including Belle Vale Road & Halewood Road
Since 1977 we have been conducting walks through the centre of Gateacre discussing the history of the roads, buildings and features that make up the fabric of the village. This year our fourth excursion is going to start on the village green, take us along Belle Vale Road, up on to the disused railway line (if fine), to the Nook and then back along Halewood Road. But first we will go along Grange Lane to see what has been, happening at the Riding School.
These Notes are a supplement to what our guides can say in the time available as we walk. It is not our intention that you should read them during the course of the walk; we hope to be audible and so interesting that you will not want to read them. We hope that you will read them when you get home, and that they will fill out what we have been saying.
The guides on this walk would again like to emphasise that they have no complete knowledge, though they have done a lot of homework on the area we are covering. In many places they are still feeling their way, and they base their statements and opinions on features that strike them and their enthusiasm for architecture and local history. In our study of this area we have been fortunate to have sight of three sets of deeds and these have been of immense help. We hope to gather more information from you this afternoon.
Above: The start of Gateacre Walk Four on the Village Green
(The telephone kiosk on the corner of Belle Vale Road and Grange Lane was painted yellow at this time – 1982 – as part of a national experiment following the separation of BT from the Post Office).
Introduction
The village of Gateacre lies within two old townships, roughly three-quarters in Little Woolton (L.W.) and one-quarter in Much Woolton (M.W.) – that is the ‘quadrant’ between Halewood Road and Gateacre Brow.
The name ‘Gateacre’ has been traced back to the middle of the 16th century (though from its Old English elements it may be much older), and we take it to mean “gata” – the way to – the road (gate) to “acre” – the acrefield (earlier ac-low-feld) of (Much) Woolton. This idea might be localised specifically to the name for the brow as “the way to the acre” from Halewood Road/Grange Lane road.
Our walk today is wholly in L.W. which was to the East an area of rich farming land with scattered farmsteads, Westwards higher heath and common. When towards the end of the C17 a hamlet did begin to develop, it was clustered around the crossroads on the old road from the ford at Hale to West Derby, Old Swan and Liverpool. The line of this road – Halewood Road and Grange Lane seems to be very old, and if the identification of Wibaldeslei in Domesday Book with Lee Park is correct, the cross roads could have been here for a long time.
Maps from the latter half of the C18 show a loose cluster of buildings around the crossroads, and by about 1815 we know from watercolour sketches in the Binns Collection in the Liverpool Record Office that the two pubs, the Black Bull and the Bear and (Ragged) Staff were established. The Nook ( ‘a small or out-of-the-way corner’ is one definition in the O.E.D.) seems to have developed as an out of the way corner on a lane that did not go any further, though we have not so far found the name used before the time of Mr Lawton (c.f. Wavertree Nook).
A local board was set up for L.W. on Tuesday 19th Feb. 1867 in the Black Bull, and the Minute Books are a fruitful source of local information until, with the Liverpool Extension Order of 1913 L.W. ceased to be self governing. For 40 years there was little change, but with Gateacre Comp. in 1957, housing development in 1964-6 the character of the village was at risk.
The City Council declared the centre of Gateacre Village a Conservation Area in 1969. In 1975 the D.o.E. revised the List of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest with some 114 items listed within the Conservation Area.
GATEACRE VILLAGE GREEN – WILSON MEMORIAL (drinking) FOUNTAIN 1883. John Hays Wilson (1825-1881) a brass founder, was the Chairman of the Liverpool Water Committee from 1875 until his death in 1881, during which time the scheme for bringing water from Vyrnwy to Liverpool was planned, sanctioned by Act of Parliament but not yet begun. He lived at Lee Hall and was also the Chairman of the L.W.L.B. After he died a local committee was formed to erect a memorial to him on the Green, under the Chairmanship of Mr Scotson of Holt Farm and member of the L.W.L.B. Other members included Sir Andrew Barclay Walker (who gave the land) and W.B. Forwood with John Drysdale (whom J.F. Marsh identifies as Farm Bailiff for Sir Andrew) as treasurer, and £21 was subscribed by the villagers.
