Toxteth has a very long history of its own. Entering history as two manors, the area became a hunting forest, and a Royal Park. For almost 400 years this prevented the area from changing or developing to any great extent, and the amount of agriculture that was allowed in the forest was very small.

In the 17th century, however, Toxteth’s park status was removed, and first farmers, then industrialists, moved in to take advantage of the newly available land. With industry came residential areas, and soon Toxteth was filling with the terraces it is still largely known for today. Many of these terraces were unfit for habitation, and slum clearance began before the 19th century was over. In the late 20th century, more clearances took place, and this area of land next to the Mersey began to enter a new age of redevelopment, although this was not also without its critics.

In this Article

• The Landscape
• Otterspool
• Dingle
• The Prehistoric and Roman Eras
  • Prehistory
  • Roman
• The Medieval Period
  • The Early Medieval Period
  • The Later Medieval Period
• The End of the Park and the Rise of Agriculture
• The Rise of Industry
• New Liverpool
• Toxteth Terraces
• Residential Expansion (18th – 19th Century)
  • New Roads and More Terraces
  • Population Increase and Migration
  • Toxteth Becomes Part of Liverpool
• 19th Century Growth and Expansion
  • Parks
  • Transport
• 20th Century Slum Clearance

Origins of the name

Stochestede, Dom. Bk.; Tokestat, 1207; Toxstake, 1228; Tokstad, 1257; Toxstath, 1297; Toxsteth, 1447. (VCH Lancs, III)

May be Old English: Stochestede (in the Domesday Book) means the stockaded place.

Alternative explanations claim the word to be a derivation of Toki’s Staith, meaning the landing place of a man named Toki. This version of the definition is less favoured than the other, however.

Historic Features in Toxteth

The Landscape of Toxteth Park

The landscape of Toxteth is undulating, rising to a peak at the north east, and there are three miles of waterfront. Toxteth lies to the south of Liverpool city centre, and before the Pool was filled in for the Old Dock travellers had to cross the Townsend Bridge, across the Moss Lake Brook, and past the Fall Well to get to the Park.

The flat areas between Parliament Street and Brownlow Hill are all that remains of the Moss Lake. The overflow from this lake, which powered a mill in the area, fed into a stream that flowed into the old Pool.

An important landmark in the area was the stream which flowed from the north east, divided into two and flowed into the Mersey in the form of the Dingle, at an inlet called Knott’s Hole, and the Otterspool, or Oskelbrook, a short distance further south.

Historically, the boundary of Toxteth Park ran from Queen’s Dock on the Mersey, down Parliament and Upper Parliament Streets, across the junction with Smithdown Road and Lodge Lane to Penny Lane, then Queen’s Drive and Aigburth Vale, before coming back to the Mersey at Otterspool.

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Otterspool

Known as Osklebrok during the reign of King John, the Otterspool springs in Wavertree, and actually consists of two brooks. Otterspool was once quite a violent stream, falling 35 metres (120 feet) in just over 1km (1100 yards) many years ago. It was widened in the 19th Century for the lakes in Greenbank and Sefton Parks, and now runs under Aigburth Road at Vale and can be seen at gates of Otterspool Park.

Otterspool promenade was opened in 1950 using 30 million tonnes of rubbish and spoil from the Queensway Tunnel excavations. It was extended in 1984 with the 250 acre Garden Festival site, and is now part of the Sustrans cycle route.

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Dingle

The Dingle, once known as Dickenson’s Dingle, was a stream which flowed through St Michael’s Hamlet, and the area nearby keeps the name of the old stream.

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The Prehistoric and Roman Eras

Prehistory

As with the majority of Merseyside, very little is known of the Toxteth area before the Medieval period.

The Calder Stones are the oldest relics of human activity, and once formed a Neolithic burial mound in the vicinity of Calderstones Park, in the nearby township of Allerton. Another possible prehistoric monument is the Robin Hood Stone. Although its mythical connections are clear, this may be a standing stone, possibly existing in isolation or once part of the prehistoric landscape also occupied by the Calder Stones.

The Roman Occupation

The remains of a Roman road were uncovered in the 19th century near St Mary’s in Grassendale, with the route also picked up close to the river in Otterspool some time later. However, very little Roman activity is known from the area west of the road running from Chester up through Warrington and towards Carlisle. The discovery of a small number of Roman coins attests to contact between Roman and local people, but more than that we cannot say.

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The Medieval Period

The Early Medieval Period (Domesday Book)

By the time of the 10th Century AD, the township of Toxteth was divided into two manors, owned by the Saxon thegnes Bernulf and Stainulf. Toxteth was recorded in Domesday as just one of a handful of coastal settlements on the banks of the Mersey, along with the manor of Smithdown (Smeedon) inland, and Garston (Gerstun) to the south. The area was part of the Hundred of West Derby, given to Roger of Poictou by William the Conqueror for his loyalty in the invasion of 1066.

