Hilbre Island



Hilbre Island is an island at the mouth of the River Dee. The grid reference of the centre of Hilbre Island is SJ 185 879. It is the largest of a group of three islands which form part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The other islands are named Middle Eye and Little Eye. Hilbre Island is approximately 47,000 square metres in area and it is about 1.6 km from the nearest part of the mainland of the Wirral Peninsula.

Rocks on Hilbre Island are of Lower Triassic age and form part of the Sherwood Sandstone Group. These rocks are mainly reddish brown to yellow grey coloured sandstones, although there is a band of conglomerate and some red brown siltstone layers exposed on the island. The rocks were originally deposited as sand and gravel in river channels forming river terrace deposits or as fine silt and clay deposited on flood plains during times when the river flooded over its banks. After they were formed the rock layers were affected by earth movements. The layers have been tilted slightly to the north and faulted. A steeply-dipping normal fault is exposed in the cliff sections on the southern side of the island.

The Dee Estuary is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It has been designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA), and a Special Area for Conservation (SAC), under the European Union’s Habitats Directive. It is a Ramsar Site under the Ramsar Convention of Wetlands of International Importance. It is primarily of importance for its assemblage of wintering waders and wildfowl and as a staging post for migrating birds.

Hilbre is interesting for several historic reasons: including the origins of the name of the island and the now-vanished community of monks, and, as the most accessible site of parts of a semaphore communications chain which stretched from Holyhead to Liverpool and was "faster than the wind". The chain appears to have been proposed by a James Boaz of Glasgow who is almost entirely forgotten. While his initial suggestion was impractical it sowed the seeds of a telecommunication link from Liverpool to Holyhead, which was extended to Ireland and then to the US.

Hilbre Islands History
Formed by the last Ice Age, these islands show signs of having been visited by Neolithic and Bronze Age people by the artefacts that have been discovered. Geological evidence suggests that originally, there was one large island. But, over the years, tide and weather erosion have worn away at the soft red sandstone to create three islands.

There was permanent habitation at least from Roman times, which continued through Norman times, when the first written records were made by a cell of Benedictine Monks associated with Chester Cathedral. The monks lived here until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. The Monks are also reputed to have tended a light or beacon known as St Mary's light, but there is little evidence of it's function - what is known is that Earl of Chester John Canmore contributed ten shillings annually for its upkeep in 1236.

Early History
Occupied since as far back as the Stone Age, there have been numerous archaeological finds on the island, arrowheads, scrapers and flakes, dating from the Stone Age and Iron Age, a bronze axe-head and a buried urn indicate visitations during the Bronze Age period.

Other finds were Celtic and Viking. A cross head, carved out of a piece of red sandstone, was discovered on Hilbre in 1862. It is thought to have been made about 1000 A.D. by masons based at Chester, possibly at St Johns.

Another archaeological find, made in 1864, was a burial slab, under which were found four skeletons. The burial slab is thought to have been made in about 1050 A.D., and is still in existence (although moved to the mainland).



From the 9th to the 12th century Viking Dublin in particular was a major slave trading center which led to an increase in slavery. In 870, Vikings, most likely led by Olaf the White and Ivar the Boneless, besieged and captured the stronghold of Dumbarton Castle (Alt Clut), the capital of the Kingdom of Strathclyde in Scotland, and the next year took most of the site's inhabitants to the Dublin slave markets. When the Vikings established early Scandinavian Dublin in 841, they began a slave market that would come to sell thralls captured both in Ireland and other countries as distant as Spain, as well as sending Irish slaves as far away as Iceland, where Gaels formed 40% of the founding population, and Anatolia. During these turbulent times, in 902, a Hiberno-Norse community settled in Wirral after its expulsion from Dublin, arriving somewhere between "Vestri-Kirkubyr" (West Kirby) and "Melr" (Meols). The exiles, led by one Hingamund, were granted land in Wirral by Æthelflæd and soon established a community with a clearly defined border, its own leader, its own language (Norse), a trading port, and at its centre a place of assembly or government (þing vollr) - the "Thing" at Thingwall. They also brought their religion with them to "Thor's Stone" (Mjollnir) at "Thorsteinn's farmstead", now Thurstaston Hill. It is also possible that the Norwegian "Labskause" may have come to this part of the country at that time and survived as "scouse". Just what the status of Hilbre was at this time is unclear.

Saint Hildeburgh
The name "Hilbre" is said to be derived from the name "Hildeburgh". The 19th-century St Hildeburgh's Church, Hoylake, built nearby on the mainland, is also named for her (it was designed by Edmund Kirby and built between 1897 and 1899 - Kirby also worked in Chester). The island and supposed chapel of St Hildeburgh upon it are far older. There are several possible contenders for the original "Hildeburgh".

Some versions are that Saint Hildeburgh was a legendary figure said to have visited the island's monastery whilst on a pilgrimage. According to other versions Hildeburgh is said to have lived on Hilbre Island in the 7th century as an anchorite. Some consider that she never existed.



Others equate her with Saint Ermenhilde (Eormenhild of Ely), wife to Mercian King Wulfhere and the mother of Saint Werburgh to whom Chester Cathedral is dedicated. After the death of her husband, Eormenhild retired to the abbey her mother Seaxburh had founded on the island of Sheppey in Kent, now Minster-in-Sheppey. Eormenhild succeeded her mother as abbess when Seaxburh went to join St Etheldreda at Ely. She then subsequently went to Ely herself, and died and was buried there. Her cult was tiny, almost non-existent; there were no churches dedicated to her, and her name only appears in a handful of post-conquest calendars giving her feast day as 13th Feb.

