Woman seeks new home for dad's ferry wheelhouse

A woman who inherited a restored Mersey Ferry wheelhouse from her father is searching for a new home for the piece of local history.

Ken Crawford, from Birkenhead, rescued and restored the boat section from a scrapyard 23 years ago, leaving it to his daughter following his death in April 2022 at the age of 70.

Abi Crawford said she hoped the wheelhouse could be given a fresh lease of life by a new owner.

"I think it'd just be nice to be somewhere and be something instead of it just hiding away in my garden," the 34-year-old said.

"I think it'd be lovely to have it maybe on the front and it could be a cafe or you can have a drink in there.

"I'd love someone to be able to come and take it away and restore it and do something worthwhile with it."

Abi said her father often had "mad ideas" and restoring the wheelhouse was one of them.

"He loved to find things that he could restore and repair and build up," she said.

"It's such a shame that it's sitting doing nothing and is going to continue to sit and do nothing.

"At the most, it is a summer house for the kids.

"When the weather's good, we pull all the toys out and they have the run of it.

"But it's such a shame to just sit here."

Mike Evans, who is a Mersey Ferry enthusiast and is helping Abi to find a new owner, said he wanted to find "somebody who will love it as much as she had over the years".

"It will be shown to a wider audience which is the important thing for me," he said.

"I just want everybody to be able to see this."

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