King John, increasing his holdings in the area after founding the borough of Liverpool, decided to take Toxteth back into Crown hands, and by 1212 we find that Richard, son of Thurstan, had been given Thingwall in an exchange with the King, who took Toxteth and incorporated it into his hunting forest, alongside Croxteth and Simonswood. It was John who enlarged Toxteth by adding Smithdown manor to it.

The Later Medieval Period (14th Century)

By the 14th century the park was fenced around as a Royal Park. The Park had two lodges – Upper and Lower – the first of which sat at what is now the junction between Sefton Park Road and Ullet Road (the entrance to Sefton Park). The Lower Lodge may have survived, in small pieces, near Jericho Farm, Fulwood Park, into the 20th century, and may have stood on the site of Otterspool Station.

The main entrance way to the park from the north, and Liverpool, was Park Road.

The land remained as a Royal hunting forest for around 300 years.

In 1316 the land was offered to Whalley Abbey, in order that they build a monastery there. The offer was never taken up, however, and the land is recorded as being in the possession of Liverpool Castle in 1327, and in the hands of the Molyneux family by 1346.

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Early Modern Toxteth (16th Century – 18th Century)

The End of the Park and the Rise of Agriculture

At the end of the 16th century, actions were taken with the aim of dis-parking Toxteth. This would have allowed the locals to graze their animals on the land, a practise which already took place to some extent. Eventually, in 1604, Toxteth was indeed disparked by James I, although the bounding wall was still in existence as late as 1671. The disparking began the first major change in the landscape since the hunting forest was created in the 14th century. The conversion to arable and pasture land progressed rapidly.

The 17th century saw a number of settlers being attracted to the area to take advantage of the new farmland, from both Liverpool itself and beyond. The land was broken up into farms, and one of the most notable communities moved into the area: the Puritans. They settled in the area around Otterspool, dubbing the stream the ‘Little Jordan’, and the area the ‘Holy Land’, a name which is still often used. The Puritans built the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth (right) in the 1610s, appointing the 15 year old Richard Mather as the master of the attached school in 1611, and preacher in 1618.

By 1800 there were four farms on land leased from Lord Molyneux: Jericho and the Three Sixes in Fulwood Park, Parr’s on Mill Street, and Rimmer’s in Dingle Lane. As exploitation of the old Park went on, this number increased and the landscape took on a much more agricultural appearance.

The Rise of Industry

Small scale industry was also a growing feature by the 17th Century.

Mather’s Dam was originally the site of a water mill on the east side of Warwick Street. This reservoir formed from a stream at the top of Upper Warwick Street, which ran across the road and down the slope to the River Mersey. The whole area here was laid out for houses once the stream ran dry in the 18th century, although the water remained standing for some years afterwards. The land between Warwick Street and Northill Street remained on a lease with the mill, but when this burned down in 1866, speculative builders moved in to develop the area.

Jackson’s Dam, sited on the shore line on what is now Sefton Street, occupied the area from the bottom of Warwick Street, across Northumberland Street. The complex included a tide mill and reservoirs. By the second half of the 18th century, industry had become the dominant feature of the landscape.

At the end of the 19th Century, the stream feeding the mill at Otterspool was beginning to run dry. Around 1772 Charles Roe leased land nearby from the Earl of Sefton and built a small copper works. At this time there were only a few scattered residences on the road from Liverpool to Aigburth. A year later Yates and Perry’s map shows seven large villas at the junction of Lodge Lane and Ullet Lane, as well as a large barn and a number of outbuildings associated with Lodge Farm. By the end of the decade requests were being made for a timber yard on Lord Sefton’s land, a sign of the future importance of the timber trade in this part of the city.

Even in the following decade the former Toxteth Park itself was still exclusively rural, although the creeping urbanisation in the north was catching up with the boundary. Even by 1775 Old Park Road, Smithdown Lane, Lodge Lane and the eastern extent of Ullet Road were the only streets in the area.

New Liverpool

In 1771 the farm of Thomas Turner was laid out for streets by the Earl of Sefton, and an Act of Parliament was obtained by the Earl for the granting out of building leases. This made it possible for a Liverpool-born builder, Cuthbert Bisbrown, who lived in Paradise Street to plan ‘New Liverpool’, a town to be built on Sefton’s lands to the south of the city.

This ambitious scheme was in competition with the cities of Bath and Edinburgh, which were both creating impressive Georgian landscapes at this time. The end result was the area known as Harrington, named after Isabella, the first Countess Sefton, and daughter of the 2nd Earl of Harrington. Unfortunately, finance at the time of the American War of Independence was scarce, and Bisbrown was bankrupt by February 1776.

Toxteth Terraces

The main streets created in the area were well built and wide, but Cuthbert’s plans never addressed the infilling of the area, which was packed with poorly built and dense blocks of dingy courts and back-to-backs. As many people as possible were crammed into the space, with no thought beyond the profit of the builders, and some of the buildings had walls of half a brick thickness.

In 1794 the land occupied by Charles Roe’s copper works was bought and converted into a pottery. In another two years this had become the Herculaneum Pottery Company of Worthington, Humble, Holland and others.