The hexagonal sandstone building with pyramidal roof covered with stone flags in form is in line of descent from the traditional English market cross as exemplified by Chichester (octagonal) and by the conduit at Sherborne, Dorset (hexagonal) and these descend from the polygonal Chapter Houses of the Middle Ages. As for the details of the decoration, the gargoyle is Gothic, the aquatic female figures are Northern Renaissance while the birds and dragons have the flowing lines of the Art Nouveau and yet are of 1883 – a decade before this idea was taken up as a basis for Art Nouveau. The sensitive design for the arches is typical of the late Victorian years.
The fact that Sir A.B. Walker was on the committee and Cornelius Sherlock F.R.I.B.A. c.1823-88, articled to Peter Ellis and architect of the Walker Art Gallery in 1874, was asked if he would undertake the design of the Fountain – a notable discovery of Mrs Sangster’s – leads us to suggest that Sherlock was indeed its architect.
Passing along Grange Lane, we glance at the Conservative Club, sponsored by Councillor F.H. Wilson and designed by L.A.G. Prichard, architects of Liverpool in 1958 but not built quite in accordance with the approved drawing – of which a tracing is in our exhibition, in the Chapel Hall.
But we have really come to see the conversion at:-
Gateacre Riding School. Built 1895 for Col. W. Hall Walker 1856-1933 (Lord Wavertree) – see initials on horizontal timber, the architect was Richard T. Beckett of Hartford in Cheshire who also designed Soarer Cottages next year.
GATEACRE RIDING SCHOOL (continued)
We visited the Riding School on Gateacre Walk I in 1977 seeing the interior (where the 10 loose boxes had been removed) being used as an indoor riding school. This school was closed in Feb. 1980, a scheme by Rosario Zammit, architect, for conversion to dwellings, with extra houses at the rear of the yard in a ‘mews’ type layout having received planning consent.
However, the conversion now being carried out by the new owner Mr Barry Eckman is to a different design of his own choosing. The design is a sensitive one, it shows respect for the structure and appreciation of the importance of materials. The conversion works with the building and in the spirit of the building. The idea of producing a facsimile is a good idea, displaying architectural good manners and keeping in keeping with the existing building. At the same time it has the effect of creating a street or the feeling of a mews. The laying of setts is a most appropriate choice and in terms of its execution is being very well done.
MORPHETS BUTCHERS SHOP – the first building on this site was there by 1835, in 1841 it was recorded as Mrs Jacksons, grocers, with among her lodgers William Lee born c.1816 in Penrith and a journeyman joiner, by 1851 William Lee had married her (their eldest child was 7) and his occupation is given as bread baker. Some 20 years later these premises had become a butcher’s shop, John Taylor’s, and we think it has been a butchers ever since. In 1957 the owners, Morphets, wished to rebuild and the building we see dates from then. The architect was Wm Victor Hogarth L.R.I.B.A. of Shenley Road, Liverpool 15, and we have a photograph of the first proposal for a ‘black & white’ design which, it is said, was unacceptable to the planning authority who insisted on the – much more expensive – Woolton stone design. The result which is so much in keeping with its neighbours, and the high quality of the workmanship, is an example of how such an alteration can and should be carried out in the centre of a Conservation Area.
The group: 1 – 9 BELLE VALE ROAD (Listed)
Nos 1 & 2 Belle Vale Road; built, we think, by 1835, or a few years earlier – we have not yet satisfied ourselves as to the date. The ownership record shows that in 1845 No.1 belonged to William Greenough (born c.1793 in L.W., married Ellen Houghton) and No.2 belonged to Thomas Greenough (born c.1786 in L.W. and married to a girl from Hawkshead).
Nos 1 & 2 BELLE VALE ROAD (continued)
The occupants in 1841 were, at No.1 Richard Greenough (born c.1796, for whom no wife is shown) and at No.2, Thomas Greenough (born c.1786); by 1851 No.1 was occupied by Wm Greenough (born c.1793) who is recorded as living in Greenough Street, Much Woolton 10 years before, but who now has a son born in L.W. in c.1845 – suggesting the date of his move.
By 1871 the Greenoughs have given way to John Blackburn (born c.1840 in M.W.) at No.1, a beerhouse keeper (and butcher at the back door in Halewood Road). The beerhouse at this address persists until shortly before the first World War, at one time, we are told, called ‘The Railway Inn’. In 1851 No.2 was still occupied by Thomas Greenough (c.1786) but by 1871 the occupant was John Williams (born c.1829) with a wife and 8 children.
