Archaeology
August 15, 2017 / November 14, 2022 by Martin Greaney | 5 Comments on Ridge and Furrow, Medieval farming remains in West Derby
Ridge and Furrow formations are possibly one of the best-known archaeological features which survive into the modern day. You can see these long, sinuous raises beds of earth across Britain. They survive particularly well in Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and Derbyshire, as well as in other counties. The remains of this farming technique are visible in two […]
Read more »
Tagged
Buildings
February 5, 2017 / November 14, 2022 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
The ‘Yeoman’s House’ (as it is known locally) dates from the 1580s, so is a cherished historical feature in the village of West Derby. Others include the similarly-aged courthouse across the road. The stocks to one side, and the beautiful red brick cottages around the entrance to Croxteth Park add to the historic landscape. That’s […]
Hidden History
February 12, 2016 / November 14, 2022 by Martin Greaney | 5 Comments on Parkside Drive – a West Derby bypass?
Plans were once put together to make West Derby a more peaceful village. Only a few clues now remain to those plans. Martin’s Note: I’m indebted to the West Derby Society again for revealing this feature to me, in a post on their Facebook page back in December 2015. Having been a political centre for […]
November 4, 2015 / November 11, 2022 by Martin Greaney | 3 Comments on Springfield Park, Prescot Road entrance
Knotty Ash Village, and Springfield Park, are part of a historic area. They’re on the edge of West Derby and also on the main route between Liverpool and Prescot, and then on to Manchester. The old mail coaches would have flown past in their day, and the tram routes have left their mark in turn. […]
Maps and mapping
September 8, 2014 / November 10, 2022 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
All born-and-bred Liverpudlians (and many more people) will be aware that the city is made up of a collection of villages. The villages used to sit comfortably in their landscape, surrounded by fields, lanes, streams and hills. Over time, they were swallowed up by the emerging behemoth of Liverpool itself. In many ways Liverpool is unique […]
January 24, 2014 / January 15, 2023 by Martin Greaney | 8 Comments on The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire
This article is about a lovely little book from 1902, detailing one man’s niche interest… Here’s a quiz question: how many churches on Merseyside can you name which have pre-mid16th century origins? The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor is a small hardback book and a catalogue of hundreds of ‘ancient’ (read: historic) crosses […]
Landscapes
March 8, 2013 / November 17, 2022 by Martin Greaney | 4 Comments on Alder Hey and the Remains of War
Those of you trying to drive past Sainsbury’s on East Prescot Road in West Derby back in March 2013 may have found themselves diverted around a police bomb squad. A suspected hand grenade was discovered in Springfield Park as work began on the new Alder Hey hospital. There are conflicting reports as to whether this […]
February 14, 2013 / July 25, 2023 by Martin Greaney | 11 Comments on Mr. John Dewsnap and the teaching of history
On the morning of 14th February 2013, the funeral of Mr. John Dewsnap took place. He was my teacher in year 6 of primary school at Blackmoor Park in West Derby (c.1992-3), and was an inspiration. It might not be too far fetched to say that, if not for him, you might not be reading […]
September 13, 2011 / December 2, 2022 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
On August 23rd 2007 Liverpool celebrated 800 years as a settlement! There are quite a few things which were laid down in 1207, the evidence of which is still visible today. 1 – Seven Streets Every historian of Liverpool should know about these: They are the original roads laid out when Liverpool was founded in […]
August 11, 2011 / September 29, 2023 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
This article was inspired by Celia Heritage’s article on parish churches. Her love of churches, in terms of history, began through researching family history and looking for ancestors’ gravestones. What to look out for in a parish church What to Look Out For in a Parish Church is the first article on the revamped Celia’s […]
July 18, 2011 / October 3, 2023 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
The ‘Museum of Liverpool‘ is a very fitting name, because this is a museum about the city, and about the people. It’s the largest national museum dedicated to a city in over a century, and opened in a year when the M Shed in Bristol, the Cardiff Story, and Glasgow’s Riverside Museum Project bring similar […]
April 6, 2011 / July 25, 2023 by Martin Greaney | Leave a Comment
OK, so perhaps the Norse are aren’t the first people to come to mind when we think of ‘Liverpool Heroes’. They’re distant in time, left little visible trace in our city, and went about changing society through the delicate application of pointy-horned helmets. But of course none of that is strictly true. There are traces […]
January 12, 2011 / November 9, 2022 by Martin Greaney | 2 Comments on Woodland on Merseyside and the Mersey Forest
The year 2011 was declared as the International Year of Forests by the UN (see the Echo for some of Liverpool’s plans). The very modern Mersey Forest has seen 8 million new trees planted since 1994. But there’s a much longer and fascinating history of woodland and forest in this area. The origins of the […]
