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Wavertree

This is just a small selection of images available from the Wavertree Society.  To view the full size images together with many more please click here to visit the Wavertree Society's Epson photo album.

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High Street Wavertree 105 High Street Wavertree Lamb Hotel Wavertree
Police Station Wavertree High Street c1870 High Street c1900
Picton Clock Picton Clock c1912 Abbey Cinema c1938
Wavertree Town Hall c1905 Smallest House in England c1906 Valencia House Mill Lane
Wavertree Lake c1928 The Monks Well Wavertree Lockup c1906
Wavertree Mill and Quarry Wavertree Mill Wavertree Mill c1910
Wavertree Playground 1908 Wavertree Playground 1910 Wavertree Playground 1912
Holy Trinity School Holy Trinity Pupils Holy Trinity Church c1911
Old Watre Bazaar c1910 Prince Alfred Visit c1866 Thingwall Road Mayday 1920
Wavertree Playground Event 1930 Earle Football Club c1926 Wavertree Gardens FC 1949
Pye Street c1934 James Cameron - Blacksmith Pye Street Wavertree Railway Station

Many of these photographs appear, complete with descriptive captions, in the book 'Wavertree (Images of England)' by Mike Chitty and David Farmer, published by Tempus in 2004.  For further details please click here.

Introduction

Wavertree is around 45 minutes walk from Liverpool City Centre. The area is highly populated by students of Liverpool's 3 universities.

History

The earliest settlement of Wavertree is attested to by the discovery of Bronze Age burial urns in Victoria park. The Doomsday Book reference is "Leving held Wauretreu” and showed there to be 2 carucates of land (about 240 acres), which was valued as 64 pence.  In the past the name has been spelt Watry, Wartre,Waurtree and Wavertree, locals however referred to it as Wa'tree, until the 19th century. The meaning of the name is variously described as 'a wavering tree', 'a clearing in a wood' or 'the place by the common pond'.

Wavertree was part of the parish of Childwall in the West Derby hundred.  A Town Hall was built in 1872 to house the local health board. The motto shown over the entrance to the Town Hall is "sub umbra floresco" or "I flourish in the shade".

Wavertree Playground "The Mystery"

The Mystery was one of the first purpose-built public playgrounds in the UK, opened in 1895. It is based on land donated to Liverpool Corporation by an anonymous donor, to be a venue for organised sports, and a place for children from the city's public schools to run about in, not a park for 'promenading' in the Victorian tradition.

The donor expressed the hope that the City Council "might approve of giving it a fair trial for this purpose ... before appropriating it for any other use". The land is currently home to a playground, Wavertree Athletics Centre, with many sports facilities including tennis courts, all weather pitch, bowling green and athletic track with grandstand. Liverpool Harriers & A.C. have based their headquarters at this centre since 1990.

Wavertree Lockup

The Monks Well

 

Recommended Further Reading

If you want to find out more about the fastenating history of Wavertree, here's a couple of highly recommended books.

 



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