Although the pottery industry had declined in Liverpool at this time, the landscape around Toxteth provided water transport for the raw materials and products, as well as a market for the goods, and the factory did well. The surrounding district was developed to the advantage of the factory, including workshops surrounding the main site and a hamlet for the workers. The employees themselves were transported en masse from Staffordshire, well known for its expertise in the craft. The incomers were escorted into the area in November 1796, to the sound of band music and great celebration.

By 1811 there was still little further south than Northumberland Road, although the most rapid expansion in the wider region occurred in Toxteth Park, and Everton to the north, while other areas were losing population. The growing areas were Welsh heartlands in the city, attesting to the importance of this group to the growing Merseyside, and Toxteth was also becoming known as a ‘Sailortown’.

Industrial expansion kept pace with the development of Toxteth, and in 1810 the Mersey Forge was founded on Grafton Street, near flour mills standing further inland. The forge later expanded into the Mersey Steel and Iron Company, and stood near the present Toxteth docklands. Brooke and Owen’s brewery in Blair Street, only built in 1794, was dismantled in 1826 and the area covered with further terraces and courts.

The Toxteth docklands themselves were expanding in the area. Queen’s Dock was constructed in 1796. Brunswick in 1811 and Coburg Docks were built in 1840, both for the expanding timber trade. Toxteth, Harrington and Herculaneum Docks were built on or near the site of the former Herculaneum Pottery, which was dismantled in 1833. Also on the riverside were shipbuilding yards, and a ferry terminal. From 1825-35 ropewalks were established in Lodge Lane.

The timber trade was certainly beginning to dominate the area, with large timber yards along Grafton and Caryl Street. Up to 1823 few buildings could be found south of Hill Street, but the construction of Brunswick Dock (1830), changed all this. By 1835 buildings had spring up as far as Northumberland Street, with few gaps left. By the end of the next decade the street had been extended as far as Wellington Road, and Mill Street was also lined with buildings. Park Road south of the Peacock Tavern (1812), Chester Street (1815) and Windsor Street (1823) were all created in this period. The population was by now growing rapidly and more densely, fuelled by the expanding timber trade and dock expansion.

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Residential Expansion (18th – 19th Century)

New Roads and More Terraces

What Picton termed “pioneer cottages” had been built on the west side of Park Road by 1803; otherwise the area had consisted of green fields and stone walls.

Larger Georgian and Victorian houses were built along Princes Road, Princes Avenue (the Boulevard) and the Georgian Quarter in Canning over the coming decades. As William Leece mentions in a comment on this site: “the expansion of the city to the south of Upper Parliament Street and east of Mill Street seems to have paused for for several years before resuming in the 1850s and 60s. The road from what is now the Rialto to Princes Park (ie Princes Avenue etc) was laid out in the 1840s, but its character looks to have been semi-rural in the early days” (see comment on the Liverpool History Map page). Mill Street is first mentioned in the Directory of this year. Parliament Street, which got its name from an Act of Parliament granted to the Earl of Sefton for its laying out, had only four houses on it in 1790, and 21 residents. Up until 1807 the street terminated at a quarry on St. James Walk, where a windmill stood. In this year it was extended until it reached boundary with West Derby. However, growth in this area remained slow, and little more was built on it until the first years of the nineteenth century.

In 1822 the area of Windsor was laid out: the area enclosed by Parliament Street, Lodge Lane, Crown Street, and Upper Stanhope Street (now Beaumont Street) began to be developed. Lands west of this, known as the Parliament Fields and belonging to the Earl of Sefton, had demanded high prices and so avoided development as late as 1875.

Park Hill Road was opened up in 1824, and South Hill Road soon afterwards. In the beginning, these were lined with the large villas of wealthy residents, but later these were replaced with rows of smaller terraces. In 1826 Upper Stanhope Street, Upper Hill Street, Chester Street and Windsor Street were purchased from Lord Sefton by the Wesleyans, and laid out Wesley, Fletcher, Clarke and Newton Streets, and a Wesleyan Chapel was built in 1827. Park Street was laid out for houses in 1826, and John Hughes purchased yet more land from Lord Sefton, before laying it out for residential streets. Land between Princes Road and Warwick Street was first built on in 1830, and nearly covered as far as Upper Hill Street within twenty years. From Upper Hill Street to Upper Warwick Street followed between 1864 to 1868.

Population increase and Migration

During the 1840s dense housing communities expanded at an incredible rate. Back-to-back terraces accounted for 65-70% of the total housing in Liverpool in the 1840s. The population never increased by less than 60% in each census between 1801 and 1851: in 1844 Irish migrants arrived in great numbers, fleeing the Potato Famine, and the building of the Greek Church on the corner of Princes Road in 1870 attested to the growing importance of the Greek community in Liverpool.

Toxteth Becomes Part of Liverpool

This massive growth in Toxteth was by no means an unusual trend. Liverpool itself was expanding as a city, and the municipal boundary took in the northern portion of the Park in 1835, along with Kirkdale, Everton and parts of West Derby. In 1895 the remaining portion became part of the city. All in all the landscape of Toxteth’s slums reflected that of any maritime town of this time concerned with commerce.

