WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



past New Hall in Carr Lane to Walton village. Carr 

 Lane was a continuation of a road from Liverpool 

 which crossed the Tue Brook at Club Moor, 1 and went 

 deviously onward to Kirkby. In this part of the 

 township are now the hamlet of Dog and Gun, with 

 the West Derby Cemetery, opened 1884, to the west, 

 and the district called Gill Moss. From Derby mill 

 mentioned above a lane led south past Blackmoor 

 Moss.' A little to the east stood the Round House, 

 otherwise known as Sandfield. 3 



The roads above described continue to be the main 

 thoroughfares. Most of them are traversed by the 

 Liverpool tramway system, which facilitates access to 

 the village, as also to Old Swan and Knotty Ash, 

 where there is a junction with the South-west Lanca- 

 shire tramway system. The London and North- 

 Western Company's line outward from Liverpool 

 passes through the township, the important station of 

 Edge Hill being situated within it ; the original 

 terminus (1830) of the Liverpool and Manchester 

 Railway was a little distance away, in Crown Street. 

 The same company's branch line from Edge Hill to 

 Bootle, formed about 1866, has stations at Edge Lane, 

 Stanley, Tue Brook, and Breck Road, opened in 1870. 

 The Cheshire Lines Committee's Southport Railway 

 also passes through, more to the east, with stations at 

 Knotty Ash and West Derby, opened in 1884. 



WEST DERBY was the capital manor 

 MANOR of the hundred, to which it gave name. 

 As a royal manor it stands first in 

 Domesday Book in the description of the land 

 'Between Ribble and Mersey,' and with its six 

 berewicks was assessed at four hides ; there was land 

 for fifteen ploughs ; and a forest two leagues long and 

 one broad, with an aery of hawks. King Edward 

 held it in 1066, and by the Conqueror it was given 



WALTON 



to Roger of Poitou who had temporarily lost his 

 fief before 1086 ; 4 but in 1094 Count Roger gave the 

 tithe of his demesne in this vill to the abbey of St. 

 Martin of Seez. 5 It is possible that he built the 

 castle here. After his banishment in 1102 West 

 Derby with his other manors escheated to the 

 crown, and was about 1115 granted to Stephen of 

 Blois as part of the honour of Lancaster. 6 



West Derby is next mentioned in 1 1 69, when it 

 .and the other members of the demesne in the hun- 

 dred were tallaged at i I 3*. 4^.' The castle was 

 repaired in 1197 at a cost of loo/., 8 and after the 

 death of King Richard a garrison was stationed in it 

 to preserve the peace of the county ; 9 three years 

 later considerable additions and repairs were carried 

 out. 10 During his struggle with the barons King John 

 kept a sufficient garrison here, 11 and for some years 

 the castle seems to have been occupied ;" by 1297, 

 however, it had ceased to exist, for it was returned 

 that ' in the town fields of Derby there was a certain 

 site of an old castle, where the capital messuage used 

 to be, with the circuit of the ditches.' 13 



At the beginning of the thirteenth century the vill 

 was farmed by the king's bondmen or villeins at an 

 ancient assized rent of 6, which the king had aug- 

 mented by 2 since Easter, 1201." A considerable 

 number of the people were removed to Liverpool in 

 1208 to form the new borough, and the sheriff had 

 an allowance of the farm of the hundred, probably to 

 make up for his loss on this account. 15 There was 

 anciently a considerable area of woodland, extending 

 to 2,880 customary acres at the date of Domesday. 

 In 1228 the boundaries of this were described by the 

 knights who made the perambulation of the forest. 16 

 The clearing and improvement of the land went on 

 rapidly," and in 1 296 there were 30^ burgages held 



