A May Day at the top of St Saviours Church Tower.

On the Bank Holiday Monday at the start of May 2001 a fair was held at St Saviours Church with opportunities for locals to go to the top of the Church tower and take in the view. Surprisingly enough (this being a Bank Holiday) it wasn't raining !! An event not to miss, I thought, so I set off with my camera and daughter in tow to make the daring ascent.

After paying the fund raising fee and reaching the entrance to the long and tightly winding staircase to the top my daughter confessed that she didn't really fancy going up as she was scared of heights, reminding me of the time when she had a "frozen" at the top of York Minster....However after a brief discussion and the assurance that I had a "cunning plan" if she were to panic, we set off up the staircase and emerged minutes later, slightly out of breath ,at the top

As we reached the top of the tower, we were treated to the sight and sound of the bells ringing.

We had left our trip until late in the afternoon and as a reult the view over the Mersey towards Liverpool was very 'hazy' due to the low cloud cover. This was also true of the view looking towards Bidston Hill and the Windmill which was just visible at the top of it.

However I took out my camera and began to film the surrounding view. The initial results of this are shown below, and I hope to add some more pictures in the future.
The image to the left shows the view looking out towards Noctorum. At the bottom of the picture is the cross on the end of St Saviours and the tops of the houses in Bidston Road. Continuing on up the picture are the gardens of the houses in Townfield Lane before revealing the playing fields behind. In the far distance the houses of Noctorum can just be seen.

The picture to the right shows the junction of Talbot Road (left) Bidston Road (right) Gerald Road (bottom) and Townfield Lane.(top) In the top left hand corner of the image are the Oxton Cricket club fields and in bottom right are the grounds of St Saviours Church.

 The four images below show the 'hazy' view looking out over towards the Mersey. The first two show the Cathedrals in Liverpool and the second two showing views of Oxton looking towards the Mersey.

The Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool

The Anglican cathedral in Liverpool

Oxton Road Congregational Church

Christchurch Spire

 

The view looking up Bidston Road towards Bidston Hill, with the windmill on top.
(I've employed a bit of artistic licence with this one to shorten the view)

Moving to the other side of the tower and looking up Bidston Road an impression can be gained of the number of trees and amount of greenery in the Oxton Area. In the Far distance of this view can be seen the Windmill on top of Bidston Hill. The images below give an idea of some of these views. Starting with a view looking directly down onto the car park of the Caernarvon Castle pub and then moving up Bidston Road towards Bidston Hill.

After about fifteen minutes at the top of the tower we finally (Much to my daughters relief.. who had been avoiding getting anywhere near the side) decided to start the descent of the tower. This was after the highlight of the outing when a member of the church bell ringing committee, not realising her aversion to heights, attempted to persuade her to join the bell ringing team!!!