Ownership of Bidston Hill As part of the manor of Bidston, Bidston Hill was within the barony of
Dunham Massey. The clear association with the Mascys (Masseys) remained until the land was sold around the mid-14th century to Henry, 4th
Earl of Lancaster. This purchase was in proxy for the LeStranges, and on the Earl's death Roger LeStrange assumed possession of the Dunham barony. Legal claims by the descendents of Hamon Mascy V were raised against the LeStrange ownership but the status quo remained and on 24 June 1347 John Le Strange, son of Roger, sold the manor of Bidston and other lands to
Sir John Stanley. In 1407 under Stanley's ownership a stone-walled enclosure was made on the west and north-west of Bidston Hill for the purpose of retaining deer. This would later be known as the Penny-a-day dyke.
Buildings The hill has been the site of several notable buildings, including
Bidston Windmill, which was a replacement for an earlier windmill destroyed by fire in 1791. The windmill was built in the late 18th century using roughcast render over stone or brick and it went on to grind wheat until 1875 when steam-powered milling started to be introduced. It was restored in 1894 and 1971. Additionally, Bidston Hill has a formerly operating lighthouse and observatory. Bidston Observatory was built in 1866 using local sandstone excavated from the site. One of its functions was to establish the exact time. Up to 18 July 1969, at exactly 1:00 p.m. each day, the 'One O'Clock Gun' overlooking the
River Mersey near
Morpeth Dock, Birkenhead, would be fired electrically from the Observatory. The Joseph Proudman Laboratory building, which was located on the hill but separate from the observatory, was demolished in 2013.
Maritime signalling There has been a lighthouse on Bidston Hill since 1771. The first lighthouse was built by Liverpool's dockmaster
William Hutchinson; it was designed to work in conjunction with
Leasowe Lighthouse, forming a pair of
leading lights enabling ships to avoid the sandbanks in the channel to
Liverpool. Being more than two miles from the sea, a record unsurpassed by any other lighthouse, Bidston depended on a breakthrough in lighthouse optics, which came in the form of the
parabolic reflector, developed by Hutchinson at the signals station on Bidston Hill. The reflector at Bidston Lighthouse was thirteen-and-a-half feet in diameter (probably the largest ever made for a lighthouse) The present lighthouse was built in 1873 and was equipped with a large (first order)
dioptric lens with vertical condensing prisms, manufactured by
Chance Brothers of Birmingham. It remained operational until sunrise on 9 October 1913. (By that time Leasowe Lighthouse had already been decommissioned: the line of approach taken by ships had altered due to shifting sandbanks, rendering the leading lights ineffective). In addition to the lighthouse, Bidston Hill was once home to a flag signalling station which operated from the year 1763 to about 1840. When a known ship would approach, the related company flag would be raised in order to alert the relevant merchant house and dock workers in Liverpool of its impending arrival. At the systems height of operation there were over 100 flags that could be used and it was a popular visitor attraction. The scene of the signalling system and lighthouse has been the subject of artistic designs on pottery.
Rock carvings Close to information post 13 there is a carving of a
sun goddess carved into the flat rock north-east of the Observatory, supposedly facing in the direction of the rising sun on
Midsummer's Day and thought to have been carved by the
Norse-Irish around 1000 AD. An ancient carving of a horse is on bare rock to the north of the Observatory, close to information post 10, with a later carving beneath of the Latin 'EQUINO'.
Tunnels During
World War II, an
air raid shelter was constructed at Bidston Hill. Today the tunnels are concealed for public safety. The Bidston Hill tunnel project was born in 1941 out of the devastating effects of the Luftwaffe blitz on Merseyside. Many infrastructure targets were hit, people killed and many more made homeless. The first week of May 1941 saw the peak of the attack, involving 681 Luftwaffe bombers, 2,315 high-explosive bombs and 119 other explosives. The raids put 69 out of 144 cargo berths out of action and inflicted 2,895 casualties, 1,741 of them fatalities. == Flora and fauna ==