Former industrial areas were soon also given over to residential areas. Between 1849 and 1865, land south of the Welsh Congregational Church (land bought by Hughes) was converted from quarries to terraces. In 1860, land adjacent to the Liverpool and Harrington Waterworks (built in 1846) was laid out for housing, although land was slow to be built upon here. The roads were appropriately named after rivers.

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19th Century Growth and Expansion

Toxteth continued to grow rapidly in the middle of the nineteenth century. Princes Road was laid out around 1846, soon after Princes Park, with Croxteth Road at around the same time. Green Heys Road was constructed in 1850, Grove Park commenced as a cul-de-sac in 1852, and Bentley Road appeared in 1862. Snowdon, Danube and Avon Street had appeared a year earlier. Northumberland and Park Street were built up around 1850, and Haslow Street in 1866 (then known as Egerton Street). The area from Park Street to Wellington Road was gradually built upon from 1850-70, close to one of the last windmills to stand in the area. To cope with the expanding population, 30 acres were set aside for Toxteth Cemetery in 1856, later enlarged to 40 acres.

However, not all the areas in Toxteth were crowding as fast as others. By 1875, from the bottom of Wellington Street and west of Grafton Street only ten cottages could be seen, and these the remnants of the Herculaneum Pottery hamlet. The area between South Hill Street and Dingle Lane were not yet built on densely: a scattering of large villas occupied the land, their gardens opening onto South Hill Grove, at the time a “verdant pasture”. The western part of this tract of land was in fact still occupied by the estate of Park Hill House. The house at this time lay on the boundary between Liverpool and Toxteth, between the rural and the commercial. Dingle was known to be “one of the most lovely bits of scenery in the neighbourhood”.

North Street (now Northill Street), High Park Street and South Street were only finally filling in by 1875 after standing empty for a time. Apart from a small number of good houses at the bottom of Upper Parliament Street, the area here was still vacant. In fact, towards the end of the nineteenth century, Toxteth, along with Everton and parts of West Derby, was losing population to other areas of Liverpool.

Parks

The cemetery was not the only open space in this part of the town. From 1864, over the next eight years, Liverpool Corporation created almost 500 acres of parkland for public use. Princes Park, laid out in 1843, was soon encircled by the large villas of the wealthy, first built on the east side. The Dingle was widened for the lake, and a red granite obelisk was erected to Richard Vaughan Yates, who had purchased the land for the park, in 1858. Otterspool was widened for the boating lakes in Sefton Park (created 1865) and Greenbank Park. Today the brook can be seen as it emerges from under Aigburth Road at the gates of Otterspool Park.

Transport

Transport became an issue for many cities in England while the inner city areas were growing with the Industrial Revolution. In 1869 the first horse-drawn tramway took passengers from the Dingle to Liverpool Town Hall. The Liverpool Overhead Railway had its southern terminus at Dingle. There were railway stations at St. James, St. Michael’s and Sefton Park.

A ferry had been proposed as early as 1775, at around the time Bisbrown was planning New Liverpool, and a tavern and landing stage were built. The tavern was known as the Tall House, due to its loftiness and isolation in this undeveloped part of the region. Unfortunately, the scheme was before its time, and was eventually abandoned. The ferry station was used as a ‘Ladies’ School’, later a tavern itself, and was demolished in 1844. In later years a ferry service began between the shore near the Tall House, taking passengers towards New Ferry.

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20th Century Slum Clearance

The rapid expansion of Liverpool took its toll on the urban landscape. In 1955 the Medical Officer of Health estimated that there were 88,000 unfit dwellings in the city (45% of the total housing stock). Ten years later little had been done to tackle the problem, and the number was still 78,000. 33,000 of these houses were in Toxteth, Abercromby and Everton, and a massive programme of slum clearance was initiated. Rows and rows of uniform terraces were demolished, and replaced with high and low rise flats, new houses and maisonettes. Many people moved or were forced away from the area. 42 square miles of Liverpool were affected by the clearances, and 88 action areas were identified across Toxteth, Abercromby, Everton and Kirkdale.

Other regeneration projects began in the post-War era. Otterspool promenade was opened to the public in July 1950, constructed of 30 million tonnes of landfill and upcast from the Queensway tunnel.

However, unemployment had been increasing in the area due to containerisation of the docks. Tension existed between the black community and the local police force, and following a similar period of civil unrest in Brixton earlier that year, the Toxteth Riots broke out in July 1981.

In the wake of the violence, the Merseyside Development Corporation was formed in 1981 challenged with building the Garden Festival site: “a test of the continental model as a vehicle for the investment in resources targeting inner city development”. A certain amount of optimism gripped those in Liverpool, but many were sceptical of the new developments. 180 new homes were built on the Garden Festival site, but the New Heartlands Project, a scheme set up to administer the urban regeneration, soon became a “euphemism for ripping the heart out of the city”.

