ess084 liverpool hope
everysinglestreet

#everysinglestreet [03/03/21] Childwall Woods and Liverpool Hope

This was my first early morning run since January and it was great to step out of the door to daylight!

Lots of Devon place names today – Porlock, Selworthy, Babbacombe, Woolacombe, Lynton, Churston. There’s a tree at the end of Churston Road which is almost perfectly dome-shaped. I’m guessing it gets pruned that way each year. 

Liverpool Hope

Liverpool Hope University is on Taggart Avenue, a section of which has been renamed Hope Park. When I started in 1997 it was called Liverpool Institute of Higher Education. LIHE was formed in 1979 with the merger of Christ’s and Notre Dame College (CND) (itself a merger of Christ’s College on one side of Taggart and Our Lady’s Training College on Mount Pleasant) and Saint Katharine’s College on the other side of Taggart. The merger was spearheaded by the Archbishop Derek Warlock (Catholic) and Bishop David Shepherd (CofE). 

In 1998 – my second year – LIHE became Liverpool Hope University College to better reflect its 1988 change of status whereby its degrees were certified and awarded by the University of Liverpool. Hope received university status in 2005.

I had four fantastic years at Liverpool Hope, three years on my BSc (Hons) and one year for my PGCE. I’m still friends with Kath Milne, and remember my Geography and Environmental Studies tutors fondly. Just last week I came across a video tape a recording of The Rubber Chicken on it – a comedy review show I was part of. The question now is do I get it converted?


Most of the houses on Highville Road and South Highville Road are pebbledashed. That’s where pebbles are mixed with plaster and stuck to the outer wall. This was common in 1920s inter-war houses like these (my Grandma’s house had pebblesdashing on it) when housing was in greater demand, and builders cutting costs often used pebblesdash to cover poor quality brickwork. 


Childwall Woods

From Countisbury Drive I popped into Childwall Woods. This was the location of Childwall Hall which stood where the fields are next to the woods. 

The original 1600s hall was demolished in 1780 by owner Bamber Gascoyne (ancestor of Bamber Gascoyne, former University Challenge presenter). It was Bamber who build a driveway thought the woods to get from the gatehouse on Childwall Abbey Road to the hall. He did this by creating a cutting in the sandstone with a bridge over the top for walkers. 

Between 1922 and 1938 it was rented by Childwall Golf Club who built a golf course on the fields. The entire site was bought in 1939 by Liverpool Corporation (City Council) to build a college. The had originally planned on using the hall but it wasn’t a suitable design and had dry rot throughout, so it was eventually demolished in 1949. When the college was built the woods were made available to the public. Eventually the college closed and was taken over by Mersey Television (now Lime Pictures). 

My dad is a proud and active member of the Friends of Childwall Woods and Fields. Check out their website here. www.fcwf.org.uk

The Black Woods on Woolton Road have been closed since February 2020 when a dog walker was tragically killed by a fallen branch. 


Stats

  • Wednesday 3rd March 2021
  • 17 streets
    Aldbourne Close, Babbacombe Road, Cabot Green, Churston Road, Countisbury Drive, Devon Way, Dunedin Close, Dunsdon Road, Highville Road, Lynton Green, Porlock Avenue, Selworthy Green, South Highville Road, Stand Park Road, Williton Road, Wood View Road, Woolaombe Road.
  • Total: 2,799 (49.52%)
  • Remaining: 2,853

Photos on Facebook

All of the photos from this run are in a publically viewable Facebook album.

To view them click here.


Twitter



Strava

Follow me on Strava