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Marshside  ::  RSPB reserve

The Fog Bell

The Fog Bell in Marshside Road was first erected in 1869 to help prevent a repeat of the tragedy which occured on 26 January 1869 when 7 local fishermen were lost on the marshes during a fog. The bell replaced the foghorn which can still be seen in the Botanic Gardens Museum.

Following foreshore reclemation in the early 1890s, the Fog Bell was rebuilt in its present location in 1896.

Restoration

During the autumn of 1998 the members of the North Meols Civic Society agreed to undertake the renovation of the Fog Bell site. Following a successful financial appeal, the area around the Fog Bell was cleared, repainted and a new sign erected.

In January 1999, disaster struck when vandals spilled paint over the site. But staff and pupils from Stanley High Sports College helped us to replant the area surrounding the building and have undertaken to keep an eye on the area on our behalf. New wooden seats have been installed, and the whole area landscaped.

The building is now owned by ‘One Vision Housing’ which took over the former Council houses some time ago. They are fully supportive of our intentions to make the building an information and educational centre. They have agreed, and have started, to repair the exterior of the building.

Several students from Stanley High Sports Collegewho are taking their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award spent a day weeding, cutting hedges and tidying up the area removing 16 bags of rubbish. They have also sanded and varnished the benches.

We now have three schools wishing to be involved and they are Stanley High School Sports College, Marshside Primary School and St. Patrick’s RC Primary School.

The primary schools will be designing and helping to make two mosaic panels which will fit at the
rear of the seats. The panels will depict the history, geography and natural environment of Marshside. A commercial firm will assist the schools in this part of the project.

Stanley students have already helped to weed and clean up the area. They have made and erected a dozen nest boxes to provide alternative nest and roosting sites when we block up the holes in the
building. They also planted an area with ornamental grasses which unfortunately died during the very hot dry weather. They are now designing a pebble pavement with a local theme to replace the
planting. A local Landscape Gardener has offered his help with this.

Later they will also help to design an interpretation and information map to go on the building. This
will show the history of the coastline and give ideas for routes for visitors - and local people - to walk.

This will tie in with the new footpath which will link the present pavement of Marshside Road to the
coastal road near to the old sandplant and the RSPB Reserve.

We have now received approval from Sefton Planning Department to go ahead with the scheme so it’s now down to submitting funding applications to the Lottery and other bodies.