BIRKENHEAD, MERSEYSIDE
War poet’s memorial field turned into houses
A MEMORIAL park that was dedicated to the celebrated Great War poet Wilfred Owen is now a housing estate.
Ingleborough Road Memorial Playing Fields in Birkenhead, Merseyside, were set aside by the council in the aftermath of the First World War to commemorate the 88 old boys of the Birkenhead Institute Grammar School who died in battle.
Among them was Lieutenant Owen, who was killed at Ors a week before Armistice Day in November 1918.
His works, including Dulce Et Decorum Est and Anthem For Doomed Youth, led him to be posthumously recognised as one of the greatest war poets.
Sports pitches at the site were used by the local community until they were sold by Wirral Council to Tranmere Rovers Football Club in 1995. The club used the pitches as its training ground until it lodged a highly controversial bid to sell the land in a deal worth around £5 million.
Despite strong opposition, Wirral Council rubber-stamped the move and the Government did not contest it. Now an estate with 90 homes each worth £200,000 has been built on the site by construction firm Bellway.
Dean Johnson, curator at the Wilfred Owen Story museum in Birkenhead, said: ‘There was an awful lot of money involved and we couldn’t stop it. The football club needed the cash to survive. The council was persuaded to remove the covenant that protected the land from development, which was a huge shame.’