Book reviews
February 19, 2015 / March 10, 2024 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
An alternative view of Liverpool as it picked up the baton of Capital of Culture, from someone who wouldn't fall for the hype.
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Ancient Crosses
November 2, 2014 / March 12, 2024 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: The church (dedicated to S. Michael) is of ancient foundation. The ornamentation of the font testifies to the pre-Norman date of the edifice. A handsome cross was erected on the village green, near the south-west corner of the churchyard in the jubilee year, 1897. It replaced […]
October 23, 2014 / March 12, 2024 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: Mr. Cox writes (in 1888): “The base of the churchyard cross still lies opposite the site of the old south porch.” There is, however, some doubt whether this stone is the base of the cross, or the base of a column of the nave arcade of […]
October 23, 2014 / March 12, 2024 by Martin Greaney | 3 Comments on Knotty Cross
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: These words occur on the six-inch ordnance map at the intersection of roads one-third of a mile south-east from the centre of Gateacre village and about half a mile in a north-easterly direction from Much Woolton Church.
Woolton Cross was put up at the northern end of the original village in around 1350. A second cross, Hunt’s Cross, was erected at the southern end of the township, the pedestal of which still stands, topped with a concrete bollard. Woolton Cross was restored in 1913 by Arthur Mather in celebration of Woolton becoming […]
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: The words “pedestal of stone cross” occur on the 1848 six-inch ordnance map at “Hunt’s Cross,” close to Hunt’s Cross Station, at the intersection of Hunt’s Cross Lane and Sandy Lane, two miles inland from the river Mersey. The words “Hunt’s Cross House” occur on the […]
October 23, 2014 / March 12, 2024 by Martin Greaney | 2 Comments on Garston Village Cross
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: Mr. Cox writes: “The other cross stood below the rock on which was built Garston Hall at the head of the mill-dam, and just opposite to the bridge where the stream entered the pool; its site would be near the present centre of the junction of […]
Archaeology
October 23, 2014 / November 11, 2022 by Martin Greaney | 12 Comments on Brook House Farm
Brook House Farm is the name given to an Iron Age farmstead site in Halewood. It consists of an enclosure surrounded by two ditches (one large and one small), and was discovered via an aerial photograph in 1990. The site was excavated in advance of the building of the junction between the A5300 and the […]
Hidden History
October 23, 2014 / February 22, 2024 by Martin Greaney | 1 Comment on Church Street Cross
There is a brass Maltese cross embedded in the pedestrianised pavement of Church Street. It once lay in front of HMV before the building was converted into a passage through to School Lane and Liverpool ONE. The cross is related to St Peter’s Church, which once stood very close by and which gave Church Street […]
Natural Features
October 23, 2014 / November 11, 2022 by Martin Greaney | 20 Comments on River Alt
The River Alt flows north east through Lancashire and Merseyside. It rises in Huyton township at the Hag Plantation, and flows through Croxteth Park, West Derby and Maghull. It then flows out to the River Mersey
October 23, 2014 / November 11, 2022 by Martin Greaney | 6 Comments on Ditton Brook
Ditton Brook makes up the northern boundary of Halewood, and flows in a south-westerly direction before flowing out into the River Mersey between the town of Ditton and Hale Bank. Along with the River Alt, this river flows down a valley carved out when glacial ice pushed south from what is now the Irish Sea. […]
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: A water-colour drawing in the Binns Collection shows this cross in an open space near a cottage. A church appears in the distance. The head of the cross is gone, but a portion of the square shaft is shown socketted in the customary way into a […]
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: The word “cross” in Gothic letters appears on the 1848 map one and a half miles east of Wavertree. Mr. Cox thus describes it in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (volume for 1895): “On the roadside, near Well Lane, stood the […]
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: Mr. Hope writes in his Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England: “There is a well here which has the reputation of being haunted, a fratricide having been committed there. It was a haunt of pick-pockets and other disorderly characters. It is now built over, […]
Landscapes
October 6, 2014 / November 11, 2022 by Martin Greaney | 6 Comments on Port Sunlight: traces of nature in the man-made landscape
Port Sunlight is a classic and easy-to-read ‘landscape’, in the sense that word is used on this site: it was created in one quick phase, for one purpose, obliterating everything that came before it. And what’s more, it’s seems to have changed little since it was created. Or is that really the case? William Hesketh […]
Maps and mapping
September 8, 2014 / March 10, 2024 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
Despite the variety of suburbs and old villages in Liverpool, a pattern can be seen in their shape.
July 25, 2014 / November 10, 2022 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
Having written about Liverpool history for a while now, I’m lucky enough to be copied in to a lot of interesting tid-bits of the city’s past. This happened recently when Croxteth Park’s Twitter account posted several aerial shots from the middle of the last century. I’d like to share them with you here. The first […]
April 18, 2014 / February 20, 2024 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
This site often talks about the role played by Liverpool’s geography throughout history. From the location of the ancient Calderstones (wherever that might have been) to the collection of banking institutions on Castle Street, Liverpool Landscapes, Historic Liverpool and the book Liverpool: a landscape history have tried to communicate the importance of positioning to the […]
March 16, 2014 / March 12, 2024 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: This holy well is referred to in the following terms in the Chartulary of Cockersand Abbey:- Grant in frankalmoign from Robert, son of Richard de Allerton, to God and St. Werburgh of Warburton and the canons there with the consent of Gilbert, son of Robert de […]
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: In the Binns Collection, vol. ii., p. 26, an illustration is given of this structure, consisting of a classical pillar carried on three steps. Adjoining it are the stocks, so arranged that the culprits sit on the bottom step. The pillar may have carried a sun-dial, […]
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: Considerable doubt exists as to the history of this structure. Three views of it are given in the Binns Collection in the Liverpool Free Library; two of them are practically identical, showing an Early Gothic arched recess in a wall, below which is a well square […]
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: The pedestal of this cross was dug up by the gravedigger a few years ago and has been left above ground in the churchyard. It is of rough stone and much time-worn. The stone measures five feet square at the base, is two feet thick, and […]
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: The site is on the southerly side of the road, between Liverpool and Prescot, distant three miles in a south-westerly direction from the latter town. The remains consist of a portion of the shaft, four feet six inches in height and twelve inches square, socketted into […]
March 13, 2014 / March 12, 2024 by Martin Greaney | 4 Comments on The Chantry Well, Huyton
From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: These words occur on the 1848 six-inch ordnance map close to some old cottages, about one hundred yards to the north of the church. They have recently been pulled down. The well, when I saw it (in April, 1900), was a walled-in dipping well, on the […]