About Beechwood Estate

Beechwood estate started life as “The Ford”. The Ford was cast up on the rural slopes of Bidston Hill by the high tide of urban redevelopment and slum clearance in the 1960’s. Architecturally, the Ford was no better, and no worse than hundreds of other such estates throughout the country. Its 6000 inhabitants lived in four high-rise blocks and a mixture of terraced houses and three storey maisonettes. Its eight numbered avenues gave on to a maze of cul-de-sacs. Many Ford tenants yearned for the lost communities of old Birkenhead, where Grandmas still lived. An infrequent and expensive bus service to the town centre increased the sense of isolation. The estate’s insularity was somehow symbolised by the four strands - of motorway, railway line, iron fence and electricity pylons - that seemed to pin its inhabitants back against their tree-covered hilltop.

The view from a pensioner’s back window has altered the map of Merseyside for good. For the beech trees that she has long admired gave her the idea for a new name when housing chiefs ran a competition to rename Ford.

Transformation of the estate began in 1987 with thinning of the housing, a new road layout and removal of the 4 tower blocks. The Community Association, started in 1986, kept up the momentum for change and saw new houses built, landscaping improved and residents’ action groups and neighbourhood watches established. The old Kwiksave building has also been transformed into the Summerhill Centre - a valuable resource in the community.

The 1600 home estate is now called Beechwood.

(Thanks to Jack Fletcher for his help with the history of the estate)