4. Rates

Rates Books for Much Woolton from 1867 to 1912 and for Little Woolton from 1876 to 1912 are in the Liverpool Record Office and contain names of owners and occupiers of - theoretically - all properties in the two townships. In an intensive study such as this we seem to find omissions, perhaps where a building was unoccupied - though vacant houses were usually shown as "void" with dates - and up to the mid 1880s a big house and its lodge seems to be rated as one unit; lodges only show separately in later years. Rateable Values go up from time to time as, we think, additions were made; e.g. Woolton Tower 1875/6 for the Ballroom; and Baycliff 1880/1 for the new Sitting Room. Rateable Values were sometimes adjusted downwards on appeal to the Assessment Committee of the Prescot Union. We also note that in 1883 the whole of the Rateable Value of Much Woolton went down, and all the big houses were reduced, roughly pro-rata.

When we find the early R.V's of Summer Hill and Mount Aventine the same we have taken the view that the houses were virtually identical, as they were on early maps. However we are shaken in this assumption when we find Holme Leigh and Baycliff, houses of precisely the same original size so far as we can see, valued at £248 v £270 in 1879 - why should Baycliff be nearly 10% more desirable ? - was it because it was on a corner site and so had access to a public road, whilst Holme Leigh's frontage was only to a private road? And Highfield at £493 was our most highly rated house in 1881, leading Baycliff by £193 and Woolton Tower by £243; it was not all that much bigger and Mr William Tate had been Chairman of the M.W.L.B. since 1872 - we can only conclude that the assessment authority could ask Mr Tate for any sum they cared to name?

However since the Rates Books were concerned with the collection of money, and were audited, we accept them as the best guide we have. But we think we have more to learn about the assessment of rates!

In 1867, the first year of operation, the Much Woolton Board levied rates of 4d in the £1 on property, and 1d in the £1 on land in the township. By 1873 when much of the sewerage of the township had been carried out the rate set was 2s 4d in the £1 which was estimated to raise £1,871 11s 5d on property assessable with a Rateable Value of £17,105 and the Seal of the Local Board was affixed on the 5th of May 1873 to the resolution.

continued . . .