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Atherton's ambition to establish a resort for the gentry seems to have been undermined almost immediately. The general tenor of the song suggesting that people went to get drunk and seek sexual encounters.
In 1830, a Liverpool merchant, James Atherton, purchased much of the land at Rock Point, which enjoyed views out to sea and across the Mersey and had a good beach. His aim was to develop it as a desirable residential and watering place for the gentry, in a similar way to Brighton, one of the most elegant seaside resorts of that Regency period - hence "New Brighton". [Ref http://www.visitnewbrighton.com/history]
Kiss-in-the Ring is an open-air game played by young people of both sexes, who stand in a ring with hands joined, except one who runs round outside the ring and touches (or drops a handkerchief behind) one of the opposite sex, who thereupon leaves the ring and runs after the first, kissing him or her when caught. [OED]
