Centre of Gateacre Village
In 1976 The Woolton Society walked through the centre of Woolton discussing the history of the roads, buildings and features that make up the fabric of the village. This year The Gateacre Society invite you to a reconnaissance of the centre of Gateacre. The area we have chosen – from Grange Lodge to Kingsley and from half way up the Brow to St. Stephens – is possibly the best in all Liverpool for this kind of “walk” – nowhere else can we think of such a range of buildings, ‘vernacular’ and ‘polite’ from before 1700 to the present day in such a compact area.
Introduction. The story of Gateacre is quite different from the story of Much Woolton, though one quarter of the area we are considering lies within the township of Much Woolton. The other three quarters are in the township of Little Woolton, and it looks as if the two Wooltons have been separate since before Domesday. Much Woolton early developed the nucleus which, shifted a little north, we know now as Woolton Village. Little Woolton never had such a nucleus; it was eastwards an area of rich farming land with scattered farmsteads, westwards higher heath and common. When, towards the end of the C17 (?) a village did begin to develop it was clustered round the crossroads on the old road from the ford at Hale to West Derby, Old Swan and Liverpool. The line of that road, Mackets Lane, Halewood Road and Grange Lane seems very old, and if the identification of Wibaldeslei in Domesday Book with Lee Park is right, the ‘T’ junction and Belle Vale Road could have been there for some time – the track which became Gateacre Brow probably began as the way to the common grazing lands.
Maps from the latter half of the C18 show a loose cluster of buildings around the crossroads, and by about 1810 we know from water-colour sketches in the Binns Collection that the 3 pubs were established. The Childwall and Woolton Waste Lands Inclosure Act of 1805 brought the remaining common land (about one sixth of the area of the township) into private hands, and on the Brow and along Halewood Road, especially, the making of small allotments resulted in land becoming available for building. In 1838 the National School was built, by 1840 a brewery was established (on Clegg’s factory site) and the 1841 census figures of the whole township show a population of 969, more than double the 1801 figure (in the same period Much Woolton’s population had multiplied by five.) Andrew Barclay Walker (Walker’s Warrington Ales) came to Gateacre in 1865/66, began rebuilding Gateacre Grange, and for the first time the village came under the influence of a rich landowner.
Introduction (continued)
If the crossroads was the focus of Gateacre Village, the first building of significance was the Chapel, licensed “for a meeting place for an Assembly of Protestants dissenting from the Church of England” on 14th October 1700. The design must owe something to the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth, but that was about 80 years earlier, so more useful comparisons may be drawn with Chapels at Knutsford, Macclesfield and Wilmslow nearer to it in date.
Anciently Gateacre was in the great parish of Childwall, its own Church of St. Stephen was not completed until 1874.
The Liverpool Extension Order of 1913 was the end of the independence of Little Woolton, but the rural character of the village persisted until Queen Elizabeth came to the throne. In the next 10 years suburban development really began and by 1969, so great were the pressures of development, that the City Council declared the centre of the village a Conservation Area. In 1975 the D.o.E. revised the List of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest – including much of what we shall see.
The guides on this walk would like to emphasise that this is their first reconnoitre of the locality, they are feeling their way and have no complete knowledge; they base their statements on features that strike them and their enthusiasm for architecture, they hope to gather information from you on the way.
VILLAGE GREEN
Wilson Memorial (drinking) Fountain. 1883 (He was the engineer who brought water from Vyrnwy & lived at Lee Park). Hexagonal red sandstone with Gothic gargoyle, Jacobethan strapwork, French Renaissance frieze and cartouches, Art Nouveau hints in spandrels.
Jubilee Memorial. 1887, red granite, 3 steps and square plinth with attached angle columns, bronze dressings, supporting bronze bust of Queen Victoria, signed “Gleichen fecit 1887”.
GATEACRE BROW
Black Bull public house. Gable-end-to-the-road building probably C18, remodelled (by Cornelius Sherlock ?) in late C19 & given the present front in Domestic Revival style (c.f. Norman Shaw’s New Zealand Chambers 1871 – via architectural press), 2-storeys, 2 gables, plain bargeboards, patterned timbering with W. of England type arched braces, quatrefoils & tile hanging, ‘Ipswich’ windows in ground floor, 3 sided bays under lean-to brick and red tile verandah, also round arched centre doorway & fanlight. Ornamented brick chimneys. (Cobbled forecourt specified in D.o.E. List).
