North Liverpool: Waterloo, Crosby and Litherland

	Sea Captains' Villas, Waterloo The elegant Victorian Sea Captains' Villas at Waterloo from Crosby Marine Lake with the walled public gardens in front. When I was a kid, you walked down between the gardens at the end of South Road and the beach was just there; it reached right up to Gladstone Dock to the south. There were pyramidal concrete tank defences along the shore. During the 1960s, this area was subject to redevelopment on a huge scale, with the construction of Seaforth Freeport (opened 1972), the Marine Lake and the waterfront promenade.
Waterloo in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England (1848) This village is beautifully situated on the coast, near the mouth of the river Mersey. It is a favourite sea-bathing place, remarkable for the firmness of its sands, the clearness of the water, and salubrity of the air; and is much frequented by families from Liverpool. The village consists of several ranges of commodious houses, a fine marine crescent, and some excellent hotels; commanding prospects of the entrance to the Mersey, and the port of Liverpool, with parts of Cheshire, and the northern coast of Wales.
	*Antony Gormley's Another Place, Waterloo* In front of the waterfront promenade at Waterloo there is a fine long stretch of golden sand that is usually almost empty. Here there are superb views over the sea towards the Wirral and North Wales. Just now (until November 2006), this is the appropriate setting for the start of Antony Gormley's haunting shoreline installation Another Place: 100 life size rusting cast iron figures gazing out to sea from here to the estuary of the River Alt.
	*Antony Gormley's Another Place, Waterloo*
	Crosby Radar Station and New Brighton
	Wind Turbines off the Crosby Shore
	*Antony Gormley's Another Place, Hall Road* As kids in the 1950s, we used to paddle and bathe here, but I hate to think what the state of the water was back then. Tiny little shrimp-like creatures used to nip at us. Still, it's all good for the developing immune system, I suppose. Everything is much cleaner now, of course.
	The Shore near Hall Road The Irish Sea coast at the northern edge of Liverpool late on a winter's afternoon. Across the water are the hills of North Wales.
	Landmark near Hall Road An old landmark on the Irish Sea shore just north of Liverpool. This is one of two measured mile markers (the other, at Crosby, no longer there) once used by shipping to calibrate their speed instruments when leaving the Mersey estuary. (My thanks to Paul Fairfield for this information.)
	The Irish Sea and the Welsh Hills at Hall Road
	The Old Mill, Great Crosby This windmill, located at Great Crosby's highest point, dates from 1813.
Great Crosby in the Victoria History of the County of Lancaster (1907) The ancient township of Great Crosby, which includes Waterloo, lies on the northern shore of the estuary of the Mersey, with a level sandy beach extending over three miles from north-west to southeast [...]. The country is flat and sandy, being in places still very marshy, so that deep ditches, especially in the north, are required to drain the fields and meadows. The crops grown are principally oats, rye, and potatoes. At Hall Road there are golf-links on both sides of the railway, and a broad stretch of sandhills, yet unbuilt upon, extends along the northern half of the sea coast. [...] The village, which lies more than a mile inland, is becoming modernized and growing quickly [..]. An electric tramway connects Great Crosby with the Seaforth terminus of the Liverpool Overhead Railway. The township of Waterloo has been carved out of the southern part of Great Crosby. To the north of it are Brighton le Sands and Blundellsands; these places consist principally of modern residences, which afford Liverpool people convenient dwellings at the seaside. [...] Crosby Channel forms the principal entrance to the Mersey; it is about three-quarters of a mile wide. By constant dredging a sufficient depth of water for the passage of the great liners is maintained. There is a lightship in the channel. [...] The Crosby races used to be held once or twice a year - the first week of August was the proper time - on a course on the shore side of Great and Little Crosby [...]. The little triangular green of the village is now paved. Here is the ancient St. Michael's Well, which has been covered in, and is surmounted with steps and a wooden cross.
	Merchant Taylors School, Crosby A Merchant Taylors School was first established in Crosby in 1620. This is now the girls' school. This building, the boys' school, just down the road, dates from 1878. It was your devoted writer's alma mater from 1961 to 1968. I recall the teachers in the 60s being a mixture of the progressive and the Dickensian. I'm still impressed with being asked for English homework in 1963 to write scenes in the style of Harold Pinter and Eugene Ionesco (then considered avant garde), and with being played records of Bartok string quartets by a physics teacher after sixth form exams were over. I was taught Latin, on the other hand, by a Wackford Squeers disciple.
	Cookson's Bridge, Litherland The Leeds and Liverpool Canal here runs past Rimrose Valley Country Park, a wedge of open grassland, copses and wetland dividing Great Crosby and Litherland.
Litherland in the Victoria History of the County of Lancaster (1907) Litherland forms an uninteresting [hang on a minute - I was born there after all!] link between the busy environs of Bootle and the more open country towards Sefton township, since there are both dwelling-houses and warehouses, streets, and shops, as well as open spaces. The ancient township, from which Seaforth has now been carved out, [..] was formerly called Down Litherland to distinguish it from the hamlet of Up-Litherland in Aughton. The Diamond Match Factory is the most prominent industry in Litherland. [...] The field names in a map of 1769 show that the Marsh was the district between Rimrose Brook and the shore [...]. The moss occupied the north-eastern part of the township; the moor adjoined it on the borders of Orrell.
Orrell with Ford in the Victoria History of the County of Lancaster (1907) This township is formed of two detached portions, Orrell to the south and Ford to the north. [...] Orrell occurs comparatively early as a well-defined part of Litherland, [...] called a 'vill' as early as 1310. [...] It is described as a hamlet of Litherland in 1345. Ford [...] touches upon the open country and shares the refreshing sea-breezes which come from the west. [...] The ford from which the place takes its name was perhaps one over the Rimrose Brook, which divides it from Great Crosby.
Orrell with Ford in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England (1848) The township comprises 470 acres, of a light soil, with a red-sandstone substratum; it stands elevated, and has fine views of the sea and the Welsh hills. [...] The air is very salubrious and healthy.
Netherton in the Victoria History of the County of Lancaster (1907) This township was originally a hamlet of Sefton, but appears to have been recognized as a distinct township as early as 1624, when the county lay was fixed. [...] It is in the heart of flat, agricultural country. The land is principally arable, producing crops of potatoes, wheat, barley, oats, and rye, in a soil which is a mixture of clay and sand. The country is not interesting, for there is nothing picturesque about the scattered farmsteads, and the trees are only large enough to give a slight protection to the buildings around which they cluster.