Contact
This site would benefit from your input, so if you know of anything which should be included on this site, for example in the Liverpool Explorer, then get in touch at martin [at] historic-liverpool.co.uk, and I’ll put your name on the relevant page. If you have photographs you’re willing to release under a Creative Commons License, then so much the better!
I am also on Twitter: @mdgreaney. Tweet me!
Who do I think I am?
My name is Martin Greaney, and I did my undergraduate studies (BA Archaeology and Prehistory) at Sheffield Uni, and stayed there to do my MA in Landscape Archaeology. After completing this, and not being satisfied with 8 hours of archaeological work per day, I decided to put my knowledge of my city of birth down on paper (or screen). So here we are!
Flickr
Hello there Martin,
I know that this is a difficult way to get some information about Liverpool but I have just visted your site picked up from a google search so I can get some information about the history of Liverpool.
First of my name is Anzac or Zac as I am better known as, I am of Polynesian decent (Niue Island) to be pricise and I have been living in the UK with my English wife who’s parents are both from Liverpool.
Anyway I am in the middle of scribing my memoirs of my travels through this side of the world and have been in Liverpool quite a lot and have learnt so much about its history and culture, however I am stuck with information on who the orginal dwellers of Liverpool are and I have been told by a number of people that they are believed to be Anglo-Saxons and Norskemen.
I have infromation about Liverpool date back to the year King John gave Liverpool its right to be called a city.
Would you by any chance point me in the right direction as to who the original dwellers of Liverpool are before King John.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again
Zac
Hi Zac,
Thanks for commenting on the site, and sorry it’s taken me a little while to get back to you!
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly who the pre-John dwellers of Liverpool were, but going back in time, it would be something like as follows:
Normans: The Normans invaded England in 1066, and carried out their great survey, Domesday Book, in 1086. This shows that Merseyside was made up of a number of manors within the hundred of West Derby. Liverpool, although not named in Domesday, would probably have been one of these manors, consisting of a farm with surrounding lands. The people who lived in the area could probably be labelled ‘English’ as it is unlikely that Normans (from Normandy in northern France) would have completely replaced those who came before them.
English/Anglo-Saxon and Viking: Before the Norman invasion the people in the area would have been a mixture of Norse and Anglo-Saxon people, depending on exactly where you look (more Norse/Viking on the Wirral and east Lancashire, with Anglo Saxons in Walton, Allerton and West Derby). Some of the Anglo-Saxon landholders were mentioned in the Domesday Book when it lists the owners previous to the Normans, such as Uctred in West Derby.
Going back further you are looking at the Roman era, and before that the Iron Age, Bronze Age and Neolithic. The Romans had some cultural influence on Britain, but most of the population would still have been ‘British’, not Roman, and to all intents and purposes these would be the direct descendents of those who came over from the continent in the previous ice age (before the English Channel flooded). Of course, it’s hard to label them ‘British’ without assuming some sort of native people, but in prehistory there was certainly constant if slow movement all over Europe.
To answer your specific question (who were the original inhabitants of Liverpool?) it can be said that before John ‘Liverpool’ either did not exist or was little more than a farm on the banks of the Mersey. The original inhabitants of Liverpool were those who moved into the new town, which was laid out from scratch when John founded it. The older inhabitants of the general Merseyside area, however, were either British or English and Viking, depending on how far back you look.
Hope this brief overview helps, but let me know if you want any more details.
Martin
Hello Martin,
I have been trying for several years to get hold of a copy of a Liverpool A-Z, specifically dating from 1969-1970, if one was ever published. If not a Geographia map of the same date will do.
I have already tried:
Liverpool Central Library
The A-Z Company
The Geographia Maps company
The national archives in Swindon
EBay
Do you know where I might be able to obtain, or see one?
Hi David,
Well, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on eBay, as there are a couple on there at the moment, though if your date range is strictly 69-70 its hard to tell if they’re exactly what you want (Geographia maps don’t seem to have the dates on them). Have you tried the National Archives in Kew, London? I see from their website (archives.gov.uk) that they have some Geographia maps, and though I can’t find Liverpool ones, I don’t trust my web searching skills enough to know whether I’ve missed something.
There’s also Abebooks.co.uk (e.g. http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?kn=geographia+map+liverpool&sts=t&x=0&y=0), owned by Amazon though specializing in antiquarian books. It definitely has Liverpool Geographia maps of Liverpool, but not necessarily of your dates at the time of writing (mostly again due to the lack of dates printed on the map).
I think your best bet is to keep checking eBay and Abebooks, although try the Kew Archives too.