Lynton & adjoining shops. Older buildings again refaced c.1880 in mock half timbering, eclectic variety of motifs, with Sussex half-hip, lozenges, windbraces, curved pediment /gables, Victorian bow window with curved glass to one shop. Rears are brick with small segmental headed sliding sashes of the earlier buildings. (Elaboration was a mark of social status).
Midland Bank. 1964, Architects Weightman & Bullen. Designed with great care to minimise visual impact on village, this is a modern building using materials familiar to its neighbours – timber painted black, glass appearing white, local stone and brick; the composition is classical, even to the idea of a main colonnade and attic, the security of the vault is expressed in the brick section. A most satisfactory addition to the village.
BELLE VALE ROAD
Nos. 1 – 9. Four blocks of similar houses in red sandstone ashlar built by c.1835 (c.f. 14-22 Church Rd. Woolton). Nos. 1 & 2 have moulded round-arched doorways, the others are plain; each has one 16-paned sash window on each floor, No.5 has 2 windows up, and door (to back passage) & a once blocked (?) upper window between 1 & 2 has been opened in 2 parts. No.1 has also c.1910 white painted wood surround to window on ground floor (once a pub.)
(Morphets Shop, part of this group, see No.1 Halewood Road.)
Elmsvale House. Listed by Local Authority as of ‘local interest’ mid C19 Georgian, double fronted, brick.
BELLE VALE ROAD (continued)
Church of St Stephen. 1872-4, architect Cornelius Sherlock, red sandstone Decorated style of c.1300, battlemented N.W. tower with octagonal spire. Ogee-headed double lights to aisles, 4 circular clerestory windows, fish-scale slate roof to chancel. West Window stained glass by Burne-Jones 1883, stock designs but with ’10 seraph heads’ and roundel ‘Christ blessing little children’ designed for Sir A.B. Walker in memory of his first wife who died 1882. (Listed, outside Conservation Area.)
Church Cottages. In 3 blocks, 1872 by Cornelius Sherlock, 2-storeys, brick & half timbering, gabled upper storeys on brackets, casement windows; doors under porch roofs on brackets some windows with stone mullions and small sashes, tall clustered chimneys set on diagonal. (Listed, outside Conservation Area).
HALEWOOD ROAD
Nos 1 & 1a. Red sandstone ashlar, before 1835, forming corner of Belle Vale Road. 2-storeys, 2 modern doors, 4 16-paned sash windows above. Note careful rebuilding of shop front in 1957.
Nos 5, 7 & 9. Brick cottages (post 1848) 2-storey, slate roof, panelled doors with rectangular fanlight and glazing bars, 3 12-paned sash windows on ground floor and 4 above.
Kingsley. Mid C19 brick villa before 1848, in Georgian tradition, 2-storeys with moulded stone cornice, 6-panelled centre door and round fanlight with glazing bars, in fluted pilaster doorcase (a reconstruction) with open pediment; 2 12-paned sashes on ground floor and 3 above with stone sills and lintels.
Nos 2, 4, 4a, 6 & 8. Row of brick cottages, ground floors now small shops. No.2 projects with 2 windows up, and a round moulded arched doorway with traceried fanlight. Nos 4, 6 & 8 on 1840 map, 12-paned sash windows up, ground floors converted to shops within the last 25 years, one gate-pier survives.
GATEACRE BROW
No.2. Small 2-storey brick villa pre 1840, centre panelled door (later glazing) in moulded doorcase with imposts, round arch and fanlight with glazing bars, sash windows and canted bay.
No.4. Double fronted stucco villa of 2-storeys, pre 1840, centre panelled door in moulded doorcase with imposts, round arch with fanlight & glazing bars, 2 12-paned sash windows below, 3 above; stone side walls, large early Victorian extensions.