Ermenhilde/Eormenhild of Ely has very little contemporary historical evidence - most being taken from the "Kentish Royal Legend", which possibly dates from the 8th Century and is a diverse group of Medieval texts which describe a wide circle of members of the royal family of Kent from the 7th to 8th centuries AD. When discussing Wulfhere, Bede does not mention the matrilinear succession established at Ely by Æthelthryth, where power passed in turn to Seaxburh before subsequently transferring to Seaxburh's daughter Eormenhild and to her granddaughter, Werburgh. However, Eormenhild's name is possibly mentioned (once) as an abbess in a copy of a charter of King Wihtred of Kent, dated 699, along with three other abbesses present at the occasion when the charter was issued: "hoc est Hirminhilda, Irminburga, Aeaba et Nerienda". Ermenhilde is said to be one of the (much damaged) figures on the Shrine of St Werburgh in Chester Cathedral. Her daughter Werburgh was instrumental in convent reform across England. She eventually succeeded her mother Ermenilda, her grandmother Seaxburh, and great-aunt Etheldreda as fourth Abbess of Ely. She died on 3 February 700 and was - after some trouble - buried at Hanbury in Staffordshire. Her mother's "life" is given in the "List of saints' resting-places" in BL Stowe 944 (ff. 36-7) as follows:


 * "St Eormenhild, daughter of Eorcenberht and Seaxburh, was given in marriage to be King Wulfhere's queen. He was the son of Penda, king of Mercia, and in their time the Mercian people received baptism. Their daughter was St Werburh the holy virgin, and she was buried in the minster which is called Hanbury, and now rests in the city of Chester. And St Eormenhild rests at Ely with her mother and with her aunt St Etheldreda, and her powers are often manifested there."

The first shrine of St Werberh originally remained at Hanbury until the threat from Danish Viking raids in the late 9th century prompted their relocation (around 875) to within the walled city of Chester. It is unlikely that Hilbre Island would have named after Eormenhild until after that date of translation.

Other versions equate Hildeburgh with St Edburga of Mercia (Eadburh of Bicester), daughter of the pagan king Penda. There are two very confusing saints said to be the daughters of Penda: Edburgh of Caistor (Lincolnshire) and Edburgh of Bicester (Oxfordshire). According to one version, she was born around 620 and for a time she was a nun at Castor in Northamptonshire under her sister, Saint Cuneburga (another daughter of Penda the pagan). However, with yet another sister, Saint Edith of Aylesbury, she built a small monastery, on land given by her father, at Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. Here, the two educated their niece, later to become Saint Osith. While originally buried at Aylesbury (or in some versions Caistor), her relics were relocated to Bicester Priory in 1182 and became a popular attractions with medieval pilgrims (other versions have her relocated to Peterborough). However, in 1500 Pope Alexander VI (the infamous Rodrigo de Borgia) ordered her remains (in both the Edburgh of Caistor and Edburgh of Bicester versions) to be removed and relocated to Flanders in Belgium, where they are presumed to remain, in an unknown location. There is nothing to connect her (or either of her) with the Wirral and it seems unlikely she is the original "Hildeburgh".

A further St Ermenburga (of Kent) also sometimes known as "Domme Eafe" was a daughter-in-law of Penda and lived c650-700. Her legend is very confused and again her story takes place far from the Wirral and she is an unlikely candidate.

Viking origins for the name of the island are difficult to find, although there are local rocks whose names have Viking origins: the "Svartskere" – Black Skerries or Rocks at New Brighton, upon which Fort Perch Rock has been built, and "Tonnskere" – Tooth skerries or Tanskey rocks just to the south of Hilbre Island. "Ay", "ey" are both Old Norse place-name elements for island.



Monks
In 1066, Hilbre Island was part of the manor of Caldy, held by the Englishman Leofnoth - possibly the son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. William the Conqueror gave Leofnoth's lands to Hugh of Avranches who passed them on to his follower Robert of Rhuddlan. Although not named directly, it is believed that the islands were mentioned in the Domesday Book in which mention is made of Chircheb (West Kirby) having two churches: one in the town and one on an island in the sea. According to Ormerod, Robert de Roelent (Robert of Rhuddlan) transferred the revenues of the Churches of West Kirkby and Hildeburgh-Eye (with lands and other Churches) to the Abbey of St. Ebrulf, now St. Evroul, at Utica in Normandy, where the bones of his ancestors reposed. This gift was confirmed by King William in 1081, in his Charter to the Abbey, in the following terms:


 * "Robertus de Rodelento, praefato Hugone Cestrensi comite domino suo concedente, dedit Sancto Ebrulfo, Cerchebiam cum duabus ecclesiis, unam scilicet quae in ipsa villa est, et aliam prope illium manerium in insula maris." (Robert of Rhuddlan, to the aforesaid Hugh, Earl of Chester, to his master's consent, has given to the Holy One of Ebrulfo, two churches in Chircheb (West Kirkby), one of which is now in the village itself, and has a different manor on the nearby island of the sea.)