Nevertheless, in the quarter century up to 2000 a strategy based on tourism, leisure, housing and tertiary sector employment meant that the landscape along the shore, and indeed inland, was altering in a way never seen in this part of the city since the massive expansion in terraces, parkland and factories in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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Further Reading

Many of the best resources for Toxteth history are the usual suspects:

• Toxteth on Wikipedia – brings together the history with the politics, geography and regeneration of the area. Also includes a list of ‘Notable Residents’.
• Township of Toxteth Park – part of the Victoria County History of Lancashire (1907) is available in full on the British History website.
• The History of the Royal and Ancient Park of Toxteth – a reprint of a Victorian history from ‘ancient times’ up to about 1905. Enjoyable mostly for the romanticism of its approach to medieval history, and loose standards when declaring bits of old stone as ‘doubtless the remains of King John’s hunting lodge’.
• The Transit of Venus (left) – a biography of Jeremiah Horrocks’s short life. Horrocks was the first to predict the transit of Venus across the Sun, and although little known, made great progress in the field of astronomy.

Image: Croxteth Park, 2009, by the author

West Derby was once the centre of administration in the north west of England. As well as the seat of the Molyneux family, the township had its own castle and courthouse. However, as Liverpool grew in importance, West Derby was overshadowed by its near neighbour, and evolved into a wealthy suburb in the 19th Century.

Derbei, Domesday; West Derbie, 1177.

In a document of 1177 we first hear of ‘West Derby’ township, rather than simply ‘Derbei’ or the like.

The name comes from the Old English word deor (deer), and the place-ending by, meaning enclosure, so this was a park where deer were bred for the purposes of hunting. The relative importance of this township can be told from the ‘West’ added to the name sometime after the Norman conquest, to distinguish it from Derby in Derbyshire.

Other names: Alt (burn, mountain stream) is a word with a proto-Celtic (ancient British, related to Welsh) derivation, and Croxteth is a Norse name.

Historic Features in West Derby

Note: As with other township histories on this website, much of what follows comes from one source. In the case of West Derby it’s the second edition of A History of West Derby by JG Cooper & AD Power (1988), Bellefield Press.

It’s perhaps the longest of the books on Liverpool village surburbs, which might be a reflection of West Derby’s relative importance in south Lancashire history. It also ranges beyond just West Derby, especially in its early chapters. You get the full history of glaciation and how it formed this part of the country, before it slowly homes in on West Derby through the prehistoric, Viking and early Medieval periods.

It’s also got some great sketch maps, which reproduce in the authors’ own pencil lines information which is hard to come by elsewhere. I recommend it to West Derby historians and, more than any other village history, to those interested in Liverpool history in general.

The Landscape of West Derby

The natural landscape of south west Lancashire had an important effect on the origins and development of West Derby. The topography influenced its location, and still leaves clues in the layout of the suburb today.

Mosslands

The land to the north of West Derby was once mossland, reflected in names like Blackmoor Drive, which derived its name ultimately from a large house of that name, and Blackmoor Moss which once covered part of the district.

Blackmoor Moss lent its name to Black Moss Lane, which is now Black Horse Lane. The moss itself stretched from Queens Drive to the Alt north east of Croxteth Hall.

Geology

The underlying geology of Merseyside is glacial, where ice carved out valleys from the north west down to the south east. Later wind blown sand and other glacial deposits filled in these valleys, leading to sandstone ridges separated by flat areas. Geological uplift exposed coal measures in Croxteth Park, making it self-sufficient in the fuel (Cooper & Power, 1988: 21).

Queens Drive near the Jolly Miller sits on one of these ridges, and flat land stretches through West Derby to Knowsley.

Streams in the area tend to flow south east to north west (like the Alt) or vice versa (like Ditton Brook at Hale).

Quarries

Good building stone was easy to get at in West Derby. There were many quarries around here, like those in Sandforth Road and Derwent Road. Demand came initially from individual houses and farms (for things like field walls). Leyfield Road and Derby Lane still have modest sandstone buildings on them. Later, large residential houses needed great amounts of sandstone, and as their numbers increased so did the size of the quarries. But it wasn’t just local buildings that sourced quality stone from this area.

The quarry (later known locally as the Delph) behind the Queens Drive Hotel supplied stone to the first George’s Dock. Mill Bank’s quarry produced material for St. James’ and St Mary’s churches nearby, but also Childwall Church’s tower and Old Swan Police Station quarries].

The quarries have now all been filled in or otherwise landscaped, and haven’t been used since the 1920s. Road names survive as clues to their location, like Quarry Road near Mill Bank, and Rock Mount and Rock Street in Old Swan.

The Social Landscape

West Derby was the ‘capital manor’ of the hundred of West Derby, which stretched from the Mersey to the Ribble in the north.

The village of West Derby grew up around the gates of Croxteth Hall, which remains the centre of the village to this day. The township (distinct to the hundred) of West Derby was much more widespread than this, however. It reached close to the town centre, taking in Kensington and Prescot Road, one of the principal roads out of Liverpool.

