£850k appeal for museum to display Wirral’s hidden historic gems

Oct 8 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

AN APPEAL for £850,000 has been launched to help put on display some of west Wirral’s hidden historic gems.

The St Bridget’s Church museum, in West Kirby, houses relics of Christian worship and burials dating back more than a thousand years, as well as artefacts from the Viking occupation of the surrounding area.

But for years the unusual collection has been hidden away. It is known only to a small number of people and an appoint-ment has to be made to gain entry.

Now fundraisers hope to pay for a new building to house the museum, founded in 1892 in memory of a noted benefactor, Charles Dawson Brown, a cotton broker and one of the founders of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club.

Iain Corlett, leader of the St Bridget’s Community Centre Appeal, said: “The museum is housed in a small, rather uncared for room at one end of the sand-stone schoolrooms and certainly looks rather unimpressive, but the potential for this collection is really quite significant.

“It is almost unknown even in the local West Kirby area as visitors to date have to book ahead with the curator, and opening up this hidden little gem is one of the objectives of the appeal, perhaps involving local schools via their history curriculum.

“Certainly its significance from a Viking perspective has been recognised by the local education authority and in various Wirral Viking projects.”

The earliest pieces in the museum are Viking, including a Viking “hogback stone”, now housed in the attached church, and other pre-Norman items including an early Saxon font.

Various pieces from the Norman church and the Gothic church on this site are displayed, more recent displays include a tithe board recording the tithes payable in West Kirby in 1712.

It is hoped by opening up the collection it will raise awareness – and help with fundraising – for a new community centre at the site. The museum is attached to the old schoolrooms which form the front part of the community centre.

While the old schoolrooms built in the mid-1800s are in fine shape and are remaining as they are, the community centre, built in the 1960s, is really not up to the job.

It is being knocked down and completely rebuilt, and the appeal aims to raise £850,000, currently standing at £225,000, to bring the community centre and its historic contents back into public domain.

Mr Corlett said once the appeal reaches its target and the new community centre is built they plan to enlarge the museum and create an interpretative centre which can be used by local school children, although it is expected to take a number of years before this is completed.

TO FIND out more inform- ation about the Appeal, contact Iain Corlett on 0151 648 2337.

liammurphy