In fact the abbot from Normandy was given West Kirby and Hilbre, as a result of a fund-raising appeal. He visited William I’s court in England, asking for money for his abbey, and got an odd assortment of little villages all over England. The Abbot and Convent of St. Ebrulf, however, were soon tired of managing this distant property, and in 1140 effected a transfer of their rights in respect to the Churches of St. Bridget and St. Hildeburga with that of St Peter, in Chester to the monks of St. Werburg (Chester Cathedral), subject to the payment of an annual rental, at the manor of Petheling, of £30. Lysons states that a further consideration was paid clown in the form of a palfrey and nine marks. This transaction was not final and argument about ownership apparently continued for centuries. Leyland writes of the separation in the times of Richard I:


 * "This convent released it to the Abbey of St. Werburg with that Church, under the name of Capelln de Hildburgh-eye, or the Isle of Hildburgha, from which the present name is corrupted; and William Fitz-Richard, rector of Kirkby about the time of Richard I, after Kirkby had passed to the Abbey of Basingwerk from that of St. Werburg, by a deed preserved in the Chartulary of the latter abbey, quit-claimed the isle Hildburgheye, with its chapel and appurtenances, to the monks of that house, reserving only the right of sepulture to the mother church of Kirkby. The cell which the monks of St. Werburgh established here, had a grant of £3 issuing from little Meoles by Robert de Lanoelyn about the time of Richard I. William Lancelyn, his son, quit-claimed also to the same monks for ever, the lake (meaning the fishery) of Hoyle lake adjacent, under the description of lacus de Hildburgheye. The same William Lancelyn gave also a messuage in Little Meoles, which grant was confirmed by Robert Grosvenor and Margery his wife." (Chrt of St. Werborgh, p. 33; Harl. MSS. 1865)

The monks were apparently established on the island during the lifetime of Richard of Avranches (possibly in 1119). One story tells how Richard when a young man, was performing a pilgrimage to St. Winifred's Well, in Flintshire, nearly opposite the islands, was set on by a band of "Welsh robbers", who drove him for refuge to the Abbey of Basingwerk, where, not feeling too secure, by the advice of a monk of the cell of Hilbre, he addressed himself to St. Werburgh, who is said to have instantly parted the waters of the Dee, throwing up a huge sand-bank, over which his constable, the Baron of Halton, marched his men to the rescue and that is why the sands are called "The Constable's Sands". The story is interesting because most sources claim that Basingwerk was only founded some time later by the later earl Ranulph De Gernon. In any event the protection granted by St Werburgh did not last - Richard of Avranches drowned in the wreck of the "White Ship" in 1120.

An 1870 article by Henry Ecroyd Smith (a botanist and the first curator of the Liverpool Museum) may shed further light on matters (see links below) but appears dubious in parts.

Camden mentions it briefly in his discription of Wirral (1586):


 * "In the utmost brinke of this Promontorie lieth a small, hungrie, barren and sandie Isle called Il-bre, which had sometime a little cell of monkes in it."

William Webb uses almost the same words:


 * "Here in the utmost western nook of this promontory, divided from the land, lies that little barren island called Ilbree, or Hilbree, in which it was said there was sometimes a cell of monks, though I scarce believe it ; for that kind of people loved warmer seats than this could ever be."

Leyland (1540) gives a fuller description:


 * "And half a mile lower is Hillebyri, as the very point of Wyrale. This Hillebyri at the floode is al environid with water as an isle, and then the trajectus is a quarter of a mile over, and 4 fadome depe of water, and at ebbe a man may go over the sand. It is about a mile in cumpace, and the grounde is sandy and hath conies. There was a celle of monkes at Chestre, and a pilgrimage of Our Lady of Hilbyri."

Later History


In 1538 the islands passed to the Dean and Chapter of Chester Cathedral and remained under this ownership until 1856. Two monks were allowed to remain on the island, as they apparently maintained a beacon for shipping in the river mouth. Brownbill gives the extract from the Chester Chartulary in his "History of West Kirby" thus:


 * "John, Earl of Chester, 1232-37, had given to the Chapel of Hilbre, and the monks there abiding, 10s. a year for the lamps of St. Mary, payable out of his revenues as earl."

This might refer to a beacon or to lamps in the church. The last monk left the island in about 1550.

It was no longer a place of worship but simply a piece of property which was leased to various people over the years. Since the monks left the islands have used by fishermen and as a stop-off on the voyage from Chester to Ireland. In the reign of Elizabeth I, when the Earl of Essex was pursuing his campaign in Ireland, 4,000 foot and 200 horse troops were encamped on Hilbre en route to Ireland. This would scarcely be possible today, given the size of the island. But it has been suggested that 17th century maps of Cheshire, such as Speed’s of 1610, show Hilbre as a single island roughly square in shape and about a mile long with a deep inlet on the southwest and that the island has been eroded into the three remnants since then. Bearing in mind that the islands were only separated from the mainland some 7,500 years ago, it seems fair to speculate that the next thousand years could witness the virtual disappearance of the islands. The revetment works of the past 150 years and the construction of the former Lifeboat Station have done much to prevent erosion at the north end of Hilbre Island. However, Little Eye has now been almost completely eroded away.

In 1692 there was a scheme to produce salt on Hilbre Island. This probably involved boiling inseawater quantities of Cheshire rock salt brought to the island via. the River Dee. The scheme was short-lived but may well have left some traces in the form of depressions in the ground outside the present bird observatory. In 1755 there was a proposal to establish an oyster fishery around the island but this was opposed by a combination of Liverpool Corporation, traders, shipowners, fishermen and pilots and the proposal was dropped.



A public house (The Seagull Inn) had been established by the 18th century at the latest. It was visited by dramatist Richard Ayton in 1813. Its patrons were "the crews of some small vessels which find a harbour under one side of the Island". The islands have a more dubious reputation for wrecking and smuggling and the innkeeper in the early 19th century was said to be unaccountably wealthy. Traveler Richard Ayton recorded in 1813 the local gossip about the Hilbre innkeeper and his wife that:


 * "their riches have been gained principally by wrecking, for which business their situation is said to be admirably calculated"

Richard Ayton, also refers to Hilbre being most important:


 * "as a station for two beacons which are raised upon it, as guides to vessels through the Swash, a channel between the two Hoyle Sands, leading into Hoylake".

