WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



CHILDWALL 



Altogether the district is a curious mixture of indus- 

 trial, agricultural, and residential features. 



The geological formation consists entirely of the 

 pebble beds of the bunter series of the new red 

 sandstone or trias. To the south-east of Garston 

 cliffs of drift boulder clay abut upon the river. 



There was a total population of 17,289 in 1901. 

 A local board, formed in 1854,' became in 1894 

 an urban district council ; but the township was 

 incorporated with Liverpool by a Local Government 

 Order in 1903. There are public offices, library, and 

 accident and smallpox hospital. 



The road from Liverpool to Garston and Speke 

 remains the principal road in the district, running 

 parallel with the river bank, and about half a mile 

 from it. The Liverpool tramways reach as far as 

 Garston. The Cheshire Lines Committee's railway 

 passes through the township, and has stations at 

 Aigburth, Otterspool, Mersey Road (close to the 

 Liverpool cricket ground), Grassendale (Cressington 

 Park), and Garston. The London and North Western 

 Company's line to Warrington and Crewe passes 

 along the north-eastern boundary, with stations at 

 Mossley Hill near the northern corner, and on the 

 AUerton Road ; from the latter station, called AUerton, 

 a branch line curves round into the town of Garston, 

 where there is a station formerly the terminus of the 

 Warrington line. The docks at Garston belong to 

 the London and North Western Railway Company ; 

 the other railway has a connexion with them. 



The sugar works (glucose) have ceased work owing 

 to the cases of arsenical poisoning traced to them. 



Formerly there were salt works which had been 

 removed from the Salthouse Dock at Liverpool,' and 

 at one time the fishery was of importance.^ 



' The whole hill of Mossley commands a charming 

 view of the River Mersey and Wirral hundred in 

 Cheshire, with the distant hills of Wales . . . The 

 view is equally commanding at Mossley Hall, formerly 

 the spot where the Ogdens . . . had their country 

 seat . . . (It) was lately rebuilt by Peter Baker, 

 mayor of Liverpool 1795), and was afterwards the 

 residence of the Dawsons ; it is now (18 1 7) that of 

 William Ewart.' •* 



There were anciently two crosses in Garston. The 

 base of one lies opposite the site of the south porch of 

 the old chapel ; the other was by the mill dam. The 

 base stone of this latter one has been re-erected near 

 St. Francis' Church, with a new plinth.' 



' In a field below the dam of the old Garston mill 

 was found some years ago a curious relic of penitential 

 discipline — a scourge of iron with spiked links. It 



had seven lashes of chain, possibly to chastise the flesh 

 for the seven deadly sins.' ° 



In a report made in 1828 upon the changes wrought 

 by the tides it is stated that ' the line of low water 

 did not alter materially,' but ' the steep clay banks ' 

 were constantly being worn away. A detailed de- 

 scription is given, beginning at Speke and going north- 

 wards to Toxteth. At the southern end ' the land is 

 said to have lost about 1 5 yds. in width along the 

 whole front in about twenty-five years ; ' the salt works 

 to the north of this had been built (1793) upon the 

 strand ; then came the pool, to the north of which 

 more of the strand had been enclosed, one part having 

 been a vitriol works (before 1793). Further north 

 the tides had made great ravages, about 1 5 yds. in 

 twenty years being a rate given. In some places an 

 attempt had been made to protect the bank by means 

 of walls, but these had been overthrown ; at Otters- 

 pool, at the extreme north, ' a stone-paved slope or 

 sheeting ' seems to have been more successful. Here 

 there was a snufF mill (1780). It is incidentally 

 stated that the manor courts had ceased to be held.' 



This township is not mentioned by 

 MANOR name in Domesday Book ; it formed part 

 of the demesne of the capital manor of 

 West Derby, being one of its six berewicks.' Its 

 customary rating was four plough-lands, and in 1 2 1 2 

 it was held in thegnage by the yearly service of 20/.' 

 Shortly after 1088 Garston was given by Roger the 

 Poitevin to his sheriff Godfrey, who gave it in alms 

 to the abbey of Shrewsbury, together with his little 

 boy Achard, who was to become a monk there. 

 Count Roger confirmed the grant, and about 1121 

 Henry I renewed the confirmation. Ranulf Gernons, 

 earl of Chester, some twenty years later issued his 

 notification and precept to the bishop of Chester, and 

 to his justices 'between Ribble and Mersey,' directing 

 that the monks of Shrewsbury be left in peaceable 

 possession of their lands and rights in that district, 

 and particularly in Garston ; and ' let Richard son of 

 Multon do service to them from Garston completely 

 and fully as he craves my love ; and that no one of my 

 men may demand anything from Richard, I proclaim 

 him absolutely free from all (services) due from 

 Garston, desiring nothing but prayers therefrom.' 

 Henry II also in the first year of his reign confirmed 

 the grant, and about the same time Reginald de 

 Warenne, as seneschal of the lord of the honour of 

 Lancaster (1153-64), specially ordered his justices 

 and ministers to see that the monks had peaceable 

 possession of Garston with the men and all things 

 pertaining to it, without injury or insult." Later 



1 Lond. Gam. 7 July, 1854. 



^ 'About 100 persons arc employed 

 here (1825) chiefly in the simple process 

 of dissolving this rock [from Northwich] 

 in salt water, and afterwards boiling the 

 brine, which then becomes salt* ; Baines* 

 Dir. 



3 At the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century Thomas Patten of Warrington, 

 writing to Richard Norris of Liverpool, 

 says : ' You very well know the mischief 

 that is done on the River Mersey, or at 

 least have frequently heard what vast 

 numbers of salmon trout are taken so as 

 to supply all the country and market towns 

 twenty miles round, and when the country 

 is cloyed and they cannot get sale for them 

 they give them to their swine. Your 

 brother did formerly take three or four 



salmon a week at a fishing in or near 

 Speke, but of late hath taken very few or 

 none, of which he hath complained to me, 

 and lie imputes this loss to the destruction 

 of the fry' ; Norris Papers (Chet. Soc), 

 37-8. 



'About twenty-five years ago,' wrote 

 M. Gregson in 1817, *the chemical pre- 

 paration for bleaching was manufactured 

 here by Mons. Bonnel, on its early intro- 

 duction into England, but the work has 

 long since been discontinued. Vitriol 

 works were also carried on for a short 

 time at Garston . . . There are a few 

 fishermen here ; but formerly, it is said, 

 great quantities of fish were caught on the 

 Liverpool shore . . . Many fishgarths, 

 we are sorry to find, are stalled down from 

 Runcorn Gap to Liverpool, viz. at Run- 



121 



corn, Hale, Garston, and Toxteth Park. 

 It is to be lamented that so much small 

 fry is destroyed, particularly during spring 

 tides ; as their food being thus taken 

 away, the large fish are prevented from 

 visiting our shores as usual ' ; Fragments 

 (ed. Harland), 193. 

 "* Gregson, l.s.c. 



5 E. W. Cox, in Trans. Hist. Soc. (New 

 8er.), iv ; also Trans. Lanes, and Ches, 

 Antiq. Soc. xix, 203. 



6 E. W. Cox. 



7 Joseph Boult in Trans. Hist. Soc. xx, 

 1 60-5. The railway company's docks 

 have now made a change in the southern 

 part of the shore. ^ F.C.H. Lanes, i, 279. 



3 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc, 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 19. 



10 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R, 270-86. 



16 



