Install new public art along the new park corridor as a sculpture trail.
Public art could create a sculpture trail as part of the new greenspace and park emulating the New York High Line. Opportunity to have new art works celebrating women and ethnic minorities and their contributions which have been as a theme overlooked so far and less recognised. Celebrate this history and their valued contributions.
There are some amazing contributions by women and ethnic minorities.
The training of the first four British guide dogs was organised by Muriel
Crooke and Rosamund Bond from a humble lock-up garage in Wallasey in the summer of 1931. Today the Guide Dogs charity is the world’s largest breeder and trainer of working dogs and has helped over 29,000 people.
The Birkenhead branch of the Royal British Legion, on Park Road East, was the first in the world and was opened in 1921 by Sir Frederick Lister.
Liverpool is also home to the oldest Black African community in the UK,
and the oldest Chinese community in Europe. This is partly a legacy of shipping lines such as Elder Dempster and Blue Funnel.
Wirral is the only place in mainland Britain with documented evidence of Norwegian Viking settlers. Ancient Irish Chronicles report the first peaceful settlements led by the Norseman Ingimund in 902AD, followed by repeated raids on Chester after the peninsula became full of Norse settlers. The Chronicles tell how the English of Chester used elaborate means to keep the Wirral Vikings back, including setting the town’s bees onto them! The story of Ingimund represents Wirral’s very own ancient Viking Saga. Tranmere FC is the only English League team with a Norwegian Viking name. Cross Hill, Thingwall was the site of Wirral’s Viking parliament – possibly the oldest parliament in mainland Britain, and pre-dating Iceland’s Thingvellir by some 30 years and the Isle of Man’s Tynwald by some 70 years.
Leasowe Lighthouse was built in 1763 in Moreton on the Wirral. The
lighthouse was erected because of the difficult sandbanks just offshore and it is the oldest brick-built lighthouse in Britain. The lighthouse was also the first in the country to have a female lighhouse keeper, when Mrs Mary Elisabeth Williams began her service as keeper in 1908.
Bromborough is thought to be the location where the famous 'Battle of
Brunanburh' took place. The battle in 937 is said to be, 'The Greatest Single Battle in Anglo-Saxon History before the Battle of Hastings'. The battle brought together the might of England's combined armed forces for the very first time in order to fight the armies of both Norway and Scotland. This therefore marked the birth of the nation of England for the first time.
Bebington-born Lottie Dod was the original Wimbledon wonderkid, becoming the youngest ever winner of the Wimbledon Ladies Singles Championship when she achieved her triumph in 1887 at the age of 15 years and 285 days. Dod won the singles title five times between 1887 and 1893.
Wallasey climber Alan Paul Rouse was the first British climber to reach the summit of K2, the second highest mountain in the world.
Edith Smith was born in Oxton on the Wirral. As well as raising her family she worked as a midwife, before becoming a volunteer police officer when the First World War broke out in 1914. The following year she was made a full officer serving in Grantham in Lincolnshire. As such she became the UK’s first ever woman police officer. She died in 1923 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Runcorn. She contributed a phenomenal amount to policing and her work paved the way for the officers of today, particularly female officers. As well as her police work she travelled throughout Britain, giving talks, writing books and campaigning about woman's policing.