The full text of Ayton's Voyage Round Great Britain is available online.

In the 1820's Thomas Telford and his associates produced a scheme to construct a "Floating Harbour" along the entire length of the North Wirral coast with two sea ports, one in the mouth of the Dee and one in the mouth of the Mersey. Hilbre Island would have become the pierhead of the Dee port, linked via. Middle Eye and Little Eye to the mainland by an embankment and road. A further embankment from Red Rocks to the northern tip of Hilbre Island with an opening 300 feet wide would have turned the sands between the islands and the mainland into a 50-acre tidal harbour. Needless to say this scheme and a contemporary scheme to build a ship canal from Hoylake to Wallasey Pool were never implemented.

Liverpool's first dock was the world's first enclosed commercial dock, the Old Dock, built in 1715. The Lyver Pool, a tidal inlet in the narrows of the estuary, which is now largely under the Liverpool One shopping centre, was converted into the enclosed dock. Further docks were added and eventually all were interconnected by lock gates, extending 7.5 miles (12.1 km) along the Liverpool bank of the River Mersey. From 1830 onwards, most of the building stone was granite from Kirkmabreck near Creetown, Scotland. The Trustees of Liverpool Docks financed much of this and even ran the quarries. The interconnected dock system was the most advanced port system in the world. The docks enabled ship movements within the dock system 24 hours a day, isolated from the high River Mersey tides. Liverpool's early wealth had, like their possible Viking forefathers sailing the Irish Sea, been built on the slave trade, This included the Triangular Trade in slaves.

Semaphore and Telegraph
Signal and shipping beacons are known on the Wirral from early times. In 1588 a beacon was set up at Bidston, and much earlier the Earl of Chester Ranulf de Blondeville had set up a beacon in 1220 as the "Everton Beacon". In 1804, during the Napoleonic wars, when the French broke the blockade of Toulon, the Admiralty established a number of signal stations between Liverpool and Holyhead. An "alarm beacon" on Bidston Hill was set up at the same time. The Lancaster Gazetter reported:


 * "A fire beacon is erected, a few paces to the southward of the Bidston Light-house, for the purpose of communicating the approach of an enemy, should any appear on this part of the coast"

Even the Romans took care to maintain good communications along the North Wales coast between their fortress at Deva (Chester) and their naval base at Caer Gybi (Holyhead).

The coastal signals stations appear to have been located at Liverpool (St. Domingo in Everton - incidentally the patron Saint of astronomers), Bidston Hill, Point of Ayr, Cabe Hill, Great Orme’s Head, Point Lynas and Holyhead. There was no signal station on Hilbre Island as part of that early chain and very little is known about the nature of the signaling used. It may well have been that the only thing that the Admiralty had in mind was a simple signal that an enemy flotilla or even fleet had been sighted. Then, the July 1804 issue of the Scots Magazine mentioned:


 * "A plan of a Telegraphic Establishment for Domestic and Commercial Purposes having been suggested some time since to Mr Boaz, the ingenious patentee of a Day and Night Telegraph, that gentleman has lately submitted proposals for a local experiment to the inhabitants of Liverpool. A line of Telegraphs is in consequence about to be established from Liverpool to Holyhead, for the purpose of announcing the arrival of ships bound for Liverpool, and of procuring pilots. Another line has been suggested, from Liverpool to Hull, through Manchester and Leeds; and another from Liverpool to London, thro’ Chester and Birmingham"

James Boaz (an accountant and founder member of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow) filed his patent on Dec 3rd 1801. He remained as secretary to that society until his death in March 1830.



Major changes in regional communication patterns were occuring at the time. The post road built by Thomas Telford from London strengthened Holyhead's position as the port from which the Royal Mail was dispatched to and from Dublin on the Mail coach. The A5 terminates at Admiralty Arch (1822–24), which was designed by Thomas Harrison to commemorate a visit by King George IV in 1821 en route to Ireland and marks the zenith of Irish Mail coach operations. Holy Island and Anglesey are separated by the Cymyran Strait which used to be crossed on the Four Mile Bridge; so called, because the bridge was 4 miles (6.4 km) from Holyhead on the old turnpike. Thomas Telfords Menai Straights bridge of 1826 put the final link into the land route from London to Holyhead and its construction could have encouraged the merchants of Liverpool to do something to enhance their own trading position. Worse still for Liverpool, Great Britain and Ireland and the United States outlawed the international slave trade in 1807, after which Britain led efforts to block slave ships. Britain was to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

The Semaphore Line
In 1828 the Trustees of Liverpool Docks acquired the lease to the islands and established Hilbre Island as a telegraph station in a chain for communicating semaphore messages from Holyhead to Liverpool. The fact that the semaphore was set squarely in the mouth of the River Dee may of itself have been designed both to gather commercial intelligence about what was going into Chester and to lure ships into Liverpool. Survey and construction of the complete semaphore line was, in 1825, entrusted to ex-Army Lieutenant Barnard Lindsay Watson (26 Dec 1796 – 1865). He went bankrupt three times: in 1831, while a flag manufacturer in Liverpool; in 1842, again a flag manufacturer, but now in London and Kent; and finally as a hotel keeper in Bathwick, Somerset in 1848. Watson would have been aware that the best weather was often found along the coast. The line of stations ran, from Holyhead, through Llanfaethlu, Point Lynas (North Amglesey), Puffin Island, the Great Orme, Llysfaen near Abergele, Foryd, Voel Nant above Prestatyn, Hilbre Island and Bidston Hill and the final station in Liverpool.

