West Derby & Croxteth Park
At the heart of our community
FREE copy
15,000 copies - 12,000 into Homes + 3,000 into Businesses
Issue 140 – February 2018
GROW YOUR OWN By Stephen Guy, West Derby Society
THOUSANDS of years ago, when North West England was largely forests and swamps, nomadic peoples wandered the landscape searching for food. Long before agriculture and farming led to the land being drained, Mesolithic communities moved from place to place living off the land. In recent years archaeologists have unearthed an 8,000-year-old settlement at Lunt, near Crosby. It originally lay in an area of prehistoric wetland in the valley of the River Alt. The nomads were hunter-gatherers in a natural world as yet untouched by man. This was an environment very different from our own which is the result of hundreds of years of cultivation and
Happy Valentine’s Day
INSIDE
development. The wide open spaces we see today have been created by landowners, farmers and others. The terrain may look natural but has been made largely to meet the needs of
people and commerce. North West England would have looked very different 8,000 years ago – we would probably find it wild and uninviting. There were no houses, roads or other visible evidence of human beings. Beasts such as bears, wolves, wild boar and lynx were at the head of the food chain. They feasted on smaller creatures including deer. Beavers and otters hunted for fish and other river life in the Alt and its many tributaries. Stone Age people took advantage of seasonable changes and the availability of wild plants, animals and fish. About 6,000 stone tools and related items have been discovered at Lunt. These include implements with fine points used as piercing tools along with arrow heads. Some are made from local flint but most are of dark grey chert or hornstone probably brought down from surrounding upland areas. Agriculture and farming evolved as populations grew, making huntergathering unsustainable. The chief principles of agriculture emerged in Ancient Egypt where there was a large population in the narrow valley of the Nile. The Agricultural Revolution gained pace from Tudor times, bringing in new systems of crop rotation and livestock husbandry which boosted productivity. Farming dominated West Derby until around the 1840s when the area began to be developed. Croxteth Hall Home Farm is the last major working farm in area. Jackson’s Farm in Leyfield Road is pictured about 1910 – it stood on the site of Glenmarsh Close. n Join the West Derby Society at its next meeting 7.30 pm on Wednesday February 21 at Lowlands, 13 Haymans Green, Liverpool L12 7JG.
WIN, WIN, WIN
Win tickets to The Hound of the Baskervilles
page 10
Win tickets to An Afternoon Tea Dance
page 10
An interview with Richard E. Grant
page 10
LIFE ‘n’ STYLE with Jade Ainsworth
page 6
Car review – Peugeot 3008 SUV GT Line
page 15