West Derby & Croxteth Park
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Issue 138 – December 2017
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INSIDE
HIDDEN WATERS By Stephen Guy, West Derby Society
AS LANDSCAPES change and areas develop, natural features are hidden or changed to enable new works such as housing and road schemes to be carried out. Old maps reveal streams crisscrossing the landscape which have become hidden waters concealed underground but still serving their original purpose of draining the land. nce they teemed with fish, water beetles and dragon flies but in the eternal dark of the pipe or drain little or nothing thrives. Environmentalists have long warned about the dangers of
destroying watery havens as they play an important part in natural life-cycles. Thankfully policies are changing and we can see new ponds and waterways being constructed. Examples include the River Alt at Stonebridge Lane and along the new Thornton by-pass linking the motorways and Ince Woods. Huyton Wetlands off Huyton Lane are the source of the River Alt which bubbles up among the bulrushes and tall grasses. This is how much of North West England looked before the swamps and marshes were drained hundreds of years ago. The Alt must have been much
Win tickets to Snow White pantomime
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wider in ancient times as it meandered through watery swamplands. Croxteth is thought to mean Krock’s Landing Place, indicating that sea-going Viking ships were once able to come this far inland. The Alt is fed by streams which remain visible along some stretches. These include the Deys Brook, a feature of West Derby Golf Course, and the Hall Brook passing under Croxteth Hall Lane. As a chiId I lived in Lisleholme Crescent off Deysbrook Lane. Our house backed on to West Derby Hockey and Tennis Clubs, developed as Harbern Close in 1975. There was a stream which we called “the ditch”: the water was clean and had lots of water beetles and similar creatures. We
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once found a rare stag beetle on its banks. The Environment Agency was involved in improvements in 2013, diverting part of the stream through school grounds off Thornhead Lane. The Tue Brook gave its name to a district of Liverpool but is now almost completely hidden locally apart from a short stretch behind Gardner Road. A 1911 postcard (pictured) shows Green Lane and West Derby Road from the gates of Tue Brook House, a detached Georgian villa demolished to make way for the Carlton cinema in 1932. n Join the West Derby Society at its next meeting 7.30pm on Wednesday December 20 at Lowlands, 13 Haymans Green, Liverpool L12 7JG.
An interview with Gerry Marsden
page 3
Car review – Volvo V60 Cross Country
page 15
Strange Tales by Anton Valdemart
page 8
and much, much more