Semaphore (usually said to have been realised by Claude Chappe in 1801) was the Internet of its day. It is parodied as "The Clacks" in the "Diskworld" novels of the late Terry Pratchett. Use of false semaphore signals to provide "fake news" was a plot element in Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (1844), where it is used to manipulate financial (bond) markets and gain revenge for the escaped Count.



The system enabled the sighting of a ship off Anglesey to be transmitted to Liverpool within minutes. The same was true of weather changes - which could take at least an hour to be felt in Liverpool after a change at Holyhead. One Liverpool newspaper stated that it was "Faster Than The Wind". The record, set in clear weather during a demonstration for the Trustees in 1830, was claimed to be an amazing 23 seconds. The Welsh Coast Pioneer and Review for North Cambria (25th March 1909) mentions an even more impressive 18 seconds for a round trip. In poor visibility and at night the system was unusable. Even today (2019) it takes over three hours to take the train from Liverpool to Holyhead, a distance of over 70 miles as the crow flies. Sound travels a mile in 4.7 seconds, so even a noise which started as an incredibly loud explosion at Holyhead (say 50 tons of TNT) would take about 5 and a half minutes to cover the distance: - some ten times slower than the best working rate of the semaphore. Liverpool prospered, perhaps in part due to the semaphore, With the opening of the railway from London to Liverpool, Holyhead lost the London to Dublin Mail contract in 1839 to the Port of Liverpool. Only after the completion of the Chester and Holyhead Railway in 1850 and the building of Holyhead railway station did the Irish Mail return to Holyhead, operated from London Euston by the London and North Western Railway.

Watson's Watch
In June 1904 the Rhyl Journal reported a visit to the Voel Nant telegraphy station by the local naturalists society. During the visit it was noted that the "superintendant and adaptor" of the semaphore system along the North Wales coast was the Lieutenant Watson and that:


 * "..he was the possessor of a valuable gold watch presented to him by Sir John Tobin, a wealthy Liverpool merchant of that day, as a souvenir. It appeared that one of Sir John Tobin's ships, the Mayflower" I think he was named, with a valuable cargo from the West Indies, was considerably overdue, and Sir John decided to re-insure her, and as he passed out of his office he told the clerk what he was about to do, adding that he would not be long should anyone call. He had no sooner gone than Lt. Watson called, and finding Sir John out, said to the clerk, "Oh, tell Sir John when he comes in that the Mayflower has just been reported off Holyhead." The clerk rushed after Sir John with the news, and so saved the very heavy charge of re-insuring. The watch presented to Lieut Watson, as a slight acknowledgment of the courtesy shown, had engraved on the back of it the semaphore, with the arms up tor the "Maytlower." " (it is not recorded whether the cherk got anything for his trouble)

The above story illustrates how good communications with Holyhead could be of incredible value in such a commercially active city as Liverpool. Sir John the wealthy underwriter avoids the expensive re-insurance and this kindly old gentleman is so grateful that he rewards Watson with a watch. However, there is a darker edge to the tale. Sir John Tobin (1763-1851), 'merchant', was born on the Isle of Man. By the 1790s was a master, operating in the slave trade between Africa and the Caribbean, and operated as a privateer in the early years of the war with France. He married, 1798, Sarah Aspinall (1770-1853), daughter of James Aspinall (1729-1787), another prominent Liverpool slave-trader. It is said that 'This marriage may have brought him capital'. He was a pioneer of the palm oil trade and knighted in 1820. With his ill-gotten gains he buillt Liscard Hall.



Waterproof Wires
Following the adoption of Gutta Percha after 1845, undersea cables became feasable, and by 1853, more successful cables were laid, linking Great Britain with Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. After tenders proposed in 1857 (see The North Wales Chronicle and Advertiser - 17th January 1857) the Great Orme telegraph station was converted to electric telegraph by the British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company. Landlines and submarine cables connected the Orme to Liverpool and Holyhead - and thence to Ireland. At first the new equipment was installed in the original Semaphore Station on the summit until it was moved down to the Great Orme lighthouse in 1859. Two years later the Great Orme semaphore station, and the others in the chain, closed with the completion of a direct electric telegraph connection from Liverpool to Holyhead. The whole conversion of the sephamore to electricity seems to have been funded by Liverpool. In 1853 Magnetic were successful with a cable from Holyhead to Ireland. Because of the infrastructure already in place there was now a direct link between Liverpool and Ireland. As Magnetic also had extensive infrastructure in Ireland they rapidly consolidated their Anglo-Irish business.

In 1857 the Magnetic company acquired the patent of Robert Lewis Jones of Chester (once a chemical supplier to the Tanning industry in Chester and then the manager at Chester Station) for regulating electric clocks, and began to use Jones' clocks in its offices. The public appreciation of such clocks it measured from the large electric clock it had in the window of its office at Exchange Buildings, Liverpool, controlled by the Observatory at Bidston. On February 4, 1861 it counted the number of people who "took the time from the clock" between 6am and 5pm – the number totalled 1,860.

The Telegraph keepers of Hilbre Island all appear to have kept a horse or pony for transport and sheep and some kept a cow, a pig and poultry. The sheep are said to have been kept in order to keep the grass short rather than for profit. As can be seen from the photographs and maps below, many of the signal stations were surrounded by small-holdings where the relatively isolated telegraphers could raise their own produce.