By 1881 John Blackburn is still at No.1, while at No.2 George Mason (born c.1861) and James Mason (born c.1824) are recorded as living with their two families in separate households, and this house has, within living memory been a ‘back to back’ house, where those who lived in the front downstairs room slept in the upstairs back, and vice versa.
All the men called Greenough in the above and following notes were stonemasons, with one exception.
This pair of houses, some 32ft frontage x 29ft depth are appreciably larger, higher, and more imposing than the rest of the group – Nos 3 – 9. They share with the group the immaculately ‘boasted’ ashlar stone on the front elevations, with less meticulously hammer dressed stonework to the sides and rear; the correctly detailed classical cornices, plinths etc., but the front door surrounds of this pair have the triple-roll mouldings with imposts that are also to be seen at No.8 Church Road, Woolton.
The wood surround to the window of No.1 proclaims it a beerhouse. This kind of protruding cornice was first seen in an exhibition stand (in Liverpool) designed by Mackmurdo in 1886 and the long flat arched shape can be seen at St John’s Gardens.
They show the general Georgian idiom of 14-22 Church Rd M.W. which were also built before 1835, but the triple-roll moulding around the front door of 8 Church Rd, a house not shown on Bennison’s map of 1835, could be – if our tentative dating is correct – copied from Nos 1 & 2 Belle Vale Rd, where this fashion may have been set. (See also Salisbury Terrace, Wavertree).
Nos 3 to 9 Belle Vale Road; The block 3 & 4 is about 26ft frontage x 24ft deep and is also about a foot less high than Nos 1 & 2, and the blocks 5-7 and 8 & 9 follow these smaller dimensions (and are also stepped down, block by block to follow the fall of Belle Vale Road away from Halewood Road). The general Georgian tradition is followed, though the front doors are not enriched with mouldings, but note the very large stones which form the door lintels in all these houses. Here we also become aware of ground floor shutters (those on No.4 are modern replacements and non-functioning) detectable both from the cleaner patches on either side of the windows, and fixing hinges (or their remains) and holding back catches, c.f. Rose Brow Cottages with similar traces, also 17 – 27 Abercromby Square. Considering the use of shutters we note that the fronts of Church Rd M.W., with their long front gardens are set over 40 ft back from the road, while 3-9 Belle Vale Rd. are less than 30 ft from the road and wonder whether defence against vandalism as a reason for needing shutters here before the Woolton police force was set up in about 1839. Also note the stone slabs forming front garden walls at either end of this group, as well as divisions between gardens, similar stone slabs were used to construct pig-styes in all (?) back gardens – the last one removed last year. All these cottages have cellars under the back room.
Turning to the dating of this group we have had sight of the deeds of No.8 only, and we extract from these a significant ? date – 27 October 1837 – a surrender by Joshua Lace to John Greenough. (Joshua Lace 1762-1841, attorney of Liverpool and founder of the Liverpool Law Society, was a landowner in L.W. by 1805 when about 5 acres were allotted to him under the Enclosure Act “in right of his Estate in L.W.”. He lived at Throstles Nest, Belle Vale Rd, in his later years, was on the L.W. jurors list in 1824 and by 1835 his son Ambrose was building ‘Beaconsfield’ on the newly enclosed land).
We have records of ownership in 1845 when Nos 3 & 4 belonged to Mrs Mary Greenough (born at Hale c.1791) a widow and infant school mistress. Nos 5, 6 & 7 belonged to a Wm Berry, and the 1879 rates book still gives William Berry as the owner’s name (are we right in identifying him as the journeyman miller, born c.1801 who lived in Allerton Rd M.W. in 1840 on the site to be later the Village Club ?). Nos 8 & 9 were owned by John Greenough (born in L.W. c.1815).
Nos 3 – 9 BELLE VALE ROAD (continued)
Turning to the occupants of this group, we think that in 1841 the widowed owner Mrs Mary Greenough (born c.1791) lived at No.3; a Greenough whose Christian name has been lost through burning of the bottom edge of the returns of that date – so we refer to him as “Burnt” Greenough (born c.1786 ??) at No.4; John Greenough (born c.1821, Tailor) at No.5 (?); James Greenough (born c.1816) at No.6 and John Greenough (born c.1815) at No.7 and Nos 8 & 9 were not yet built and occupied (?).
