Best-kept secrets of our city
Best-kept secrets of our city
Apr 9 2007
Merseyside historian Ken Pye takes Tony Barrett on a tourist trail to discover the hidden Liverpool
Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo
THE Liver Buildings, St George’s Hall, Anfield and Goodison are Liverpool landmarks which are known all around the world and no self-respecting Liverpudlian needs telling about them.
But what about the alternative Liverpool, places that are slightly off the usual tourist track but are just as worthy of a visit?
Local historian Ken Pye, author of a new book called Discover Liverpool, has come up with a trail detailing some of the city’s hidden treasures especially for ECHO readers.
Wavertree Village
On Church Road, you can find the centuries-old Mounting Steps, across the road from the magnificent Holy Trinity Church, and used by churchgoers to get back in the saddle after services.
Further along the road, you will find the permanently locked gates in the wall of the Royal School for the Blind, which once surrounded the original Wavertree Manor House.
Never unlocked since they were bolted and barred by the local squire, almost 200 years ago, they were closed to ensure that his daughter, who eloped with the young and handsome coachman, could “never darken his door again”!
In the village, you can also find what was once the smallest house in England, now part of the Cock & Bottle Pub; the old village jail – Wavertree Lock-up; and, 100 yards or so up Mill Lane, at the end of the children’s playground, you will find the 600-year-old Monk’s Well.
The Old Village of Childwall
Take a stroll through the atmospheric and beautiful Childwall Wood – once part of the estate of Childwall Hall, at one time owned by Bamber Gascoigne, the ancestor of his University Challenge namesake.
These woods adjoin the film and TV studios of Lime Pictures, where Brookside was filmed, and where Hollyoaks and Grange Hill are made.
Then, visit All Saints Church across Score Lane. This is the oldest church in Liverpool, and is beautiful inside and out.
Its graveyard is said by some archaeologists to be over 900 years old. See if you can find “The Leper’s Squint”, through which the Lepers, who lived in the Valley below, would make their confessions to the parish priest whilst he and the congregation sat safely inside the building.
Visit the Childwall Abbey Hotel, parts of which date from the 1400s.
Woolton Village
A stroll along Allerton Road, which runs through the heart of this very ancient village, and up and down every side-road, passage, and court that runs off it, will delight you with architecture spanning three centuries.
This charming village is a lovely place to wander through.
Don't miss the old Woolton Village School House, which stands in its own green on the bend in School Lane, which is dated 1610.
However, many historians believe it to be much older and that it is one of the earliest elementary schools in Britain. Indeed, the Gothic windows at either end of the building seem to indicate that it may well have been a pre-reformation chapel.
Walk up Church Road to see if you can find Eleanor Rigby’s Gravestone and have a look at the parish hall across the road where Paul McCartney first met John Lennon.
Rodney Street
Talk a wander along the full length of this city-centre road, and delight in the truly wonderful early-Georgian buildings.
Begin at the Mount Pleasant end, outside the neglected and dilapidated church of St Andrew. Here, inside the pyramid-shaped tomb, sits the skeleton of the wealthy 19th century railway entrepreneur, William McKenzie.
According to the strict terms of his will, he remains seated at a card table, a winning hand of poker in his skeletal fist – all this in an attempt to thwart the Devil from taking his soul to Hell.
A Ghost, wearing a tall hat and frock coat, which haunts the area around here, is said to be that of McKenzie.
Over the road, at 4 Rodney Street, was once the location for the first American Consulate to Liverpool, from 1790 to 1829. Many years later, this became a nursing home, and Brian Epstein was born here in 1934.
Walk down one side of the road and then back up the other, and see if you can find the wall-plaques identifying the former homes of Nicholas Monsarrat, William Ewart Gladstone, Lytton Strachey, Arthur and Anne Clough, Dr Duncan, and William Roscoe.
Do make sure to visit 59 Rodney Street where the remarkable photographer Edward Chambre Hardman had his home and studio.
Now owned by the National Trust, here you can learn about his life and work, in a house that is a fascinating time-capsule of how this man lived throughout the first half of the 20th century.
St James' Mount
By the little classical temple (known as The Oratory) at the end of the Anglican Cathedral, take the eerie path, through the sandstone tunnel, deep down into what was once an ancient quarry, but which is now the St James’ burial ground.
In somewhat macabre surroundings, now beautifully landscaped, you will find the mausoleum of William Huskisson MP, the first person to be run over by a railway engine.
See if you can find the graves of, among others, Kitty Wilkinson, William Brown, John Foster and William Rushton.
Also, look out for Sarah Biffin’s burial place. She was a 19th century painter of exquisite miniature portraits. But, at only three feet tall and with no arms or legs, she used her mouth to create her delightful images. She features in two Charles Dickens’ novels.
Then, go back up the hill again to visit the Anglican Cathedral. Inside this stupendous and powerful place of prayer and worship, you can experience the new visitor attractions and cafe, as well as simply marvelling and the beauty of the architecture.
Hale Village
You could always go out of town of course, driving out through Speke, past the airport along Dunlop Road and then Hale Road, to explore Hale Village.
Here you can see the ancient cottage and the grave of The Childe of Hale, John Middleton, who died in the 17th century and was said to be well over 9 feet tall.
Take a look at the other medieval, Georgian, and Victorian houses, cottages, farmhouses, and manors that are scattered throughout the village.
Visit the church of St Mary in the village. Completely gutted by a fire set by vandals, this was completely reconstructed and the chestnut ceiling is work of genuine craftsmanship.
Over the road from the church stands the old beech tree stump, which is the Hale History Tree.
Carved in the likeness of John Middleton, it is covered in emblems and symbols of Village life.
Take a long stroll down Church Road, and follow the footpath down to the Lighthouse and the rocky shoreline, where you get wonderful views across the River Mersey Basin, out towards Widnes and Runcorn on the left, and back up to Speke, Garston and the city, on the right.
Source: icLiverpool
