Liverpool’s Natural Landscape
Although the most obvious parts of today’s city are the result of human actions over the past 300 years, the very foundations on which Liverpool was built are much older than this. Clues to the origins of Merseyside, of its hills, valleys, rivers and streams, and their effects on the modern city today can be seen today.
In This Section
The key attraction of the banks of the River Mersey to early prehistoric (and later) communities was the variety of landscapes and resources here. There were uplands to the east, mosslands to the west, estuaries and river valleys to north and south. All these features provided a variety of animal and plant resources which would have drawn people back to these locations repeatedly over thousands of years.
Geology of Merseyside
The Liverpool landscape is heavily influenced by the geology created over the preceding 20,000 years.
The earliest deposits make up the main topography of the area – the low sandstone ridges in the central and north east parts of the county. These Triassic (250 – 200 million years old) sandstone hills reach up to around 60-70m (197-230ft) above sea level. Carboniferous (360 – 300 million years old) ridges can be found to the east of Liverpool, between Parbold and Billinge. On the south west edge of Lancashire the Lancashire Coalfield outcrops in East Liverpool (eg. Croxteth Park) and St Helens.
Over the top of these geological layers we find wind-blown sand – known as Shirdley Sand – which makes up the dunes found along the coast from Crosby to Southport. These were also first laid down as the ice retreated, and can form features up to 15m (49ft) tall around Little Crosby and Ince Blundell, while sand forms the base of hills up to 75m (246ft) further inland, in the east of the county.
More recent activity involved the laying down of peat, clay and silt which formed damp, boggy moorland in hollows and low-lying areas, mostly in the north and west of the county, and near the Shirdley Sand hills.
Ice Age
13,000 years ago the whole of the north of England was covered in a layer of ice kilometres deep. The ice spread from the Arctic regions all the way south to near the modern Midlands. Under this mass of slow-moving weight the Mersey and Dee were carved out, and the sandstone ridge atop which Liverpool sits today was revealed. Ice flowed south and east, coming towards the future Merseyside from the Irish Sea, and flowing up the channel and towards the Cheshire and Shropshire Plains.
The two largest ice flows in the area created the Mersey valley to the north, the Dee valley further south, and also the Fender on the Wirral, and the River Alt and Ditton Brook along a fourth main iceway (this is why Ditton and Alt seem to flow away from each other – they drain from the same ice-cut groove). The mid-Cheshire and Wirral sandstone ridges were also a result of the glacial crawl – those areas covered in thinner ice were eroded less, and so became the higher lands we see today.
Before the Mersey valley flooded, however, it was the headwaters of a huge river system which occupied the Irish Sea basin before it became submerged. The UK at this time was on the edge of mainland Europe, and part of it.
After the Ice
As the ice sheets melted around 14,500 years ago, the Irish Sea formed, and the coastline approached its present position (although didn’t reach it yet). The dry land was tundra, with only small shrub-like plants, moss and lichen able to colonise the cold, dry desert. Over time, juniper, then birch, hazel, elm and oak took over.
Out at sea, gravel banks left by retreating glaciers would have formed protective barriers to allow lagoons to form around the coastline which stretched from Anglesey to the Wirral and up the west Lancashire coast. It was at this time that the first of the sand dunes began to form.
Around 12,500 years ago the climate deteriorated again, and willow and aspen were overtaken by birch and hazel woodlands, and pine forests could be found between 8,000 and 6,000 years ago. Eventually this woodland became dominant over the whole region.
Between 7,000 and 5,000 years ago oak, alder and lime formed the majority of the woodland, with hazel occupying the higher ground. Elm could also be found, although only on the better soils. Pine woodland began to shrink, remaining only on the highest slopes or on the coast. This is the era when the first humans can be seen to be having an effect on the natural environment.
Bibliography
- Cowell, R.W., & Philpott, R.A., 2000, Prehistoric, Romano-British and Medieval Settlement in Lowland North West England: Archaeological excavations along the A5300 road corridor in Merseyside, NMGM, Liverpool.
- Barrowclough, D., Brennand, M., Chitty, G., Clare, T., Edwards, B., Lewis, J., Longworth, C., Lund, J., McNeil, R., Newman, R., Philpott, R., Quartermaine, J., & Woodcock, S., 2004, North West Archaeological Resource Framework, Museum of Liverpool Field Archaeology Section.
- Cooper, J.G. & Power, A.D., 1987, A History of West Derby, Causeway Books, Liverpool. (Chapter One – West Derby – 200,000,000 BC and after)
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Thank you so much for this. I live in New York these days and see that the history of the two cities goes back even further than I realized: both owing their topography and geology to the work of glacial advance and retreat.
Hi,
I never realised New York was glacial too! Liverpool and New York are definite cousins historically, what with the harbour, the Irish migration route, and that certain atmosphere and attitude which seems to separate them from their mother country. I think the human movement through the ports is the cause of this.
Regards,
Martin