Liverpool - West Derby

Found myself in a peachy suburb of West Derby, 20 minutes from the city centre on bus(y) Liverpool roads. Back in time, it has been far more of importance before even the Town itself emerged.

Worth mentioning, the term 'derby' - in horse racing (races restricted to three-year-olds) - comes from the 12th Earl of Derby, who inaugurated the practice in 1780. He himself, his ancestors and descendants, lived in a nearby Croxteth Hall. Aintree's Grand National is few miles up north.

First, I headed to the suggested Roman site on a Castlesite street but there is nothing there apart from a small public park:

St Mary CoE church overlooking Castlesite

What the little village centre has to offer - a short span of a street, named waywardly yet appropriately - West Derby Village -  I was about to find out. More then Wikipedia says. 

An obelisque-like building of a church, a primary school:

Meadow Lane Primary School Church? Chapel?

Victorian water supply in years gone by; founded by one of the many benefactors of the area, surrounded by a car park, yet still picturesque:

A historic well in the centre of the village: 'Water is Best'

There are rather unsurpassed remains of a courthouse. Meaning 'court law', not a 'slum-dwelling'. It had been built during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. 

The whole notion of law room was established even further back to Viking times, so it counts to around 1,000 years ago. This particular building has a history stretching (half?*) a millenium. Here it is:


The oldest free-standing courthouse in UK

This is the one and only free-standing post-medieval courthouse in Britain, apparently. Can visit the tiny interior every Sunday between 2-4 pm from April to October, free of any charge. Not like the small poor beggars who had been charged - for smallest of offences: drunk vagrancy or pigs being too loud in one's own backyard. 

For such 'extremities', if you fail to pay the fine - it could lead to having you shackled in adjacent cast-iron stocks. They are just across the road:

Small offenders were shackled and 'offended' by passers-by

Folks,  just passing by, were allowed to toss a rotten cabbage and other stuff at the 'offenders'. The steward of the courthouse was traditionally a member of the Molyneux family, Earls of Sefton, of that nearby Croxteth Hall, mentioned above.

Apart from the nuisance past, West Derby is all rather upper-crust and cushy. And sporty, in fact.

Both City's Premier League football clubs, Everton, and Liverpool, had chosen their training grounds in West Derby for many years. Everton moved from Bellefield in West Derby in 2007, though, and Liverpool is going to move from iconic Melwood very soon. No one opposes. I presume they even glad to not have a clad of fans around, not to mention the sporty cars of the famous footballers eager to get around the busy village roads. 
We'll 'meet' a 'football situation' yet ahead. 
Back on track.

You can easily take an airy stroll through Croxteth Park, next to the St. Mary's church:

St Mary church, West Derby, on the path to Croxteth Hall
 
There are West Derby gates to the Croxteth Park, bit unkempt, rusty design, and its lodge in Victorian mock-Gothic style:

Gateway lodge to Croxteth Park from West Derby

Croxteth Park alley feels inviting (for a bike or a long-run :) 

Croxteth Park, West Derby side

 If not for the heavy traffic, the village green, well-maintained, would be lovely:


West Derby used to be home to many lavish Victorian villas. Few of them remain due to unscrupulous demolishing. A charitable association had been formed to rescue one of them -  'Lowlands'. In Italianate style and set in a woodland garden: 


It now serves as a venue for community work, businesses and for hire. There is a Jujitsu and Self-Defense Club operating since the 1950s. West Derby is sporty, I told you.

Well, there is more about and behind this elegant place. 

Connection to a top stockbroker and chairman of Liverpool's Stock Exchange, who lived there with a family, the real-life Forsyte's saga, for example. Then it was used by the Inland Revenue following Liverpool Blitz. Up until mid-1960s Lowlands was the home of the Pillar Club, where some of the beat groups performed in their early days including the Quarrymen - later the Beatles, (with George Harrison frequently visiting the mansion to hone his guitar skills), Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Searchers, Hollies and Billy J. Kramer. Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager was a visitor also.

As it goes to famous people (not celebrities back then) who lived in West Derby, we need to mention two of them:

- the Beatles' first drummer Pete Best. 

He lived in Haymans Green, the home of the Casbah Club where the group had its first rehearsals; This is Grade II listed heritage site. To see the paintings and the original stage used by The Quarrymen you need to book pre-arranged Tours of The Casbah. This is a normal residential house of flats, by the way.

Driveway to 'Casbah Coffee Club'

The Casbah Coffee Club operated as rock'n'roll venue from 1959 to 1962. It started thanks to a forward-looking woman, Mona Best, in the cellar of the house. A members-only club for her sons, Pete and Rory, and their friends. 

The Quarrymen - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ken Brown - wanted to play here, but they needed to finish painting the club first. So they brushed the walls with spiders, dragons, rainbows and stars. Cynthia Powell, later John Lennon's wife, painted a silhouette of John inside which can still be seen today (if you determined to hook a visit).

Casbah Coffee (Coca Cola?) Club

 Another famous person of West Derby was, of course:

- Bill Shankly, the legendary Liverpool F.C. football manager.
His house of the time is on Bellefield Avenue:


 ... overlooking  a football pitch, where he played football himself, and years later it was renamed in his honour:


Going there you will find a street named after Pete Best. Football and Music merge in this area - for the eternal love of the Beatles and LFC fans:



Bearing in mind football, Melwood is almost around the corner. Liverpool FC training ground, transformed by Shankly, features some of the best facilities in Europe and has been the club's training ground since the 1950s. There are three full-size pitches; one with the same dimensions as Anfield.

Tacked to the concrete fence, every few meters, there is a reminder poster foreboding any photos taken - unless granted by LFC. Since I have been not, there is none. Yet, you can easily look onto the pitch jumping on a bus route 12 or 13. For the whole length of the stadia, it overlooks the facilities. Just know the right time ;)

Near the Melwood Training Centre, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool FC academy graduate, was born. As of 2018, he is playing as the right-back for the Reds.

Of all those saucy things a recent Liverpool Echo article said: 'It seems West Derby is on the up!'. Thanks to local residents there are growing numbers of independent shops, eateries, cafeterias - quite something for a hipster lifestyle to pick up on. 

There are old man's pubs as well, most notable, the Hunting Lodge in the village centre:


There is an old Cooperative building with a great message on its side:


 And another one, looking like a cookie:


And that's it for now.
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* It's called Manor Court House. The present building is the result of a rebuilding in 1662 of the courthouse previously rebuilt in 1586 by Queen Elizabeth I. There has been a courthouse in West Derby for over 1,000 years since the Wapentake court of the Vikings.