Originally Posted by
Kev
. . . The house seemed huge and I couldn't get over how significant this building is to the city of Liverpool, yet it
isn't listed. . .
Hi Kev
Incredible indeed that the building is not listed, as you say, and we do owe a debt of gratitude to Paula and her husband for saving the lodge from the developers and lovingly restoring it.
I wanted though to address the subject of that old newscutting. What is the proof that King John ever did personally hunt in the park?
I looked at the large size of the pic of the newscutting on Flikr and I don't see that the article actually backs up what is stated in the headline. I also wonder about the statement that "after first being enclosed by palings [the park] was walled in" -- wouldn't there be a trace of such medieval walls?
The charter or letters patent of 1207 made Liverpool a privileged port, giving it exemption from certain dues and taxes, and thus was designed to encourage trading. But it was issued by King John in Winchester not in Liverpool. We do know though that King John had become lord of the country between the Rivers Mersey and Ribble and made various grants to these lands. It is also known that the reason for the letters patent was that King John needed a port of embarkation for men and provisions to Ireland. The small town or hamlet Liverpool with its sheltered "Pool" on the eastern bank of the Mersey was ideal for such needs. Liverpool would also provide an alternative to using the port of Chester on the Dee, which was controlled by its powerful and independent Earl -- however, the Dee continued to be used to ferry Royal armies to Ireland as late as the reign of William III (1688-1702) after which the Dee became too silted for large vessels and Liverpool became the preferred port.
Now King John was in the habit of traveling around the country as I believe the king depended on his barons to put him up wherever he went, the monarchy of the day being short of money. There is also the famous incident of King John, just before his death, losing the royal treasure in the Wash, the distinctively shaped square-mouthed estuary on the northwest margin of East Anglia on the east coast of England, "where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire", as recounted on Wikipedia:
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The most famous incident associated with the Wash is the loss of King John's royal treasure. According to contemporary reports, John travelled from Spalding in Lincolnshire to Bishop's Lynn, in Norfolk, was taken ill and decided to return. While he took the longer route by way of Wisbech, he sent his baggage train, including his crown jewels, along the causeway and ford across the mouth of the Wellstream. This route was usable only on the lower part of the tide. The horse-drawn wagons moved too slowly for the incoming tide, and many were lost.
The present-day location of the accident is normally supposed to be somewhere near Sutton Bridge, on the River Nene. The name of the river changed as a result of redirection of the Great Ouse during the seventeenth century, and Bishop's Lynn became King's Lynn as a result of Henry VIII's rearrangement of the English Church.
Astronomical study, however, permits a reconstruction of the tide tables of the relevant day and it seems most likely, given travel in the usual daylight hours, that the loss was incurred in crossing the Welland estuary at Fosdyke.
There is also a suspicion that John left his jewels in Lynn as security for a loan and arranged their "loss". This looks likely to be apocryphal. However that may be, he passed the following night, that of 12 to 13 October 1216, at Swineshead Abbey, moved on to Newark-on-Trent and died of his illness on 19 October.
So could King John in his younger days have visited Liverpool and hunted in the royal park of Toxteth?
Chris
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