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New Brighton Lake

Up to the nineteenth century, the area had a reputation for smuggling and wrecking,[3][page needed] and secret underground cellars and tunnels are still rumoured to exist. It also had a strategic position at the entrance to the Mersey Estuary. The Perch Rock battery was completed in 1829.[4] It mounted 18 guns, mostly 32-pounders, with 3 6-inch guns installed in 1899.[5] Originally cut off at high tide, coastal reclamation has since made it fully accessible. In 1830, a Liverpool merchant, James Atherton, purchased 170 acres (69 ha) of land at Rock Point, which enjoyed views out to sea and across the Mersey and had a good beach.[6] His aim was to develop it as a desirable residential and watering place for the gentry, in a similar way to Brighton, one of the most elegant seaside resorts of that Regency period – hence "New Brighton". Substantial development began soon afterwards, and housing began to spread up the hillside overlooking the estuary – a former gunpowder magazine being closed down in 1851. New Brighton Pier and landing stage, during the 1890s During the latter half of the nineteenth century, New Brighton developed as a very popular seaside resort serving Liverpool and the Lancashire industrial towns, and many of the large houses were converted to inexpensive hotels. Designed by the noted architect of seaside structures Eugenius Birch, a new pier was opened in 1867[7][8] and the promenade from Seacombe to New Brighton was completed by 1901.[9] This served both as a recreational amenity in its own right, and to link up the developments along the estuary, and was later extended westwards towards Leasowe, making it the longest in the UK.[citation needed] The River Mersey and the resort were described by the diarist Francis Kilvert in 1872 as: "crowded with vessels of all sorts moving up and down the river, ships, barques, brigs, brigantines, schooners, cutters, colliers, tugs, steamboats, lighters, "flats", everything from the huge emigrant liner steamship with four masts to the tiny sailing and rowing boat ... At New Brighton there are beautiful sands stretching for miles along the coast and the woods wave green down to the salt water's edge. The sands were covered with middle class Liverpool folks and children out for a holiday."[10] From the 1880s until the First World War, New Brighton was one of the regular destinations for the Bass Excursions, when fifteen trains would take 8-9000 employees of Bass's Burton brewery on an annual trip to the seaside.

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New Brighton Lake

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New Brighton Lake

Up to the nineteenth century, the area had a reputation for smuggling and wrecking,[3][page needed] and secret underground cellars and tunnels are still rumoured to exist. It also had a strategic position at the entrance to the Mersey Estuary. The Perch Rock battery was completed in 1829.[4] It mounted 18 guns, mostly 32-pounders, with 3 6-inch guns installed in 1899.[5] Originally cut off at high tide, coastal reclamation has since made it fully accessible. In 1830, a Liverpool merchant, James Atherton, purchased 170 acres (69 ha) of land at Rock Point, which enjoyed views out to sea and across the Mersey and had a good beach.[6] His aim was to develop it as a desirable residential and watering place for the gentry, in a similar way to Brighton, one of the most elegant seaside resorts of that Regency period – hence "New Brighton". Substantial development began soon afterwards, and housing began to spread up the hillside overlooking the estuary – a former gunpowder magazine being closed down in 1851. New Brighton Pier and landing stage, during the 1890s During the latter half of the nineteenth century, New Brighton developed as a very popular seaside resort serving Liverpool and the Lancashire industrial towns, and many of the large houses were converted to inexpensive hotels. Designed by the noted architect of seaside structures Eugenius Birch, a new pier was opened in 1867[7][8] and the promenade from Seacombe to New Brighton was completed by 1901.[9] This served both as a recreational amenity in its own right, and to link up the developments along the estuary, and was later extended westwards towards Leasowe, making it the longest in the UK.[citation needed] The River Mersey and the resort were described by the diarist Francis Kilvert in 1872 as: "crowded with vessels of all sorts moving up and down the river, ships, barques, brigs, brigantines, schooners, cutters, colliers, tugs, steamboats, lighters, "flats", everything from the huge emigrant liner steamship with four masts to the tiny sailing and rowing boat ... At New Brighton there are beautiful sands stretching for miles along the coast and the woods wave green down to the salt water's edge. The sands were covered with middle class Liverpool folks and children out for a holiday."[10] From the 1880s until the First World War, New Brighton was one of the regular destinations for the Bass Excursions, when fifteen trains would take 8-9000 employees of Bass's Burton brewery on an annual trip to the seaside.

Image dimensions: 800 x 600 pixels

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