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 14 October 1700. The design must owe something to the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth, but that was built about 80 years earlier, so more useful comparisons may be made with Chapels at Knutsford, Macclesfield and Wilmslow which are nearer to it in date.

A local board was set up on the 8th of January 1867 for the township of Little Woolton and the Minute Books are a fruitful source of local information until, with the Liverpool Extension Order of 1913, Little Woolton ceased to be self-governing. But the rural character of the village persisted until Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne. In the next ten 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 with some 110 items listed within the Conservation Area.

The guides to this walk would like to emphasise again that they have no complete knowledge, they are feeling their way, and they base their statements and opinions on features that strike them and their enthusiasm for architecture and local history. The eagle-eyed may notice that some items have been revised since last year, the guides hope to gather more ideas on the way.

GATEACRE BROW

No.2. (Listed) Small 2-storey double fronted brick villa pre-1840 (? 1835); centre panelled door (later glazing) in moulded stone doorcase with imposts, round arch and fanlight lath original (?) lead glazing bars; sash windows (replacements ?) and added canted bay. In 1840 owned by John Gore (joiner) and occupied by J. A. Pearson, in 1874 Edward Brown M.D. lived here, and by 1890 the property vas owned by the Unitarian Chapel Trustees.

continued . . .