Lowry refers to the golf course in his first novel
Ultramarine; "Spring on the West Cheshire Golf Links, with its background of cylindrical brick- red gas works" (Pg. 118).
The West Cheshire Golf course was formed in September 1908 and went into liquidation on 7th June 1952. The address of the course was Breck Road, Wallasey with W.H. Carter Secretary in 1927.
The course occupied 2 sites as indicated on the map above. The first course occupied the former Bidston Moss to the east of the Birkenhead to New Brighton Railway and south of the line to Seacombe with the club house and first tee lying to the north across the Seacombe line. The course could be reached by an underpass under the Seacombe branch line. The first course moved from this site sometime in the mid-30s possibly due to the expansion of Birkenhead Docks with the construction of Bidston Dock which can been seen on the above map (click on image to enlarge) and in the photo below.
This expansion is referred to here:
The low-lying land north of Bidston, the site of the old West Cheshire Golf Course, is suited to port industries. The latest of the docks, Bidston Dock, at the head of the West Float, gives shipping facilities Merseyside Plan 1944
The original course became a municipal tip in 1936 which gradually expanded across the former course into the 90s.
The original course is the one referred to by Lowry in
Ultramarine which we can assume he used with Tess Evans ( the basis of the character Janet in
Ultramarine). Lowry himself was a member of Caldy Golf Club as a youth and later was a member of the Royal Liverpool Club at Hoylake. We can only speculate why he used the West Cheshire course rather than the ones at Caldy and Hoylake. Certainly, the West Cheshire was nearer to Tess's home at
26, Thirlmere Street, Liscard, she may have been a member or perhaps Lowrywas "hiding" with her at the West Cheshire from the prying eyes of his family and their friends? You can see the course's clubhouse which Lowry and Tess would have used on the left of the photo below.
The gas works which Lowry referred to in
Ultramarine was located the east of the course in Gorsey Lane, Wallasey which would have been clearly visible from the east end of the original course.
The only meaningful mention of the course in local newspapers I could find related to winding up of the club. However, the most detailed mention of the course is in Bill Houldin's
Up Our Lobby which refers to the West Cheshire Artisans based at the course but also talks about caddying at the course. The book includes this description:
The West Cheshire Course was situated around what was the Wallasey Pool, (now Bidston Dock). The Pool was simply an irregularly shaped, grassy banked stretch of water. On one side ran the Wrexham/Wallasey railway, and on the other side up to the road bridge, the golf course. The course followed the line of the pool and then took a right turn following the road past what is now the incinerator. It went up to what is now the Co-op Coal Depot, but which then was a railway engine sheds. It then took a right turn again. It was a nice undulating and interesting course and bred many fine golfers... The clubhouse itself was on one side of a dirt road which starting at the first tee and going under the Wrexham/Wallasey Railway line bridge, would stretch for three or four hundred yards up the hill to Breck Road, Poulton... The Professionals Shop and Caddies Stand were on the opposite side of this sunken, dirt road. They were connected by a wooden bridge which lay alongside the railway bridge, both crossing the sunken dirt road at this point.The Caddies' Shed was just that, an open-ended wooden structure, roofed in with corrugated iron and having a dirt floor. Nothing here to encourage the lazy tom lounge about.
The second course was located west of the New Brighton to Birkenhead line occupying the former Bidston Aerodrome site as seen below:
Both former sites are now virtually unrecognisable due to the first being used as a tip and the second being consumed by a motorway, access roads and a retail park. There is sparse information existing about the course unlike Caldy and the Royal Liverpool - the course has virtually disappeared off the map and local consciousness. It must be noted that the course was not connected to Bidston Golf Club which still exists on land adjacent to the second course.
The original West Cheshire course and the later tip are now Bidston Moss Nature Reserve as seen below.
Read more on Malcolm Lowry @ The 19th Hole