The village was on the main route between Hale and Ormskirk and Aughton. This might have made it attractive as a site for the castle, and hunting lodge before it. It also had a supply of wood, the Alt nearby, and was an established centre.

‘Green lanes’ tended to be routes on the edge of villages heading out into the uninhabited areas. In the case of Green Lane this was Tuebrook. Almond’s and Hayman’s Green would have been green lanes leading out beyond the boundaries of West Derby.

In 1533 farms were aggregated and common land was enclosed, turning arable land into pasture. In 1667 the West Derby Wastes were enclosed.

A portion of West Derby was taken into Liverpool in 1835, and another part in 1895. But even by 1907 there were still areas of West Derby which lay outside the city boundaries.

Wells

Wells were plentiful in this area, with one near the present Sefton Arms, and another in Meadow Lane. There were other private pumps for houses in Town Row and Hayman’s Green. Holly Lodge had a pump too, as did Lark Hill with its adjoining cottages (three pumped wells in all). A well could be found at the Town Row end of Hartington Road in the south east corner of the grounds of St Paul’s church. Another stood in Old Swan, at the corner of St Oswald Street and Prescot Road.

Roads

Some of the well-known roads of today were mentioned centuries ago in legal documents. In 1557 a record of the Halmote Court mentioned “a certain Robert Mercer of Townroe and a Will Mercer of Tubrucke”. Eaton Road North originally shrank down to a lane called Narrowback, which had 24 houses on it sharing a tap.

In the early decades of the 20th Century West Derby was noted as having a long line of houses stretching all the way from the city centre to West Derby village. The area was still relatively green, with wide spaces between the buildings.

South of West Derby Road (once known as Rake Lane) was Prescot Road, another route from the city centre. At Old Swan a traveller could continue on to Knotty Ash and out to Prescot, or they could turn southwards to Broad Green and out of the town that way.

Schools

A Free School was mentioned in a document of 1667. One Ann Dwerryhouse donated land on Edge Lane for a new school in the early 19th century. Money was raised by the local community for a schoolmaster, and the school was eventually built, not on the donated land, but near the ancient chapel in 1825. It had 60 pupils, and the older school building became a cottage for the master.

In 1859 the Earl of Sefton gave land in Meadow Lane for a new school. When it opened it became known as the West Derby National School and the previous school became a workshop. In 1974 this school building was largely demolished (except for the bell tower) and a new one built.

The Spring Grove site of St Paul’s School replaced an earlier church school in Bonsall Road. Blackmoor Park was built in 1938 to serve the growing suburb, expanding to a second site (now the infants school) in 1955.

Buildings

Some of the earliest buildings in West Derby would have been cruck-framed houses, and some of these frames survive into the 21st century. At 54 Town Row the (possibly 16th century) frame was partly uncovered during renovations in the 1970s. At the same time, coins were found in the fireplace dating to 1797 and a little later.

In the 18th century the original cob had been replaced with brick, and the roof raised to a higher level, and tiled. This house was divided into two smaller houses in the 19th century, and the cruck survived in the dividing wall. [IMAGE Map of Town Row]. Cooper and Power (1988: 183) claim that six cruck-framed houses from before 1500 surviving on Town Row. These buildings survived because they were simply fronted in later centuries by brick walls, hiding and protecting the wooden structure.

Other houses survived for centuries, but are now gone. ‘Boltons’ in Knotty Ash and Birch Hill Cottage, both now demolished, were built before 1500.

Moss House, which once stood on the corner of Derby Lane and Queens Drive was demolished in 1910 to reveal a 17th century house within. (On a related note, the willow tree at this junction is said to have been in the garden of Moss House. It’s true that the garden of Moss House stretched the far into the junction).

Prehistory in West Derby

A Bronze Age stone axe or hammer was found on Clubmoor Recreation Ground when air raid shelters were built. Flint scrapers were found on the site of Elm House, on the outskirts of Old Swan near Edge Lane. And an adze was found north of Craven Wood, north of Croxteth Brook, in around 1930.

Medieval West Derby

In the years after 1066 the history of West Derby is closely linked with the feudal system which came into force with William I’s reign. At the time of Domesday, West Derby had 6 berewicks, one of which was Liverpool. How many (or rather, how few) people lived in the place called Liverpool at his point will probably never be known.

West Derby emerged early on as an important centre in the north west. As a result, it had several landmarks which set it apart from other suburbs of Liverpool.

Croxteth Hall was originally known as Barrett’s Hall. Barrett himself was a squire of John of Gaunt. The name of the present Hall was drawn from the existing name of Croxteth Park, already in use at the time the Hall adopted the name.

Croxteth Hall was originally built of timber, with plaster walls, in 1575. The estate was given to the Molyneux in 1473 by Henry VI.

See also

• West Derby Chapel
• West Derby Court House
• West Derby Mill
• West Derby Castle

The Forest: Croxteth, Toxteth and Smithdown

Roger of Poitou afforested Croxteth, Toxteth and Smithdown in the reign of Henry I. The forest was gradually de-wooded, and Croxteth forest was declared illegal in the 1228 Charter of Forests. In the light of this, all forest planted after 1154 was also declared illegal. This might have been in order to allow the cutting down of more woodland.

