Flaybrick Cemetery Birkenhead - History in a Garden

February 16th 2006:

Following on from a successful visit to the Farm two weeks ago, I returned To Tam O'Shanters on February 16th along with my wife Sue, and my youngest child Lorna. Here we enjoy the excellent food in the cafe on the Farm. Then with Genevieve & Mark, we went on a tour of Flaybrick Cemetery, across the road from the Farm.

Isaac Roberts. This is the base of image 54. Its a remarkable piece of sculpture in that its Egyptian in design, beautifully carved with mummified cats along the top (see 53 below). Reading down the centre of this image is "Heaven within us is" - if you translated this into the words of a 60s popular song "We are star dust"...... We are the heavens, we are everything and everything is within us = atoms.

Born on January 27th 1829, he died in 1904 on July 17th. A businessman from Liverpool. As an amateur astronomer, he became a pioneer in astrophotography. With his self-built 20-inch aperture silver-on glass mirror telescope of 8 feet focal length, he took photographic plates of the sky, intending to create photographic star charts, starting in 1885. In 1886, he took the first good photographs of the Orion Nebula M42 and the Pleiades M45 from Maghull, Lancashire. Then he moved to more southern Crowborough, Sussex and specialized on photographing star clusters and nebulae. In 1888, he obtained a photograph of the Andromeda Nebula M31, well showing its spiral structure. Roberts believed that M31 and other spiral "nebulae" were solar systems in formation, with the satellite galaxies M32 and M110 being planets in formation. Isaac Roberts published his photographes in three volumes of a series, Photographs of Stars, Star Clusters and Nebulae. The first volume was published in 1893, the second in 1899, and the third one posthumously by his widow in 1928. According to Kenneth Glyn Jones, his 20-inch reflector is now in the Science Museum in South Kensington, London (England).

The importance of Isaac Roberts's work was recognised internationally. He was honoured by being being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the highly prestigious national academy of sciences of Britain. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in Dublin (though curiously not by the University of Wales). He received the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in London. He met the American astronomer Dorothea Klumpke on an eclipse expedition and they later married.

He died in 1904. A crater on the Moon has been named Roberts to honour him (actually it is named after both Isaac Roberts and Alexander W. Roberts, a South African astronomer, 1857-1938): it is situated on the Far Side of the Moon, close to the lunar North Pole. Although he lived most of his life outside Wales, and carried out his astronomical work in England (in Birkenhead, Liverpool and Sussex), he continued to have strong links with his native country. He therefore commands a very prominent position in our survey of Welsh astronomers.

Isaac Roberts's photograph of the Great Andromeda Nebula, M31, showing the spiral structure. Taken from A Selection of Photographs of Stars, Star-clusters and Nebulae, Volume II, The Universal Press, London, 1899.

AT Doodson. Mr Doodson is one of the individuals responsible for the successful D Day landings on June 6th 1944. He wrote out, by hand, tide table predictions for the landings and predicted 5th or 6th June OR not for another 28 days or 1 more lunar month. Being deaf since the age of 19, his meticulous detail was well appreciated by the Allied High Command. During the First World War he was a conscientious objector, assigned the task of calculating shell trajectories to defend London against zeppelin attack. In 1919, the war over, he went to Liverpool and started on his life's work, tide prediction. More on link below.

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http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?cemetery=150600&mode=1&tab=5&page=1&casualty=1525820

Commonwealth War Graves entry on this hero of our Royal Navy.

http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship.html?shipID=3328 - Image and details of ships loss by U Boat. See also bottom of page for cross reference details and fate of the U Boat.

15	Almost hidden beneath a canopy of low trees, I spotted this hiding in the sun spangled shade. A truly excellent piece of sculpture, untouched by either moronic vandal or weather. It lies in an area recently reclaimed from overgrown undergrowth.

Strange carving of a pyramid with the image of Ra in the centre. I believe there are strong masonic influences at work in the construction and subsequent decoration of this edifice. On the front of the building is carved two stars of david and what looks like a masonic emblem of crossed hammer and anchor.

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The derelict CE Church on Flaybrick Cemetery. Picture a person, I use the term loosely, with very little in the way of brains, a penchant for destruction and the thinking power of the amoeba (sorry to the amoeba!) and we have today's vandal. Vandals have been at work in Flaybrick over a period of time. It must be really "cool" to destroy a gravestone. Criminal in itself but even more so because of the intense history of the place.

15th April 2007: And the vandals are seemingly just as mindless as previously described. I have taken the following images following a swath of destruction committed by these moronic elements of the bacteria infesting Birkenhead.

I really cannot understand what "fun" these idiots get from climbing into an historic, unique cemetery, which is high on a par with Highgate in London, and so mindlessly destroy such art work and such supposedly lasting memorials.

Residents from Tollemache Road have called for urgent action to stop the desecration of Wirral's oldest public cemetery by gangs of violent yobs. The drunken youths congregate in the cemetery smashing up head stones "for fun". One resident, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution said: " It's a living nightmare. For every weekend over the last five years we have been terrorised by big gangs who vandalise the cemetery and smash our cars. They fight in the streets, swear, drink alcohol and attack the headstones." He added: "We're all very scared and feel as if we can't step outside our doors without fear of being threatened. We're devastated because it's such a beautiful cemetery and we hate seeing it vandalised, but we don't want to confront them in case we're attacked ourselves."

The residents have appealed for help in ensuring that Flaybrick Memorial Gardens, which was Wirral's first public cemetery and also the final resting place of many of many famous Wirralians, is preserved. A spokesman for Wirral Council said: "Council staff are aware of incidents of antisocial behaviour in and around Flaybrick Memorial Gardens. Vandalism is a continuing problem at the site. Regular meetings are held to continuously monitor the situation involving council officers, a local councillor, the police, the council's community patrol, representatives of the Friends of Flaybrick Memorial Gardens and the Bidston Preservation Trust." He added: "The area is frequently patrolled by the community patrol team and officers from Merseyside police who have successfully reduced the incidence of vandalism and antisocial behaviour in the area".

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(23) A large magnificent example of a tomb in all its gothic glory!! (24) One of the Angels in the cemetery, these are becoming fewer and fewer due to vandalism as already reported here. (25) The MacLeod Cross, Rev Alexander MacLeod. (26, 27) Part of the inscription of the tomb of Issac Roberts, who helped pioneer celestial photography. Already mentioned from a previous visit in images 2-5 above. The left image is a galaxy, the right image unknown and the centre, in a form of cartouche, "Heaven Within Us Is". (28) Military grave of a Royal Marine died on (23rd?) April 1943 aged 18. (29) Vandalised windows of a marvellous example of architecture (30). Who is going to repair such damage? (31) Military Grave of J N Gullan, Glider pilot, who died 2 October 1942 Aged 20. (32) Possible U Boat victim of WW1. (33) Son of an officer who was on the Victory at Trafalgar. (34) Almost encased in growth, nice example of a Celtic cross. (35) Two children who died in a shipwreck, the SS Orion, in June 1850. (36 37) Two close ups of the Gargoyles on the Church at the "top" entrance.