WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WALTON ON THE HILL 



WEST DERBY 

 EVERTON 

 WALTON 

 FAZAKERLEY 



BOOTLE CUM LINACRE 



KIRKDALE 



TOXTETH PARK (extra-par.) 



FORMBY 



KIRKBY 



SIMONSWOOD (extra-par.) 



This extensive parish, occupying the south-western 

 corner of the hundred and county, has a total area of 

 29,615 acres,' and a population in 1 901 which 

 numbered 446,821 persons.' Anciently its area was 

 much larger. Childwall must have been detached 

 before the Norman Conquest, and Sefton before 

 1200 ; Liverpool continued to form part of it until 

 1699. On the other hand, at some time earlier than 

 the Conquest it is probable that Kirkby and Simons- 

 wood had been drawn into it, just as in later times 

 Croxteth Park has been erroneously included in and 

 Altcar claimed for it. 



Apart from the story of Liverpool, told subse- 

 quently, there is little to say of its general history. 

 The castle of West Derby endured less than two cen- 

 turies ; the camp of Prince Rupert at Everton in 1 644 

 connects the parish with the Civil Wars, the effect 

 of which is chiefly illustrated by the confiscations 

 of the parliamentary authorities during their years 

 of power. 



Jeremiah Horrocks, the astronomer, was perhaps 

 the most distinguished man who has sprung from it, 

 though many others have been connected with it by 

 their labours. 



Formerly it was mainly agricultural. The de- 

 tached chapelry of Formby had a seaport and fisheries. 

 Simonswood and Toxteth were royal parks. Everton 

 was one of the first portions to be affected by the 

 growing prosperity of Liverpool ; its elevated situa- 

 tion offered desirable sites for the suburban residences 

 of the merchants. Now a large part of the parish 

 has become urban ; but agriculture still claims the 

 inland portion of West Derby, Fazakerley, Kirkby, and 

 Simonswood ; Formby has a growing urban popula- 

 tion, but retains its agricultural character. 



The following are the acreages at present occupied 

 by arable land, permanent grass, and woods and 

 plantations : — 



Arable 

 8,029 

 341 



74 

 113 



2,321 

 3 



Walton on the Hill 

 Walton . . . 

 Toxteth . 

 Bootle .... 

 West Derby (rur.) 

 Kirkdale . . . 



10,8 



For the county lay of 1624 the assessment, con- 

 sidered at that time a fair one, was that Walton 

 should pay a twelfth of the sum levied upon the 



hundred. The townships were arranged so that each 

 group paid one-third, as follows : — i . Walton-cum- 

 Fazakerley, Kirkby, and Formby, each paying equally ; 

 2. West Derby ; 3. Liverpool, Kirkdale, Bootle and 

 Linacre, and Everton, Liverpool paying two-thirds 

 of the sum due from this group.' The more ancient 

 fifteenth had by the seventeenth century become un- 

 fair ; out of a total of ^106 9/. ()d. due from the 

 hundred Walton paid j£l i jj. ()\d. Kirkby 

 j^i 16/. \d., Formby £\ 3/., Raven Meols 12/., 

 West Derby £z 8/., Liverpool ^^ 2 11/. I J.^., Kirk- 

 dale l-js., Bootle \Ss. Sd., Everton 14/., a total of 

 £^2 13s. Jld.* 



The church of Our Lady is at the 

 CHURCH * present day of greater historical than 

 architectural interest. The site is an- 

 cient, and a church here is mentioned in Domesday, 

 but its chief claim to distinction lies in the fact that 

 it is the mother church of Liverpool, St. Nicholas's 

 Church having been a chapel of Walton till 1699. 



The later history of Walton church is as follows : 

 The nave was rebuilt in 1743, the chancel in 1 8 10, 

 and the tower in 1828-31. In 1840 the north side 

 of the nave was remodelled, and the chancel rebuilt 

 for the second time in 1843. No part of the 

 structure, therefore, has any pretensions to antiquity. 

 In the chancel is a reading desk dated 1639, all other 

 fittings being quite modern. Near the vestry door is 

 an inscribed brass plate ^ recording the establishment 

 (in 1 601) of a charity by Thomas Berry. Ten 

 verses, beginning with letters of his name (Thomas 

 Beri), are followed by the couplet : — 



Xij penie loaves to xil poore foulkes 

 Geve everie Sabothe day for aye. 



The font is a relic of the ancient church, now 

 restored to use after many years of desecration, having 

 been turned out of the church in 1754, and used as 

 a mounting stone by the door of a neighbouring inn. 

 It has a circular bowl, on which are six arched panels 

 containing figure sculpture, the intervening spaces 

 having floral patterns. The figure-subjects are dam- 

 aged and indistinct, but one shows the temptation 

 of Adam and Eve — as on the font at Kirkby — and 

 another has been interpreted as the Flight into Egypt. 

 The bowl of the font only is ancient.' 



The Registers begin in 1586.' 



The church had in 1066 an 

 /^DVOWSON endowment of one ploughland in 

 Bootle ; ' probably it had a further 

 endowment in Walton itself, where there is a con- 

 siderable acreage of glebe.'" Geoffrey the sheriff about 



^ Including the extra-parochial districts 

 of Simonswood and Toxteth, together 

 6,224 acres. 



2 Almost all within the boroughs of 

 Liverpool and Bootle. 



' M. Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 

 16. 



■< Ibid. 18. 



s For a view (about 1816) see Gregson, 

 op. cit. 140. 



6 Thornely, Lanes. Brasses, 243. 



7 Gregson, op. cit. l\z ; Trans. Hist. 

 Soc. (New Ser.), xvii, 60. 



8 A volume, 1586 to 1663, has been 

 printed by the Lanes. Parish Reg. Soc. 



9 Vol. I, p. 284A. 



'" In 1639 the rector's lands in Walton 

 were estimated at 60 acres, long measure -, 

 Charley Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.) p. 53. At present the acreage in 

 Walton is said to be 90 statute acres and 

 17 in Fazakerley, with outlying lands in 

 Everton and West Derby; 112J acres 

 in all. The vicarial glebe amounts to 

 27J acres. 