Surviving sites
The surviving remains of the semaphore signal stations on the Holyhead-Liverpool line are as follows - the limk "MAP" will in each case bring up a side by side view of an old map amd a modern view:


 * (1) Holyhead Mountain: (MAP) The remains of the station are on a barren mountainside, but there are hints of green around the remains as if some attempt was made to improve the local land.


 * (2) Llanfaethlu (MAP) /Cefndu: no trace remains of the later station at Cefndu, but the ruins of the original station still stand in a field.


 * (3) Point Lynas: (MAP) Is located on a headland in Llaneilian Community, on the north-east corner of Anglesey in North Wales (at grid reference SH479936). A pilot station was established on the point in 1766, to guide ships entering and leaving Liverpool, with an associated lighthouse added in 1779. The present building was built on the hilltop in 1835, so does not need a tower. Built and managed by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, it did not come under the care of Trinity House until 1973. By 2001 the lights were fully automated, so no resident staff were needed. whilst the light is retained in operational use, the building and associated lighthouse keepers cottages were returned to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board who sold them to be a private home and holiday accommodation. The 1835 Lighthouse is considered to be important for its association with Jesse Hartley, the engineer responsible for the world's first great floating-dock system at Liverpool (1824 and 1860) and who worked (between 1827-1833) as the surveyor and clerk of works on the Grosvenor Bridge in Chester.


 * (4) Puffin Island: (MAP) is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and unfortunately it is not possible for visitors to land on the island without permission from the landowner. It is possible to take a boat trip around the island from which the ruins of the semaphore station can be seen. The station was once used as a "biological testing station". The island has a number of ruins of medieval monastic buildings, including the tower of a 12th century church. It is said that St. Seiriol himself is buried there, and perhaps also King Maelgwn Gwynedd, who was the ruler of North Wales and patron of St. Seiriol in setting up the religious community (he died of the plague). The island is mentioned by Gerald of Wales in his Journey through Wales in 1188. He notes that it was an ecclesiastical settlement at the time, "inhabited by hermits, living by manual labour and serving God". He also says that, according to legend, whenever there was strife within the community a plague of small mice would devour all their food. A modern day plague of rats has also affected the island. As the name suggests, Ynys Seiriol once had large numbers of puffins as well as other seabirds such as guillemots. However, brown rats found their way to the island in 1890s, decimating the populations of nesting birds. At this time the puffin population was already declining because the birds had become a delicacy, but the rats further reduced their numbers to just 20 pairs. In 1998 a program was begun by the Countryside Council for Wales to rid the island of the rats, in the hope of encouraging the birds to return. Visited by Royal Commission survey staff during the EU-funded CHERISH Project on 21 June 2018. The 1841 remains comprise a square, roofless brick building with four rooms arranged around a central chimney, and fireplaces serving each room. The building is entered by doors on the east and north sides, with steps descending into the ruin on the north side. Extending from the north-west corner of the building is a long observation/signalling room culminating in a panoramic curving window now represented by the rusting remains of vertical frames. Set externally on the south wall is a smart dressed stone engraved plaque pronouncing; 'PUFFIN ISLAND TELEGRAPH, Built in 1841 by the TRUSTEES of the LIVERPOOL DOCKS'.




 * (5) Great Orme: (MAP) First the "Telegraph Hotel" - now the Summit Hotel - was taken over by the RAF in 1939 and used as a Radar Station, The Hotel is a short walk from the upper tramway station. By the late 1860s, Llandudno's blossoming tourist trade saw many Victorians visit the old semaphore station at the summit to enjoy the panorama. This led to the development of the summit complex and the constuction of a cable-tramway from near sea-level (there is also a cable-car). By the early 20th century, a nine-bed hotel was built on the site. It served as the clubhouse for the Great Orme Golf Club that was founded in the early 1900s. The course closed in 1939 and is now a sheep farm. During the Second World War, the RAF built a Chain Home Low radar station at the summit. In 1952 the site was taken into private ownership until it was acquired by Llandudno Urban Town Council in 1961. The Great Orme lighthouse had an electric telegraph room in use until 1924 and the lighthouse was decomissioned in 1985. The lighthouse is 99 metres (325 feet) above sea level. It was erected in 1862 for the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board to the plans of its chief engineer, George Fosbery Lyster. It was taken over by Trinity House in 1873. Throughout its working life it used the original lantern that was made specially for it.


 * (6) Llysfaen: (MAP) Still exists as a private home: "Old Telegraph House", Ffordd Y Llan. Originally a 2-bay rectangular structure with central stack, it was extended to the S and N later in the C19; further, modern alterations and additions have been made. A large C19 stone tablet in the N gable bears the inscription: " Llysfaen Telegraph, built in 1841 by the trustees of the Liverpool Docks".


 * (7) Foryd: Built in 1828 as a supplementary station between Voel Nant (nprn 300823) and Llysfaen (nprn 300828). There are no remains. The station was superceded by one built at SH 994 805 (nprn 300826) in 1836.


 * (8) Voel Nant: (MAP) The present Voelnant building is listed and carries a stone tablet in south gable with the inscription "Voelnant Telegraph Built in 1841 by the Trustees of the Liverpool Docks". The original station was about 400 feet further up the Hill.


 * (9) Hilbre Island: (MAP) The station building still exists (without the semaphore) - but don't forget your tide tables while visiting or you could be "marooned". The coastguard rescued a record number of walkers trapped by the sea in West Kirby on a single day in Feb 2019. In total, the Lifeboat rescued 18 adults, nine children and two dogs.


