WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



a Mr. Booth and came into the possession of Nicholas 

 Ashton in 1772.' He died in 1833, aged 91, having 

 greatly improved the house and grounds. The fol- 

 lowing description is given of its amenities about 

 1 800 : ' Woolton Hall, about six miles from Liver- 

 pool, upon an eminence commands grand and extensive 

 prospects, the two extreme points of view being 

 the Cumberland and Westmorland hills to the north, 

 and the Wrekin near Shrewsbury to the south ; from 

 thence also may be seen Blackstone Edge in Yorkshire 

 and several of the Derbyshire and Staffordshire hills ; 

 to the eastward the rivers Mersey and Weaver join 

 in view about four miles from this house, and very 

 soon opening into a fine sheet of water, continue 

 their course to the port of Liverpool. The prospect 

 to the south-west is terminated by an irregular scene 

 of Welsh mountains.' ! Charles Ellis Ashton, son of 

 Captain Joseph Ashton, and grandson of Nicholas, 

 sold the house in 1865 to James Reddecliffe Jeffrey, 

 of Compton House, Liverpool. It was afterwards 

 purchased by Frederick Leyland, a Liverpool ship- 

 owner, and sold again upon his death, Mr. Peter 

 McGuffie being the present owner. It is used as 

 a hydropathic establishment. 



The commoners at the passing of the Enclosure Act 

 in 1805, included Bamber Gascoyne (one-ninth), the 

 earl of Derby, Nicholas Ashton, James Okill, Thomas 

 Rawson, John Weston, Joshua Lace, and William 

 Slater. Among other matters the Act provided for 

 the formation of Church Road. Some land in Quarry 

 Street is said to belong to ' the poor of Dublin,' and 

 rates are paid by a person representing them. 3 



For the Established worship the church of St. Peter 

 was built in 1886-7 to replace that erected in 1826 

 on an adjacent site. 4 The bishop of Liverpool has 

 the presentation and the incumbents are styled rectors. 

 A mission church of St. Hilda has been founded as 

 the result of a bequest by Lucy Ashton, granddaughter 

 of the above-named Nicholas. 



A grammar school now abandoned was in existence 

 in the sixteenth century. 



In the High Street are the new Wesleyan church 

 (St. James's) and the Congregational church, built in 

 1864-5. An effort was made to establish a church 

 in connexion with the Congregationalists as far back 

 as 1822, but it failed. A second effort in 1863 

 proved more successful. 5 The old Wesleyan chapel, 

 built in 1834, is now used for unsectarian services. 



The Unitarian chapel at Gateacre, formerly called 

 'Little Lee' chapel, is the oldest ecclesiastical building 

 in the township, having been licensed as early as 

 October, 1700, for an English Presbyterian congre- 

 gation already formed there. It is a plain stone 

 building with a bell turret. The bell is dated 1723, 

 and there is a ' cup of blessing,' dated 1 703-4, and 

 presented in 1746 by Joseph Lawton, minister for 

 over thirty years. The building remains with very 



CHILDWALL 



little alteration from its original condition. 6 It has 

 various endowments, 6,000 having been paid by the 

 Cheshire Lines Railway for land. 7 Among its ministers 

 is numbered Dr. William Shepherd (1768-1847), 

 author of a biography of Poggio Bracciolini. 8 



The first Roman Catholic church of St. Mary was 

 built in Watergate Lane in 1765, the mission having 

 previously been served from Woolton Hall. 9 A new 

 cruciform church was built in 1860 in Church Street. 

 The English Benedictines are in charge. From about 

 1782 to 1818 Dr. John Bede Brewer, one of the 

 ornaments of this congregation, was in residence ; it 

 is said that he was on very friendly terms with 

 Dr. Shepherd, of Gateacre. 10 From 1765 to 1807 a 

 community of English Benedictine nuns from Cambrai 

 was established in the village. They are now at 

 Stanbrook, near Worcester. Richard Roskell, bishop 

 of Nottingham from 1853 to 1874, was DOrn at 

 Gateacre." 



LITTLE WOOLTON 



This township contains 1,388 acres." In 1901 the 

 population numbered 1,091. 



The greater part consists of level country under 

 mixed cultivation, having an open and pleasant aspect. 

 A smaller portion on the west lies on the slope of a 

 ridge, which rises to 285 ft. above sea-level. The 

 village of Gateacre, which lies partly in Much 

 Woolton, occupies the south-west side, and is nicely 

 situated in the midst of trees and gardens. The 

 roads are good, and hedged with hawthorn trimly 

 kept. Altogether the township wears the prosperous, 

 respectable look of a district removed from the smoke 

 and murk of the city, with its feet set on the edge of 

 the country. Lee is to the east of Gateacre, and 

 Brettargh Holt, or the Holt, to the north-east, across 

 the brook. The greater part of the township lies on 

 the pebble beds of the bunter series of the new red 

 sandstone ; the westernmost portion and the higher 

 ground near the Holt are on the upper mottled sand- 

 stones of that series. 



There are numerous roads and cross roads, leading 

 chiefly to Liverpool by Childwall, or Wavertree, or 

 Toxteth. Another road runs through the township, 

 turning round the Lee, to Halewood Green. Gate- 

 acre gives its name to a station on the Southport 

 branch of the Cheshire Lines Committee's railway, 

 which crosses the centre of the township. Netherley 

 lies on the eastern border, and gives a name to the 

 brook which bounds the township at that side, and to 

 the bridge on the Tarbock Road crossing this brook. 



Widnes corporation have a pumping station here. 



A local board was formed in i867, 13 and the town- 

 ship has now an urban district council of nine 

 members. 



' Enfield, Li-utrpoel (1773), 1 1 5. The 

 will of Thomas Broughton, of Much 

 Woolton, was proved in 1686. 



3 Quoted in Gregson's Fragments from 

 Watts' Select Vie-ws, pi. 76. 



8 End. Char. Rep. The enclosure map 



4 The first stone was laid 22 July, 

 1825, by Edward Geoffrey Stanley, after- 

 wards earl of Derby. The building was 

 in its time described as 'a handsome 

 structure in the Grecian style.' The 

 parish was formed in 1828 (Land. Gax. 



I July), and declared a rectory in 1868, 

 having been endowed with a tithe rent- 

 charge of 26: ibid. 23 Aug. 1867; 

 21 Jan. 1868. 



The present building is in the Perpen- 

 dicular style, with a tower containing 

 eight bells. 



5 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 208-9. 



"Ibid, vi, 192-207. It was built at 

 the cost of William Claughton, John Gill 

 and others, on land which had been 

 acquired from John son of Henry White- 

 field, to whom it had been let in 1658 



by Gilbert Ireland of Hale. Reynold 

 Tetlaw bequeathed books to it in 174.6 ; 

 mils (Chet. Soc. New Ser.), i, 185. 



^ End. Char. Rep. 



8 Diet. Nat. Biog. ; Nightingale, op. cit. 



' Trans. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), xiii, 



I5 He died at Woolton iS April, i8zz. 

 Gillow, Bibl. Diet, i, 291. 



" Ibid, v, 450. 



12 The 1901 Census Report gives 1,389, 

 including 2 acres of inland water. 



l Land. G*K. 8 Jan. 1867. 