By 1845 we have Mrs Barbara Greenough, widow, (born c.1786 in L.W.) – whose age suggests that she could have been the widow of “Burnt” Greenough – living at No.3; Mrs Mary Greenough owner occupier at No.4; Miss Ann (born c.1780 in L.W.) and Miss Alice Greenough (born c.1787 in L.W.) at No.5 ( in 1841 they had been living and keeping shop at 10 Gateacre Brow); Anne Tarbock and Isaac Helsby at Nos 6 & 7; John Walker at No.8, and John Greenough (born c.1815) at No.9.
In 1851 we have the widow Mrs Barbara and Mrs Mary Greenough, also a widow, sharing No.3; No.4 occupied by Joseph Smith; Miss Ann & Miss Alice Greenough at No.5; John Greenough (born c.1826 in M.W.) at No.6; Isaac Helsby at No.7; John Walker at No.8; and John Greenough (born c.1815 in L.W.) owner occupier at No.9.
In the light of our present knowledge we interpret the history of the buildings in this group to show :-
Nos 1 & 2, owned and occupied by an older generation of Greenough men, were built as family houses as a first venture.
Nos 3 & 4 followed on a more modest scale, financed by the widow Mary Greenough as an investment.
Nos 5, 6 & 7 were beyond the immediate financial resources of the family and were built by them for William Berry – but the family link was strong enough for him to lease No.5 to the older sisters later.
Nos 8 & 9 were built by young John Greenough (born c.1815) about 1841 for himself, and by 1851 he was mortgaging them to William Lee, the bread baker, possibly to finance a further enterprise.
Nos 3 – 9 BELLE VALE ROAD (continued)
The older generation of Greenoughs – where we have found records – from Ann born c.1780 to William born c.1793 were natives of L.W. Between 1805-13 John Greenough (“Burnt” Greenough ??) bought half an acre of land in M.W. – known to us as Greenough Street — and with a brother (William ?) opened and operated a quarry (see J.F. Marsh, The Story of Woolton part II page 41). They built two little stone houses, 1 Greenough Street and the house opposite. Some of the younger generation, James b.1816, Margaret b.1818, John b.1820 (tailor, the only man not a stonemason), Alice b.1822, John b.1826 and Thomas b.1832 were born in M.W. – apparently as a result of this move. But as the houses and cottages in Belle Vale Road became available they moved back to Gateacre where by 1851 they were congregated. The sheets of the 1861 Census on microfilm in the Liverpool Record Office for Belle Vale Road are missing, so the next check we can make is the 1871 Census in which there is not a single Greenough in this group of houses (though Isaac Helsby is still there) and we wonder where this enterprising family of stonemasons had gone ?
(We would like to thank Mrs Woodhouse for reminiscences, Mr Talavera for a sight of his deeds and Mr Prior for a visit to his cellar).
ELMSVALE HOUSE – having had the privilege of a sight of the deeds, we can only record that this house is shown in the 1845 Tithe Schedule as owned by James Kelshaw (1797-1861, living at ‘Kingsley’, Halewood Road at this time) and occupied by Mary Jones. By 1851 it seems that the occupant was James Dawson Rodick (1826-56, a barrister and fourth son of Thomas Rodick of 4 Gateacre Brow) and his newly married wife Ellen (née Fleetwood, of Tarbock). The record for 1861 is missing, the 1871 Census suggests Eliza Durieux (born c.1819) teacher of languages, the 1879 rates book offers George Edwards as the occupants name with the owner Eli Conway (born about 1820 died 1908, by now owner of ‘Kingsley’) but by 1881 the occupant appears to be Thomas Gregory (born c.1828) a master brewer and maltster whether such a turn-over of tenants is correct we are by no means sure, but this is what we make of it.
The house is listed by the Department of the Environment as “of local interest” & described as mid 19C Georgian.
