A very well kept secret

THE Wirral Peninsula is being pushed hard as a tourist destination.

This came as a bit of a surprise to me, as I grew up there.

What came as even more of a surprise, though, was that it turned out to be a very good tourist destination indeed.

Wirral is about two-and-a-half hours from Swindon by road, or possibly an hour or so longer on days when the M5 and M6 are strewn with bollards.

As a peninsula, it’s mostly surrounded by water. Stand on one side and the next land is Chester over the Dee. Stand on the other side and the next land is Liverpool over the Mersey.

Stand at the end and it’s sea all the way to Northern Ireland.

As anybody familiar with the North West knows, Chester and Liverpool each have strong identities as visitor attractions. Chester’s largely involves Romans and high-class shopping, while for Liverpool it’s The Beatles and maritime history.

As Wirral nestles between these two behemoths, no wonder it doesn’t score as highly in the public awareness stakes.

This is a great shame, as I can’t think of anywhere else in the country where a short drive from your hotel can take you to a beach, lush woodland, a historic home, a cycle route, gorgeous architecture, a superb golf course or any number of other delights.

Attractions include museums, cinemas, theatres, restaurants and shops ranging from high street staples to old-fashioned back street treasure houses.

There are nature trails, out-of-the-way picnic areas, animal and bird habitats and my mum and dad – although viewing of the latter is somewhat restricted.

My base with my partner during a long weekend was a newish Holiday Inn Express in Hoylake, which is a small, old, pretty and rather classy seaside community. Notable natives range from Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman to Cynthia Lennon, John’s first wife. Rooms start at £24 per person per night.

The Wirral coastline offers everything from scorching sand to heavily-reeded marsh where rare birds hide among the greenery and peer out at entranced ornithologists.

At Eastham visitors can gaze across the Mersey toward Liverpool from the site of what was once a Victorian pleasure park, complete with a zoo and a mechanically-driven ‘loop the loop’ roller coaster.

It’s long since been allowed to revert to woodland, and there’s something agreeably eerie about stumbling on one of the derelict fountains, or the moss-covered remains of the wall that once bordered a lake where 19th century fathers sedately rowed their families.

Look carefully enough and you’ll find the bear pit; you can even descend some stone steps and pass through a short tunnel to the circular enclosure where the beasts were displayed.

Of all the peninsula’s miles of seaside, the location most heavily promoted by Wirral Council’s tourism department is New Brighton.

Many years ago, it was one of the most popular seaside resorts in Britain, easily a rival of Blackpool. A patch of grassland where children now play was once the site of a tower which, at 567 feet, stood taller than Blackpool’s and was for a time the tallest building in England.

Like a lot of resorts, it lost out during the rise of the foreign package holiday, eventually becoming little more than a quiet residential town.

All that has changed, as we discovered during our visit. The rather tired old Floral Pavilion Theatre, for example, was demolished and its beautiful replacement opened in 2008. The programme at the 800-seat auditorium ranges from classic plays and classical music to the latest popular shows.

Nearby, something called The Light Cinema Experience is more evidence of a town on an upswing. A modern multi-screen cinema with an arthouse sensibility, it offers the latest blockbusters, more obscure pieces, theatre shows by satellite and an assortment of other special events.

Best of all, every customer gets to sit in a comfortable extra-wide seat and can bring in drinks from the bar if they wish.

Remember that favourite independent cinema you used to visit when you were younger, the one with the personal touch and the atmosphere all its own? Well, the chances are that it’s been demolished and replaced by an apartment building or a supermarket, but if you make it to The Light Cinema Experience you’ll at least have a reminder of how good things were back in the day.

No discussion of modern New Brighton can be allowed to pass without mentioning something called Championship Adventure Golf, which was opened on the site of what used to be half a dozen tennis courts.

It takes the traditional seaside pursuit of crazy golf, removes the existential despair often associated with it and fills the void with actual bona fide fun.

It’ll take about two hours to get around the two sets of 18 holes, one based on famous real life holes and the other on local landmarks. Tickets cost £6.50 for adults, with various concessions available.

Something else in New Brighton that attaches a rocket to a rather tired tradition is Caffe Cream, where we had lunch.

The tradition in question is the seaside tearoom/ice cream parlour, and Caffe Cream ups the ante with a lively menu and ice cream in countless flavours, including Jaffa Cake.

The most expensive dish is the three-tiered afternoon tea for two at £10.50, which buys a big plate of tasty sandwiches, two large slices of cake, two cream slices and two large scones with butter and jam.

Another place heavily promoted by the tourism department is Port Sunlight, a village constructed by soap tycoon William Hesketh Lever for his factory workers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Lever was paternalistic but astonishingly enlightened for his time, and reasoned that a well-housed, well-educated and well-cultured workforce was a productive one.

The houses he built – no two are alike – are truly beautiful, and so is the Lady Lever Art Gallery, which sits in the midst of the village and is home to hundreds of precious works. The most famous of these is The Scapegoat by Pre-Raphaelite titan William Holman Hunt.

The village is also generously laid out, with plenty of open spaces, a green and a large fountain. The abundance of trees deadens the rumble of a main road which lies only a few hundred yards – and what seems like a century – distant.

Port Sunlight – or rather, the former hospital where Lever’s workers were treated – is also home to the Twenty-Eight Miles Restaurant at the Leverhulme Hotel, which is the only four-star luxury hotel on the Wirral.

Twenty-Eight Miles is named for the radius within which it sources ingredients, and the superb dishes range from crab to scallops, and from steak to smoked duck. A meal for two with good wine can be had there for comfortably less than £100, yet the quality of the food and the surroundings befit a price tag double that.

We also dined at the Leasowe Castle Hotel, a 16th century structure near the small community of Moreton. It has a fascinating history and a good menu, but weekend visitors should remember that it is also one of the peninsula’s busiest wedding venues.

Further information about the places mentioned here and many others can be found at visitwirral.com.