WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WALTON 



and round the latter the district is named St. Michael's 

 Hamlet, from the church. Just beyond the southern 

 boundary is the creek called Otterspool, receiving a 

 brook, known as the Jordan, which rose near Fairfield, 

 formed the boundary between Wavertree and West 

 Derby, and then flowed south to the Mersey ; it was 

 joined by another brook, rising in Wavertree and 

 flowing south and west past Green Bank.' Por- 

 tions of them are still visible in Sefton Park, part of 

 the course having been formed into a lake there. 



The principal road has always been that from 

 Liverpool parallel to the river, formerly known as 

 Park Lane, now as Park Place, Park Road, and (beyond 

 the former municipal boundary) Aigburth Road. 

 Park Road rises quickly to the summit, i8o ft., where 

 the Park Coffee House formerly stood,' and then 

 descends still more rapidly to the Dingle ; near the 

 bottom on the left is the old Toxteth Chapel. 

 The foot of the hill was in 1835 the municipal 

 boundary ; UUet Road thence goes eastward to the 

 old lodge of the Park, situated almost at the centre of 

 the township, where is now the principal entrance to 

 Sefton Park. The main road, as Aigburth Road,' 

 pursues its way to Otterspool, having the Dingle 

 and St. Michael's on the right and Sefton Park on the 

 left.* 



Smithdown Road, formerly Smithdown Lane, 

 forms on the east or inland side for some distance 

 the boundary between the township and West Derby ; 

 by it are the Toxteth cemetery and the workhouse. 

 It is joined at its northern and southern ends respec- 

 tively by two ancient roads, called Lodge Lane from 

 the old Lodge, and Ullet Road already named. 



Modern necessities have covered the district with a 

 vast number of streets, of which only a few can be 

 named. Parliament Street follows the northern 

 boundary line from the river to Smithdown Lane, 

 at which point the district is popularly termed 

 Windsor. Prince's Road runs from the centre of 

 Parliament Street to the entrance to Prince's Park, 

 round which are roads ending in Ullet Road. Mill 

 Street lies between Park Road and the river. 



The Liverpool tramway system provides liberally 

 for locomotion. The Overhead Railway has a terminus 

 at the Dingle, and runs by the dock side, with a 

 number of stations. The Cheshire Lines Committee's 

 Railway from Liverpool to Manchester has stations at 

 St. James's, St. Michael's, and Otterspool, with a 

 goods station, formerly the passenger terminus also, at 

 Brunswick Dock. The London and North- Western 

 Company's Liverpool to London line passes through 

 the south-eastern corner of the township, with a 

 station called Sefton Park, opened about ten years 

 since. 



The following docks of the Liverpool system are in 



this township : Queen's, formed 1 796, and recently 

 modernized ; Coburg ; Brunswick, 1 8 1 1 , formerly the 

 seat of the timber trade ; the old discharging ground 

 has been utilized as the site of a carriers' dock ; 

 Toxteth, Harrington, and Herculaneum. To the south 

 of the last are graving docks, and then the petro- 

 leum stores. 



The Mersey forge stood near the Toxteth dock. 

 The flour mills are further inland. The Herculaneum 

 dock takes its name from a pottery established there 

 in 1 796 on the site of a former copper works ; it 

 was given up in 1841.' On the river side of the 

 Queen's dock were formerly considerable shipbuilding 

 yards. Near them a ferry was in operation for some 

 years. 



The principal park is Sefton Park, formed by the 

 corporation of Liverpool in 1872 ; a palm house and 

 aviary have since been presented. A statue of 

 William Rathbone, unveiled in 1877, stands in it. 

 Prince's Park, purchased about 1840 by Richard 

 Vaughan Yates, with the intention of preserving it 

 as an open space, is now public property. 



An improvement Act was passed in 1842,* and a 

 local board was constituted in 1856 ;' its operations 

 were restricted to the extra-municipal portion in 

 i859.« 



The former wards within the borough of Liverpool, 

 down to 1895, were called North and South Toxteth. 

 On the inclusion of the rest of the township in 1895 

 an entirely new arrangement of wards was made ; five 

 wards, since increased to six, having been formed, each 

 having an alderman and three councillors. 



The Royal Southern Hospital was founded in 

 1841 ; the first building was in Parliament Street, 

 close to the docks. The present buildings in Grafton 

 Street were opened in 1872. Not far from them is 

 the City Hospital, under the management of the 

 corporation ; at Parkhill, Dirigle, is the Infectious 

 Diseases Hospital. 



The new buildings of Liverpool College in Lodge 

 Lane accommodate the principal school. 



The industrial schools founded by the late Canon 

 Henry Postance," the school for the deaf and dumb, 

 and the Turner Memorial Home at the Dingle for 

 incurables, 1882, are among the charitable institu- 

 tions. 



Reports upon the wasting of the shore caused by 

 the Mersey were made by Edward Eyes on behalf of 

 the Duchy in 1828 and subsequent years.'" 



Before the Conquest, TOXTETH 

 MANOR was divided equally into two manors, 

 each assessed at ' a virgate and a half of a 

 plough-land,' otherwise two plough-lands ; one was 

 held by Bernulf, the other by Stainulf " After the 

 Conquest it was probably taken into the demesne of 



^ This house has for a century been the 

 residence of the Rathbone family, who 

 have made an honourable name in the 

 history of Liverpool. 



* In 1768 there were but a few scat- 

 tered residences along this road from 

 Liverpool to Aigburth. In 1823 Northum- 

 berland Street was the limit of the streets, 

 though others were being formed. On 

 the east side of the road near the Coffee 

 House was Falrview, then the residence of 

 Charles Turner. Fairview Place preserves 

 the name, 



' At the corner, where there is a sharp 

 turn from Park Road, there stood in 1768 

 Dr. Kenion's house. He was a collector 



of antiquities. About forty years later 

 the Dingle estate was purchased by the 

 Rev. John Yates, minister of the Unitarian 

 Chapel in Paradise Street; and in 1823 

 he was residing in the house. The Dingle 

 was formerly opened to the public one or 

 two afternoons in the week. 



■* At the further end stands the house 

 once called the New House or 'Three 

 Sixes,' with the date 1666 on it ; off the 

 road is the residential district called 

 Fullwood Park, in which, on the edge of 

 Otterspool, was the Lower Lodge of the 

 park. 



* Trans. Hist. Soc. vii, 202-7. 



6 5 & 6 Vic. cap. 105. 



41 



7 18 & 19 Vic. cap. 121;. 



8 21 & 22 Vic. cap. 10. 



9 Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Par- 

 liament Street, from 1858 till his death in 

 1893. 



1" Trans. Hist. Soc. xxii, 228-35. There 

 were fishyards at Jericho from 1770 to 

 1830; John Leigh, as farmer of the 

 rectory of Walton, claimed tithe of the 

 iish in 1826. 



11 F.C.H. Lanes, i, 283*. The whole 

 therefore appears to have been rated as half 

 a hide and a plough-land, perhaps pointing 

 to a different and unequal division of the 

 vill in the past. One manor 'used to 

 render ' 41. while the other ' was worth ' 41. 



6 



