the home ground for New Brighton A.F.C., whose Sandheys Park had been requisitioned for housing. They sold it to the Wallasey Housing Corporation in 1977. Exhibitions In 1900, New Brighton Tower athletic grounds boasted the UK's first visit from a group known as The Ashanti Village, in which 100 West African men, women and children re-created an Ashanti village, produced and sold their wares and performed "war tournaments, songs [and] fetish dances". Although they had arrived, delays meant that they were not set up in time for Whitsun the traditional start of the summer season. As was common at fairgrounds of the time, there was a Bioscope exhibition showing the latest wartime pictures to audiences of up to 2,000. In the summer of 1907 there was a Hale's Tours of the World exhibition in the tower's grounds, consisting of short films shown in a stylised railway carriage with sound effects and movements at the appropriate times. Closure The tower was closed in 1914 following the outbreak of the First World War, for the duration of which the steel structure was not maintained and consequently became rusty. During the war the government made unsuccessful attempts to buy the tower for its metal. Controversy still surrounds the decision to dismantle the tower after the war ended; some still believe the structure was safe and could have been repaired. Demolition began in 1919 and by 1921 only the ballroom remained. The metal was sold to scrap dealers. The tower was the tallest structure to be demolished in the UK until 7 September 2016, when a taller chimney at Grain Power Station was demolished. On 5 April 1969 the ballroom was destroyed by fire, the cause of which is unknown. In place of the tower's grounds, including the athletics ground and stadium, a new housing estate was built, River View Park, which has a community football pitch and swing park. In 1997 Wirral Council made an unsuccessful bid for Millennium funding to build a new tower in New Brighton. See also List of tallest structures built before the 20th century List of works by Maxwell and Tuke Watkin's Tower References Bibliography External links New Brighton History Site: New Brighton Tower Little Richard & The Beatles at New Brighton Tower, October 1962 History of Wallasey 1900 establishments in England Towers completed in 1900 Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Towers in Merseyside