ELMSVALE HOUSE (continued)
It is built in the local brick common in Gateacre in the 1840s; the front is 2 bays wide, the upstairs sash windows have lost their glazing bars, the downstairs window is a replacement and a canted brick bay has been added to the right. It is noticeable that the heads of these windows are flat rubbed brick arches and the moulded cornice is stone. The left gable end is the entrance front with a fine wide arch, with fanlight, to the wide front door (now obscured by a porch) an elevation of the type of 42 Gateacre Brow but without enrichment to the first floor window. Both these elevations are built in Flemish Bond, the back (south) and west end in the more utilitarian English Bond but with stone lintels to openings. In the yard behind the house is a neat little brick carriage house for carriage, perhaps 2 horses with hay in the loft over, and room for the groom to live above the carriage.
The Recreation Ground – It is recorded in the L.W.L.B. Minutes for 1883 that the Cheshire Lines Committee let the field to the Board as a recreation ground for £10 p.a. (in 1884 the L.W.L.B. resolved that “Mr Blackburn, butcher (of Belle Vale Road) be charged for grazing 5 sheep and a pony on the Recreation Ground at 4d a head a week for sheep and 5s for a pony”.) This lease has been renewed since 1913 by Liverpool Corporation until in March 1963 the City Planning Office received an application from the Estates Board of British Rail to develop the land for residential purposes. In his report to the Planning and Development Committee the City Planning Officer advised that the proposal would probably raise strong local objections, there was a football pitch and a bowling green on the ground, and he considered this use as a recreation ground to be important.
The Committee refused the application and resolved that the area be re-defined as Public Open Space. The City Estates Surveyor was instructed to negotiate with British Rail for its sale to the City. The purchase of the freehold of the Recreation Ground was completed in 1966 by the Corporation.
(Note: Gateacre Railway Station was opened 1st December 1879, and closed for passengers 15th April 1972).
If fine we propose to walk along the disused railway line.
This Southport branch of the Cheshire Lines Committee’s railway was built from Hunts Cross junction through Gateacre, Knotty Ash, Aintree, Sefton, Hillhouse, Woodvale and Ainsdale on Sea to Southport and completed in 1879.
THE DISUSED RAILWAY LINE (continued)
The Cheshire Lines railway from Garston to Manchester through Hunts Cross, with Hunts Cross Station, had been complete and opened in 1873, with the extension to Central Station, Liverpool opened next year. So when we consider the most striking feature of the part of the line on our walk – the embankment about 18ft high at Belle Vale Road, the question must be asked, where did all the ‘fill’ of which it is made come from ? The answer must be the nearly 3 miles of ‘cutting’ north of Broad Green; and one of the skills of a Railway Engineer is to plan a line so that the amount of material cut out shall equal that needed for filling.
We walk up, noting the cast iron gate posts at Belle Vale Road to the old coal yard where there was a siding. Along the track (the lines were removed when the freight service ceased) it is instructive to see, at this time of the year when trees are in full leaf, that there is very little view of the surroundings. This is part of the proposed cycleway/footpath. At the Nook the stone bridge was built by the railway company over the occupation road from Nook farm to its fields to the east.
We thus approach the area of the Nook from the embankment and can appreciate what a disruption was caused by its formation and your guides’ trepidation in trying to unravel the story. This year we grasp the nettle, without having seen any deeds, our sources being the Tithe Schedule and Map, the Censuses, Rates Books and Chapel records.
Inner group of houses – some 180 yards from Halewood Road – engulfed by the railway embankment.
a) The Nook (Dr Shepherd’s house). If we stand on the path 66 yards from the railway bridge, facing NNW (about parallel with the old railway line) we will be within some half dozen yards of the front door and facing it.
In 1733 the Rev. Joseph Lawton (c.1684-1747) bought the house and about 19 acres, and from that time to the death of the Rev. Noah Jones in 1861, this was the home of the Ministers of Gateacre Chapel. A copy of a deed of 1699 records that this property was leased by John Whitfield, yeoman of Little Woolton, from John Atherton of Atherton, a cousin of the late Margaret Ireland, wife of Sir Gilbert Ireland of Bewsey, then owner of the Lee. Some idea of the appearance of The Nook is preserved in photographs (see our exhibition) and we would describe the front as a late 17th or early 18th century house with a doorcase added in the mid 18th century.