In 1461 the forestership of the wapentake of West Derby was given to the Molyneux family. This may have prompted their move from Sefton to Croxteth (the former Barrett’s Hall) in 1548.

The 18th century

The oldest detailed map of the area is a survey of the Molyneux estate from 1769. It shows Town Row with around half a dozen houses on it, with almost all other buildings clustered in the village centre. Although the map stretches to ‘Moss Lane’ (the future Queens Drive), there is little else in the built environment

The early houses

Perhaps the oldest house in the West Derby areas is the Round House (Sandfield Old Hall), which was built in 1635. Other large houses would follow over the next three centuries.

In the 18th century West Derby could generally be considered in four quarters: Town Row, Woodside, Low Hill and Acker’s End. On Perry’s map of 1768 there are 36 dwellings in the whole village; on Yate’s map of 1786 there are 28 houses on Town Row alone.

In 1774 Joseph Jackson Jr. owned Fir Grove (opposite the top of Alder Road) and diverted Black Horse Lane, which ran in front of the house, apparently “for the convenience of the public”. That he diverted it to run further from his front door and cause the public to walk in a wide loop around him gives the lie to that statement. This is why there is a large loop in Queens Drive to this day.

Isaac Greene the lord of the manor (having bought West Derby along with other manors), was the instigator of a lot of the enclosure of the 18th century. He also owned the manors of Wavertree, Childwall, two Wooltons and Everton. He came into conflict with the copyholders of West Derby when he claimed that all the waste lands of the manor were his by right. The subsequent court case found in favour of the copyholders.

Norris Green existed as a rural estate prior to 1774, and a mansion was built by Arthur Heywood in 1830. The name came from the Norrises of Speke who had some land around here.

The house of Larkhill had a grand drive which is now Muirhead Avenue. The gateposts survived into the late 20th century. [MAP of Larkhill]

The residential boom

When the 19th century began, West Derby was on the cusp of a transformation. Large houses would be built, as men and women of wealth moved out of the city centre and inner suburbs, as the latter became crowded with terraces.

As late as 1825 the entrance to Croxteth Park was on Meadow Lane. In 1830 the Earl of Sefton bought two fields from the Marquis of Salisbury (the local lord of the manor by this time, and prime landowner). On this land he created a grand entrance to the park which opened directly into the centre of West Derby village. Part of this land ended up with St Mary’s church on it.

The 3rd Earl of Sefton redesigned the park beginning in 1850, including moving Croxteth Hall Lane away from the house. As part of this, the grand new drive was enhanced in 1856 with the construction of a tunnel under the Lane.

The Village Hall was opened in 1913.

Industry

Established and modern industries all existed in West Derby. Ropemaking can be seen on the map off St Oswald’s Street in Old Swan. In 1825 a glassworks opened on Edge Lane at the top of St Oswald’s Street. English glassmaking had fallen behind the superior French-made glass, which was flatter and more fit for window panes.

The owners of the factory made the clever decision to hire 40 French glassmakers to improve the quality of their product. Today, the site is occupied by B&Q, but the Glasshouse pub remains a testament to the factory that once stood nearby.

Transport and technology

From the middle of the 19th century the railways cut through the landscape. In 1879 the Cheshire Lines Railway opened, serving West Derby, Knotty Ash. This railway ran to and from Southport, and stopped at Knotty Ash and West Derby stations. The London and North West Company’s railway travelled out from Liverpool Lime Street, via Edge Hill Station to the Crown Street terminus of the Liverpool to Manchester line. The railway had stations at Edge Lane, Tuebrook and Breck Road.

The first horse-drawn trams reached West Derby in 1882. Horses were stabled in depot sheds behind the court house, and a ticket inspector’s hut was built next to the latter, which has been the Flower Pot florist’s for decades. One-horse ‘shuttles’ took people from West Derby to Green Lane, and from Knotty Ash to Old Swan. Here they could switch trams for onward travel to the city centre.

In 1900 the trams bringing passengers from Liverpool was electrified, and the inspector’s office was dedicated to ticket sales.

New technologies crept into everyday life. In 1896 the first telephone exchange was opened. A telephone exchange was built in West Derby, a 3 Town Row, and later at 11 Mill Lane. Eventually it moved to 40 Mill Lane. The 1886 Liverpool directory showed one telephone entry for West Derby. By 1900 there were 56 West Derby numbers.

Electricity was starting to become available to the wider public. A power station was built on Lister Drive, with two more taking over duties subsequently in 1904 and 1926 as demand increased.

A ‘street railway’ was laid through Old Swan from Fairfield in 1861. The tram system from Liverpool served West Derby, terminating at the village. Travellers could alight at a junction at Knotty Ash which linked up with the South West Lancashire tram system. The last tram ran in 1949.

In 1909 Queens Drive was built in Lark Hill, with the Moss Lane section constructed in 1911.