 * (10) Bidston Hill: (MAP) Bidston Observatory was built in 1866 using local sandstone excavated from the site. One of its functions was to determine 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. In 1929 the work of the observatory was merged with the University of Liverpool Tidal Institute, being taken over in 1969 by the Natural Environment Research Council. The Research Council relocated the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory to the University of Liverpool campus in 2004. 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, 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) and the lamp consumed a gallon of oil every four hours. The distance it was built from the sea is a record unsurpassed by any other genuine lighthouse, before or since. The telegraph station stood next to the lighthouse and nothing survives today,


 * (11) Liverpool: (MAP) The first structure on the site had been a sandstone mansion, built in 1256 on the shore of the River Mersey. Its first owner is not known, but by 1360 it was owned by Sir Robert Lathom. By beginning of the 15th century it was owned by Sir John Stanley. In 1406 Sir John gained permission from King Henry V build a fortified house, which was named the Tower of Liverpool. The Stanley family later became the Earls of Derby. By 1737 the house was being leased from the Earl of Derby by Liverpool Corporation. In 1745 part of it was converted into a prison, and the upper rooms were used for civic functions. In 1774 the Corporation bought the building outright. A new prison was built in Great Howard Street, and the building ceased to be used for this purpose in 1811. It was demolished in 1819 to allow widening of Water Street. The site was used for a row of warehouses, until in 1846 the first structure to be known as Tower Buildings was built to a design by Sir James Picton. The present building was designed in 1906 by Walter Aubrey Thomas, and its construction was completed in 1910.

A Gallery of Signal Stations
Many of the sites are mentioned in the unpublished novel In Ballast to the White Sea by Malcolm Lowry:


 * "A lone airman, that wintry Easter, was flying over the Irish Sea. Now that the fog had cleared completely he was following the line of the old telegraph stations to Liverpool: Holyhead, Cefn Du, Point Lynas, Puffin Island, Great Ormes Head. Making a spurt, he covered the seventeen miles between Llysfaen over Veryd to Voel Nant in seven minutes."

The Colfein database seems a little confused about which site is which, but links are provided under the images below. You can click on any image to enlarge it.

Hilbre Signal Station
This is a listed building (LBS 443647) c.1841. It is in painted stone, with a slate roof. Built on one storey, it has a bowed north end. This bowed end has small-paned glazing with brass gimbals for telescopes set into the panes. The east facade has a timber platform and elliptical-headed entrance. The roof is hipped at the south end.

Lifeboat, Lighthouse and Lodgings
The lifeboat station was constructed in 1849. At that time it was operated by Liverpool Dock Board. In 1894, the Royal National Lifeboat Institute took over responsibility for the station until, in 1939, it was superceeded by the Hoylake Station. A bird-watching hide has been constructed over the beginning of the old slipway for ornithologists to observe the rare breeds that congregate on the island. Trinity House, the organisation responsible for maritime navigation, also used the island. They maintained a marker buoy store here until 1876 when it was moved to Holyhead in Anglesey.

Hilbre Island Lighthouse is a white steel tower surmounted by a red lantern, built in 1927 to provide a port land mark for the Hilbre Swash in the River Dee Estuary. It is very easy to miss being only 3m high. Originally built by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, this small automatic lighthouse came under the jurisdiction of Trinity House as a general aid to navigation in 1973; it was converted from acetylene gas to solar powered operation in 1995. The lighthouse is now monitored and controlled from Trinity House’s Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex.

With the growth in population of Hoylake and West Kirby towards the end of the nineteenth century and more particularly the completion of the Liverpool to West Kirby railway in the 1880's Hilbre Island became a popular destination for day-trippers. The following is an extract from R Anderson's chapter on the history of the Hilbre Islands in Hilbre, The Cheshire Island, edited by J D Craggs (1982):


 * "As early as 1885, solicitors acting for an anonymous client with an eye to the new possibilities created by the railways attempted to purchase the property 'to form a Marine Establishment on Hilbre Island forthe purposes of recreation, boating and bathing, and to connect the same with Hoylake Railway bymeans of a tramway'.  A similar scheme was put forward by a Mr. Henry Summers, an Architect, adecade later; his ideas focused on the Little Eye, and involved 'the formation of a Promenade Pier constructed upon light iron stanchions or pillars starting from a station on the mainland.'   The pier was to run to the Eye, where there would be 'suitable and ornamental pavilion buildings comprising assembly room, reading and refreshment rooms... (and) well-constructed sea-water bathing accommodation'."

The Dock Board resisted these ambitious schemes and more modest ones to extract rock and minerals from the islands, although it did approve another oyster-farming scheme - which was short-lived.

The present buildings date from the mid-19th century when the telegraph signalling station was built on the main island. The only permanent resident was until recently the Dee Estuary Ranger, for whomn a replacement to live on the island could not be found (no toilets, no running water). There are some semi-permanent Atlantic Grey Seals. One of the most visited parts of the Island is the Lady Cave. There are several different versions of the story telling how the cave got it's name. The most popular being of a young Welsh girl who had thrown herself from a boat taking her to an arranged marriage. Her drowned body was discovered by the monks on the rocks close to the cave that bears the name "Lady Cave".