THE NOOK (continued)
b) Two cottages – close behind The Nook and belonging to it. In 1851 they were occupied by William Cowley born c.1801, a farmer of 12 acres and by his recently married son also William Cowley born c.1828 in L.W. (see 5, 7 & 9 Halewood Rd) (No photograph is known to us).
c) Beyond was a building, with outhouses, which we take to have been the Nook Farm, about 35 yards NNW of the front of Dr. Shepherd’s house. In 1845 it was owned by representatives of the late John Bibby (see Elm House) and occupied, with about 5 acres of land, by Howard Horsley, followed by a number of other tenants. (No photograph)
When the Cheshire Lines Railway was proposed in Mar. 1874 the L.W.L.B. considered opposing the scheme when the Bill was debated in Parliament, supported by the ratepayers. However by Nov. 1874 the Board was asking for a station for Gateacre. The purchase of the land and buildings by the Railway Company was completed in 1876, and the making of the embankment (of extra width here to accommodate the coal yard) followed in 1879 wiping out this group of buildings.
Outer group on the lane – absorbed by Gateacre Hall Hotel.
a) Tiny house, “on” the lane facing N.W. about 31 ft long x 15 ft wide (externally) of 3-bays, and low; much altered, stuccoed and has quite new replacements of the romantic projecting windows of an earlier restoration which included downstairs, the ‘Ipswich’ centre feature used at 8 Gateacre Brow c.1878 (Gateacre Walk III). Two picture postcards refer to a 1652 date on the E. gable. House appears on 1848 map.
b) Small house, set back from the lane, about 30ft long x 20 ft wide, so much embedded in later building as to be indistinguishable from the outside, but clearly identifiable by its oak ridge and two pairs of purlins in the roofspace and visible on the plan. This house has a stone outer doorcasing (now within the hotel bar) of 17th century type, carrying on the lintel “IW SW : 1652 :”. Study of the plan arrangement the condition of the stonework etc, and the fact that in the parlour “behind” this doorway a fireplace also of C17 type survives, leads us to think that the doorcasing is in its original position.
We remember the 1699 deed and John Whitfield and suggest a family connection here with the initials ?
THE NOOK (continued)
c) Gateacre Hall Hotel. The house has been very much altered (see sketch c.1800) we will try to describe its earlier state. The 5-bay front is symmetrical, but not the gables, the roof pitch to the front is steeper, at the back it is longer and less steep – an aid to enveloping the small house ? The roof was probably flagged. The plan is conventional at the front, the front door opening into the hall and stairs running up in front of the visitor? but behind the front room on the left is the ‘parlour’ of the small house with its floor about 6 inches below the newer floor level, a most unconventional arrangement. The house was built of roughly dressed stone with ashlar quoins & moulded cornice (still visible) & lintels to windows with keystones & voussoirs worked in the stone (1 still appears on gable end). There was a string course at 1st floor level, a pilastered stone decreasing with pediment & a wide 6-panelled door – now moved to the lane where it appears as a false door to the bar. The sash windows were 12-paned. The style is f the first third of C18 – from keystoned lintels & doorcasing.
d) ‘The Nook Bar’ originated as a stone barn/cartshed ? on the 1848 map. Behind it was a range of buildings including probably 3 cottages, removed when the brick and timber house was built c.1885.
Ownership – In 1845 this group belonged to Miss Dorothea Nicholson (1803-93). Her father Thomas (1753-1825) linen draper of Manchester & Liverpool settled here in 1798. From 1837 the house was occupied by Thomas Fletcher (17?? -1850) and his 2 daughters kept a school with 9/12 boarders – 1841 census, Thomas Fletcher wrote “from the very same place” that his great. grandfather, John Fletcher, grocer of Liverpool “retired here many years before his death in 1732 to live on the family property in L.W.” He also wrote of a stone with John’s parents initials, Francis & Elizabeth, & he referred to them as “proprietors of a copyhold estate in L.W.”
We thank Mr Taylor of Gateacre Hall Hotel for his kindness and co-operation.
HALEWOOD ROAD
(On the opposite side of Halewood Road, note the old gateposts on which are the words “Little Woolton” on the left, “Much Woolton” on the right – these mark the lengths of road which were kept in repair by the L.W.L.B. and the M.W.L.B.)