Nos 6 & 8. Adjoining stone houses on 1840 map; 2 storeys and attics, 6 has panelled centre door in round arched moulded doorcase, 12-paned sash on 1st floor & added rectangular stone bay to right, 2-storeyed canted timber bay to left with wood mullioned & transomed windows & ‘Ipswich’ centre. 8 has 3-light stone mullioned window below with 12-paned sash over, similar canted bay; doorway in left wing; resited (?) datestone at high level carved “I P S” “1807”.
Nos 10 & 12. Small square early C19 cottages, scored stucco, hipped roof; ground floor has simple Victorian shop front, 2 12-paned sashes above, 1 16-paned sash window and 1 blocked one on each floor.
Bear & Staff pub. Part pre 1805, stables c.1840, much rebuilt.
Unitarian Chapel. Licensed 1700, enlarged upwards 1719, with mid Victorian re-ordering. A plain rectangular red sandstone building, the plan typical of a Dissenting Chapel designed for preaching, an austere auditorium of sound materials with plain fittings. 2 segmental headed windows to N, 3 to S. (2 of these have had heads raised) 1 segmental headed window to E end over added Vestry, later Venetian window at W. end over gallery. Original simple round arched doorway with keystone, off centre, at W. end; traces of similar arch at E. Added ashlar buttresses at W. end, and date “1700” on carved stone, all mid-Victorian ? Interior now has E – W orientation with Communion Table, small organ & C18 Pulpit (resited), some C18 panelling, C19 W. gallery on cast iron columns. Bust of Rev. Wm. Shepherd (1768-1847) for 56 years Minister here, in niche in centre of N. wall – traditionally the position from which he preached. Other monuments include Thomas Rodick obit. 1855 – bust by J.A.P. Macbride (1819-90)
GATEACRE BROW (continued)
No.28 A, B, C & D. On corner of Sandfield Road, ‘Prudential Building’ Architect W. Aubrey Thomas (1889) who built Liver Building 19o8-10. Red sandstone ground floor with canted corner & shop windows – 28A with curved glass. Upper storey oversailing on brackets seems to be timber frame and plaster with plaster frieze & many small plaster panels of Biblical scenes (said to be casts of C17 Flemish panels). Corner oriel with ornamented octagonal turret & red tiled bell-shaped roof. Shallow wide oriel to Gateacre Brow, with moulded wood mullions & transoms, & leaded glazing; a 4-light window above in gable with carved bargeboards, red tiled roof & red brick chimney (c.f. corner of Bridge Street and Eastgate Street, Chester, 1888 – architect T.M. Lockwood.)
No.28. Attached to Prudential Building; stucco, 2-storeys, mid C19 ? small paned modern shop front, new small pane window over (included in List of Buildings for group value.)
Nos 34 & 36. Adjoin No.28; early C19 brick cottages on 1835 map, 2-storeys; No.34 with 3-light window on ground floor, 2 2-light windows above, all slide-across sashes with small panes, low proportions; No.36 has centre round-arched doorway flanked by 2-storey canted bay, the upper lights small paned.
Nos 38 & 40. Identical late Georgian brick cottages, round-arched doorways, and one l6-paned sash window on each floor.
No.42. Late Georgian brick house (projects) with 1 12-paned sash window each floor; entrance on left gable end, with panelled centre door, round arched fanlight with glazing bars, 2 16-paned windows on ground floor & 3 above, centre one lacks glazing bars, in stone architrave with cornice & carved console brackets.
Clegg’s factory building. Rectangular 3-storey building – brick, stone cornice and bands, surface decorated with lozenges and circles of blue and yellow brick (polychromatic fashion c.f. All Saints Margaret St, Architect Wm. Butterfield c.1850) Large centre louvre (for brewing) with fish-scale slate roof, iron cresting & cock windvane, 5 segmental-headed cast iron windows on street facade to each lower storey, top storey has 7 square cast iron windows in a band of glazing. Cast iron columns and beams internally.
No.44. Corner, once cottages, now furniture shop (group value).