Animals
The Dee Estuary by the Hilbre Islands ishome for a colony of Atlantic Grey Seals. Up to 500 individuals canregularly be seen in the area, especially as most haul out over low-water on the south east corner of the West Hoyle Bank near to the green buoy (HE4). Visitors to the area, sailors included, look forward to seeing them, and one can get quite close because they are tolerant of boats provided they are slow moving and not too close. '''The seals are not tolerant of people walking up to them on the sandbank. Once disturbed the seals will usually not haul out for the remainder of the tide, and so others are denied the chance to see them, also they become wary and so cannot be approached as closely by boat afterwards.'''

Plants
Hilbre is home to Limonium britannicum (rock sea lavender). There are four subspecies in Britain, and sub-species "celticum" is found in just a handful of sites on Anglesey, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. It is much smaller than the other Sea lavenders and grows just above the intertidal zone.

A Hilbre Gallery of old postcards
You can click on any image to enlarge it and you can also view a "live" webcam.

Visiting Hilbre


Hilbre Island is one of 43 (unbridged) tidal islands that can be reached on foot from the mainland of Great Britain. To stay on the island over high water it is necessary to reach the island TWO HOURS before high water. You must then stay on Hilbre Island until THREE HOURS after high water (i.e. five hours in total) before returning to the mainland. To visit the island between two successive high waters, it is advisable to follow the tide out starting from TWO HOURS after high water. Then, to return to the mainland it is necessary to leave the island TWO to THREE HOURS before the next high water (depending on the actual height of the tide on the day of interest, i.e. Springs or Neaps).

There are no shops or fresh water on the islands, and very little shelter. There are compositing toilets on the island. Always carry waterproofs, and warm clothing, and food and hot drinks in winter. Wear sensible footwear as rocks, barnacles and broken glass can cause injury. Overnight stays are not allowed.

Wrecks
One of the most famous wrecks is still visIble of Hilbre Island at low tide is the SS Nestos which foundered in 1941. Nestos started life in 1919 as the Arabian Prince owned by Prince Lines (Furness Withy and Co.) and registered in Newcastle. Her first year of service as the Arabian Prince was a year of disaster. Her propeller shaft fractured in mid-Atlantic, there was a fire in the hold in Gibraltar and then she was caught in a hurricane at Port Louis on Mauritius. In 1933 she was renamed the Zenada and owned by the Z Steamship Co., managed by Turner Brightman of London. She later passed into Greek ownership, managed by N. G. Livanos.

In 1941 she sailed under the protection of an east-bound convoy from Halifax to Liverpool. The Nestos, carrying 7,750 tons of sulphur (loaded in New Orleans), became separated from the other vessels. She met up with another convoy coming up from the south, but 33 days out of Halifax and in thick fog, this Greek steamship found herself alone once again. Bearings were taken of what was thought to be Point Lynas on Anglesey, and maintaining a course for Liverpool Bar at dead slow ahead and still in fog, she ran aground shortly after noon, Apr 2. Despite having an English mate aboard, they had probably mistaken the Great Orme Lighthouse for that on Point Lynas. A distress signal was sent, but because it was not in the correct code of the day it was ignored, since there was a possibility it had been transmitted by a German U-boat. The crew attempted to pull their ship off the sandbank by running out her anchors but with no success, and when the fog lifted, found they were just north of Hilbre Island. Her crew were rescued and attempts made to recover her cargo using lighters and 360 tons was recovered. After the coal-carrying coaster Maurita sank close at hand (12 Nov), having been mined in Hilbre Swash, all salvage ceased for fear of German aircraft attacks and further mines. The boilers/engine block of Nestos are visible under low water conditions.

Summary
Both wrecks mentioned above were used for practice by the RAF with "ASV" Air to Surface Radar Guidance controlled by The "Top Secret Boeing", Boeing (type 247D) RAF serial number DZ203 (built in 1933). The American radar was developed following the secret Tizard Mission to Washington in 1940, after the Fall of France while the United States was still neutral, ordered by Winston Churchill and agreed by President Roosevelt. The mission was charged with handing over to the Americans, without pre-conditions, the latest British inventions – including the MAUD report containing early plans for the atomic bomb, the jet engine and the cavity magnetron on which radar was based. Those who worked on these are far better known than the sharp-minded but forgotten James Boaz. Even Lieutenant Watson (whose watch was paid for by the slave trade) is better known.

It is difficult to determine the extent to which the Holyhead-Liverpool signal system contributed to the decine of Chester as a port as compared with the growth of Liverpool, who funded the system. It is clear however that the semaphore line was an important stage in the development of telecommunications with Ireland and thence to the development of a transatlantic cable system.

Sources and links

 * "The Friends of Hilbre";
 * Hilbre Island Tides;
 * Planning Your Visit To Hilbre Island from the "Friends of Hilbre";
 * Hilbre Bird Blog;
 * Hilbre Island on Wikipedia;
 * Time Lapse Tide;
 * Journal of Antiquities;
 * RELIQUES OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCHESOF ST. BRIDGET AND ST. HILDEBURGA, WEST KIRKBY, CHESHIRE.;
 * Camden on Cheshire;
 * Hidden Wirral (on Hilbre);
 * A description of a visit to Hilbre;
 * Hilbre "Lighthouse";
 * Conservation Plan;
 * Management Plan 2011-2016;
 * An Archaeological Excavation on Hilbre Island, Wirral, Merseyside (2008);
 * Hilbre as described by Coward;
 * Drone footage of Hilbre (technically against the by-laws);
 * The Lifeboat;
 * The Telegraph;
 * Faster Than the Wind: A History of and a Guide to the Liverpool to Holyhead Telegraph (ISBN-10: 0952102099)
 * Friends of Bidston Hill;
 * Bidston Beacons;