In 1914 Alder Hey hospital was built, in an attempt to give children the benefit of the clean air in the semi-rural district. Originally built for children of the West Derby workhouses, it was also used as a military hospital in both World Wars.

Alder Hey was originally the name of one of the large houses in West Derby, and its estate was bought in 1906 for the hospital. Parts of the house survived in the hospital complex until 1964. The lodge, Alder Lodge, still stands on Alder Road.

Becoming Liverpool

In 1835 a large portion of West Derby was taken into Liverpool, with the rest brought in in 1895. In 1871 the population was 50,681. This was the time when the first large houses were built. The suburb attracted international consuls, who built large houses on Eaton Road from the middle of the 19th century. The houses on Hayman’s Green date from this period, as West Derby changed from a village to a suburb.

The first boom in housebuilding was caused by the demand for domestic labour in these large houses. Domestic staff were unlikely to be able to commute far, and cottages grew up in the West Derby area, particularly on Almond’s Green.

In 1850 Owen Hughes, builder, bought the Wall Hill Farm area (where Hartington Drive meets Town Row) and built houses on the land.

In 1850 Sandfield Park was laid out as an exclusive estate with two lodges, but from 1935 more houses were built. These were initially large residences like the existing Sandfield Old Hall, but later smaller houses joined them later. Sandfield Park can therefore be considered part of the suburban development of West Derby rather than the initial phase of house building.

Sandfield Park

Sandfield Old Hall was already there, and dates at least in part to the 16th century (with some parts of the stable block certainly dating to around 1635). Over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries it changed its name, from the Round House (1768) to Sandfield, Sandfield House, Sandfield Hall and finally, in 1892, Sandfield Old Hall.

There is a rumour that the Old Hall has tunnels leading to Blackmoor Moss (in the direction of Queens Drive). Indeed, the Hall has a bricked up door way in the cellar, but nothing more is known of this.

Bellefield was another of the large houses built in Sandfield Park. The Park had an upkeep charge for residents to maintain the roads and environs, but Sir Edward Bates, the owner of Bellefield, refused to pay. A drive led from his house on Sandforth Road onto North Drive, which made him liable for the payments. Because he refused, the gates were permanently locked shut, and the only gates used were directly onto Sandforth Road itself.

The end of the large houses

The large houses which had belonged to consuls and merchants were demolished in the 1920s and 1930s. Oliva, once standing on Eaton Road between Alfriston, Alvanley and Apsley Roads, was bought by the Scarret Brothers, builders, in 1932. Eaton House, to the south east of Oliva, was demolished in 1933 for semi-detached houses, so it’s likely that the Scarret Brothers were the builders of all the houses between Apsley Road and Honeys Green Lane.

The former Cheshire Lines Railway closed to passengers in 1960, and goods in 1965. Trains continued to pass through the station, and use the sidings at Knotty Ash, but in 1972 the whole line shut, and the tracks were pulled up in 1979. Today, the line has a tarmac surface and is used as the Liverpool Loop Line cycling route.

Areas of West Derby

West Derby is a township with several recognisable areas within it.

Broad Green

Broad Green began life as a village around a wide green triangle. This area is now occupied by the Turnpike Tavern and housing estate to the south of Broadgreen Station.

One of the landmarks of the area on Edge Lane was the Oak Vale plant nurseries. This gave rise to the Gardener’s Arms pub which once stood at the end of Broad Green Road. Cunningham Road is named after George Cunningham, the head gardener.

Trees were brought to this part of the city from Ladies Walk, when that lane was cleared to make way for industry in 1778.

Old Swan

The area now known as Old Swan gets its name from the pub of that name, once known as the Three Swans. The swans were those on the coat of arms of the Walton family, who owned land around here.

The pub was built on a sandstone outcrop on the heath, on the pack horse (and later stagecoach) route from Liverpool to Broadgreen and Prescot. The Three Swans itself became a post office, and was a stopping off point for horses and, later, trams.

In 1973, during construction of St Oswald’s Church in Old Swan, 3500 bodies were excavated. It’s been suggested that these were plague victims, but it’s not known why so many were buried here. It could have been that this spot was a safe distance away from the main centres of population on Merseyside, but not too far from West Derby Village itself.

Knotty Ash

Knotty Ash grew up at a crossroads on the route from Liverpool to Prescott, Warrington and Manchester. Roads went north to West Derby and south to Broad Green.

A community grew up around the Turk’s Head pub and other establishments. Literal cottage industries were practiced in the small residences at Little Bongs, and a brewery grew up on Prescott Road.

Further Reading

Blessig’s Stile: a hidden West Derby Path

Radley, G., 1971, Knotty Ash, Parochial Council of St John the Evangelist Church, Liverpool

Radley, G., 1986, Knotty Ash, Old Swan and West Derby, A & R Publications, Liverpool

Cooper, JG, & Power, AD, A History of West Derby, Bellefield Press.

Cooper, John & Power, David, 1988, The People of West Derby, Bellefield Press, Liverpool