As a result of our website, we receive information and enquiries from all over the world about people and places in Gateacre - and the former townships of Much and Little Woolton. Many of those who send us emails are people who are researching their family history, and have discovered that their ancestors lived in our area. We were recently pleased to receive - from Australia - the photographs reproduced above, showing Crabtree House which used to stand in Netherley Road close to its junction with Wood Lane. The old farmhouse was demolished in the 1960s to make way for Caldway Drive and the Netherley housing estate.

Crabtree House was the home of the Tuffin family, who had a nursery garden - apparently including substantial hothouses - nearby. George Tuffin had married Anne Catharine Morris in 1878, and the couple ran the nursery in the early 20th century with the assistance of their nine children. One of these children was George Andrew Tuffin, who emigrated to Western Australia and established a nursery there with his son Reginald before the Second World War. (He named his house 'Netherley'). Sadly Reg was killed at the fall of Singapore in 1942, but the surviving family in Australia would very much like to make contact with anyone who remembers the Tuffins in the Netherley/Gateacre area.

Left: Crabtree House, 12 July 1923
Above: Crabtree House 1953
(Both reproduced by courtesy of Wendy Kendrick)
Below: A map (Ordnance Survey six-inch) showing Lee Hall and Crabtree House circa 1908