ELM HOUSE was demolished some years ago (there are now 8 town houses on the site). We have a photograph of it in our exhibition – kindly lent by Mrs Hughes, the last owner -which shows a double-fronted Georgian stuccoed house with a stone cornice at the front and a second floor round headed window in the gable end. This was the kind of house that was being built in Gateacre between 1810 and 1845, and we know that in 1845 it was owned by the trustees of the late John Bibby. Baines’ History of Lancashire (1825) shows him as a soap boiler with his works in Edgar Street, off Scotland Road, and in 1805-13 he was allowed to enclose about one-quarter of an acre on the Halewood Road frontage here in a tidying up of this side of the highway.
ST GREGORY’S: – a semidetached pair of houses of red pressed brick, were built for Mrs French in 1883. The plans were passed by the L.W.L.B. in February, but by December the surveyor was reporting that Mrs French had built one of her new houses over the old stone drain, though he had stressed that she must not do so! To be able to pin-point the date of the building is most instructive in considering the materials and design features it displays, typical of its date, used here in our area.
HOLLYMEAD was demolished some years ago (and there are now 5 town houses on the site). We have not yet found a photograph, but the house was there by 1845 and is associated with Kingsley through the deeds, and we suggest that it was of a similar Georgian type, possibly built at a rather later date than Kingsley.
HALEWOOD ROAD (continued)
KINGSLEY: – The Drs. Shatwell have very kindly made us free of their deeds, and of their house from cellar to attics. (Listed.) The house we see is a mid 19th century brick villa in the Georgian tradition, 2 storeys and attics, with a stone plinth and moulded stone cornice and the flues are gathered into two chimney stacks thus leaving space for attic windows at a high level in the gables. The front elevation is in the local brick, with its typically pale headers, in Flemish Bond, with 6 panelled front door and round fanlight with its original glazing bars but the doorcasing with fluted pilasters is, on close inspection, a replacement under the open pediment. There are two 12 paned sash windows on the ground floor and three above with stone sills and lintels. To the north the end elevation, built in English Bond, has no features especially worth noting except perhaps the lowest course where stone is showing. On the south end however, as well as the disruption of the header courses owing to the presence of flues, it s clear that something more than the insertion of a lintel for the picture window has happened to the brickwork and Mrs Shatwell recalls an unexplained building projecting from the house here, the rough stone base is also visible. The rear elevation has been much altered.
The deeds show that James Kelshaw (c.1797-1861) corn and flour dealer of Gateacre – an Ormskirk family in the early C17, bought the house in 1843, promptly made his will, and lived in the house. By 1845 he owned Hollymead & Elmsvale and also the fields on the corner of Belle Vale Road/Grange Lane with Thornside and the Grange Lane Stores, now demolished. (There was also at this time a John Kelshaw – a brother ? – a saddler who owned Paradise Cottages and Gateacre House).
When James Kelshaw died in 1861 his daughter Sarah (c.1830-1901) and her husband Eli Conway (died 1908) corn merchant inherited Kingsley under the trust set up by James Kelshaw’s will, and the house remained in the ownership of Conway descendants until 1921.
KINGSLEY, Halewood Road (continued)
What is particularly interesting in these deeds is that alongside the above conveyances and inheritances are records of the Manor Court of Little Woolton. Thus James Kelshaw, having completed the purchase of Kingsley and made his will, takes seizin of the property in the Manor Court on 25th Oct. 1844, and his trustees surrender it to the Manor Court in May 1892 with Eli Conway and his surety taking seizin in January 1893. And from the recital of the Manor Court records we learn that before James Kelshaw the ‘customary tenant’ was Edward Jones, before him Lydia Brint (?) deceased, before her Joshua Lace, the attorney, before him Thomas Rawson (merchant, who lived at Rose Hill 1805-13) and before him John Barrow. These names survive because Kingsley was part of a “customary inheritance” of the Manor. No dates are attached to them.
(This surrender of the property to the Lord of the Manor who then re-grants it to the next owner is also a feature of the deeds of No.8 Belle Vale Road).