HALEWOOD ROAD
Brown Cow public house. Formerly 2 early C19 cottages, with late Victorian black and white frontage, asymmetrical. Slate roof with tile cresting, brick chimneys, gabled porch flanked by rectangular bay windows with ‘Ipswich’ centres, upper windows project, but not so far; all have small panes. Yard entrance on the left with wooden doors.
No.16. (Not statutorily listed, but of ‘local interest’.) Mid C19 cottage with ground floor altered to shop, brick with stone band and stone wall plate and boxed eaves; modern door, upper floor has 2 12-paned sash windows.
GRANGE LANE
Conservative Club. Built 1958, single storey brick with 14-inch piers to carry roof trusses; many additions in a variety of bricks & artificial green stone. Scale, proportions, character of fenestration & materials not worthy of such a prominent site.
Grange Lane Shops. Built 1964-6, typical development of its date, not an adequate quality of design for such a large addition to the street scene. Change of brick is unfortunate.
York Cottages. Two terraces of artizans cottages built c.1840 brick, 2-storey, with round-arched doorways & blind fanlights, and 1 segmental arched sliding sash window on each floor. Of especial interest this year as the rehabilitation of more than half of them has just been finished & they are re-occupied. (Site work and landscaping not yet complete).
Institute. Built 1838 as a National School, 3-bays, hipped roof, roughcast on brick, re-windowed, became Institute 1887.
Riding School. Built 1895 for Col. Hall Walker (Lord Wavertree). Architect Richard Beckett from Cheshire. Generous plan provided 10 loose boxes, still used for horses and dwellings. Brick base, half-timbered upper walls, long plan, green slate roof, 3 gabled hay lofts & 3 roof louvres; 2 gables to cottages on left, stone mullioned windows, Art Nouveau lintel, wood mullioned windows to stables. Design in functional Cheshire tradition, no elaboration with quatrefoils & lozenges on a building for horses. Cottage on the right a modern extension to the composition 1968 by Rosario Zammit.
GRANGE LANE (continued)
Nos, 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 Paradise Row. Date uncertain, but Nos. 2 & 3 could be before 1700, Nos. 4 & 5 slightly later, No.1 last half of C19. Stone buildings with larger quoins & ashlar lintels, in a style based on conventions of the district, local tradition & local materials without undue regard to fashion. No.2 is double fronted, once had large windows at the back, & has two staircases from first to second floors; No.3 is single fronted, Nos. 4 & 5 are 2 storeys only. All except No.1 have slide-across sash windows in small (though varying) panes; the pitch of the roofs could suggest thatch, now they are slated.
Nos. 1, 2, 3 & 4 Soarer Cottages. Dated “W.H.W. 1896”, named for a Grand National winner, architect Richard Beckett, E shaped plan, red tile-sized bricks, green slate roof, gables, Tudor Cottage style, stone dressings, stone mullioned windows with small leaded panes, shaped lintels with Art Nouveau flavour.
Grange Lodge. 2-storeyed stone front has on left a C17 7-light stone mullioned window above, and 6-lights remaining below – were there once 8 ? – with labels; patches of smaller & paler stone suggest this may once have been a gable end. In the centre is an early C18 section with 2 pairs of windows in surrounds of vertical stone jambs with keystones, the reveals showing traces of Queen Anne type sash windows flush with the face of the wall – the present sash windows are set back some 4 inches. These two rooms are panelled in pine wainscot with fluted Doric pilasters and raised & fielded panelling in a style similar to the 1705 work at Woolton Hall and suggestion design by an architect. The third section to the right is a further addition, possibly early C19, with 2 sash windows on the upper floor only. The front door, in a round arched opening with round fanlight and glazing bars, was probably inserted in the early C19, and comparison of the mouldings of the casing with other local examples would place this in the correct sequence. Left hand return wall facing Grange Lane is brick (refacing ?) with 2 C19 windows on each floor, small paned sashes, lower ones with segmental heads.
(We hope that you will come for another walk next year.)
J.D.
J.B.G.
© The Gateacre Society
These Walk Notes were transcribed in 2011 from the original (1977) mimeographed typescript.
Please notify the Gateacre Society of any errors and omissions which may be found, so that
they can be recorded above for the benefit of future researchers.