipad is playing up and another one tries to land on them.