To find John Barrow’s name in this record is fascinating. He is so far a shadowy figure known to us because in 1784 he was in financial difficulty and then described as a “pinion wire drawer” of Little Woolton – probably one of the out workers of the Prescot centred clock making industry. His name is also shown in the Tithe Schedule where 15½ acres from the south edge of Little Woolton along Halewood Road to the Nook, and the sites of Kingsley, Hollymead and Elmsvale with also the fields at the Belle Vale Road/Grange Lane corner (which we have just described as belonging to James Kelshaw) is referred to as “an estate called late John Barrow &/or (?) Fletchers”. It can only be surmise at this stage to identify John Barrow the pinion wire drawer with this estate.
When Miss Gnosspelius and Mrs Lewis visited the cellar of Kingsley they found it stone built with suggestions in the construction that an 18th century date would not be impossible for this foundation of the house.
Nos 26 & 28 HALEWOOD ROAD: Opposite Kingsley, pair of semi-detached houses of typical High Victorian style, built chiefly in the local brick but with polychromatic brickwork, the Sussex hip and the ‘parsonage air’ of the years 1850-75.
FERN LEA & POPLAR HOUSE: These are just to the north of the above houses. We have an architect’s drawing dated January 1884 and signed Jas. Houghton showing the design of this pair of semi-detached brick houses, built for William Lee whom we identify with the William Lee (born c.1816 in Penrith) who married Mrs Jackson at “Morphet’s Butchers Shop” on page 4 of these notes. This pair of houses of 1884 (the rendering has been done within the last few years) show, in the red pressed brick and terra cotta dressings, a style which may be compared and contrasted with St. Gregory’s.
WOODHOLME & LINDEN COTTAGE: The front of Woodholme gives the immediate impression of a mid 19th century house in the Georgian tradition, built in the same brick that we have seen at Kingsley and very like it. A second look reveals an essential difference – this front has never had a central doorway; the front door was once in the wide north gable end. The addition of bay and doorcase has wrecked the Georgian rhythm, but at least the new brickwork follows the bond of the original and matches its colour. This Victorian way of making the addition should not surprise us, it shows the Victorian dislike of Georgian symmetry. The idea of bay windows is 18th century in origin and their use becomes ubiquitous in the 19th century. Here, in combination with the doorcase, it is a locus classicus on a small scale of conspicuous consumption. The doorcase is rather fine, its width gives its effect.
If we walk round on the north to Linden Cottage we become aware of an earlier building history that is more complex. It would seem that there are two blocks, the front thicker than the back, sharing part of a party wall, and this is how the house is shown on the 1848 map. Without the aid of deeds and a ground plan we can venture no further yet.
From the Tithe Schedule we see that the house was owned in 1845 by the exors. of Mary Rimmer but that Robert Roberts, born c.1811 was living there with his wife Mary, 4 children and 3 servants. He is shown as a “proprietor of houses, and a retd. watch mfr.” In 1871 a retired leather merchant, Robt. Whinerey, aged 58 was the occupier with his family and by 1881 we have Henrietta French, a widow born c.1845 (who was building her pair of houses over the old stone drain in 1883?).
HALEWOOD ROAD (continued)
GATEACRE C. OF E. SCHOOL: (opposite) built 1878 which prompts us to say that most Victorian schools are post 1870 because of Forster’s Education Act of that date. Stylistically the choice of Gothic is absolutely typical of the Victorians as they associated it with learning and considered that a building’s style should speak its function.
Nos 5, 7 & 9 Halewood Road: a block built sometime after 1848 but apparently occupied in 1851, owned by “Mr Cowley” (whom we have met at the Nook ?) seem to have been built as three cottages for 3 households as appear in 1851, by 1871 there seem to be 5 households here, however by 1881 the number of households listed between
‘The Lindens’ & John Taylor, the butcher at No.1 has risen to 11 with, in addition, 2 houses uninhabited! Within living memory these 3 cottages have been “back to back” with but 1 tap and a privy in the yard.
We hope that you have enjoyed our walk and will come on the next one.
J.D.
J.B.G.
S.M.L.
The Notes were transcribed in 2011 from the original (1982) mimeographed typescript.
Please notify the Gateacre Society of any errors and omissions which may be found, so that
these can be recorded above for the benefit of future researchers