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everysinglestreet

#everysinglestreet [16/03/21] The last of the roads off Gateacre Park Drive

Graham Holland      

Quickswood Drive and Rockbourne Avenue are the types of houses that people retire to. The only people I saw out and about walking were senior citizens.

Near the bottom of Quickswood Drive there’s a small close called Pearce Close. This used to be the site of a church and in the church hall was a playgroup that my mum used to help run.

At the bottom of Rockbourne Avenue and Childwall Lane is a house that used to be a doctor’s surgery. Doctor Thomas was our family doctor when I was a child. 

Tollgate Close is a private road with seven houses. They call it Woolton Rise because that’s the kind of thing they do when there’s a collection of more expensive houses as it makes them sound more exclusive. They were built on the site of a pub called The Falstaff. It changed it’s name in more recent years (I can’t remember what to). I think it changed back to The Falstaff before it eventually closed. 

Right at the bottom of Rockbourne Avenue at the junction with Gateacre Park Drive is PBA Dental. This was my dentists growing up. Back then it was Mr Ireland, but he eventually took on more dentists and hygienists and moved to teach at the Dental School. 

Othellos Greek restaurant used to be a tiny Barclays Bank. It’s where I opened my first ever bank account (not counting my Post Office Savings Account…!). 

Further down the hill was a parade of shops. These are the shops I’d walk or cycle along to as a kid. There was a Qwik Save, a newsagents (where I got my comics and sweets from), Cousins the bakers, a dress shop, a Co-Op food shop (became L’Ambassador French restaurant), a chandlers called The Waysiders (which became Taste of Peking), a travel agents(I think?), a dry cleaners, a hairdressing salon, a butchers with sawdust on the floor, a Liver Launderette, a chemist (pharmacy) and others I’m sure I’ve forgotten. 

That was all knocked down to make way for Gateacre Local Centre with its Aldi, Costa, Subway, chemists and vets. 

childwall cross
Childwall Cross on Childwall Lane

Childwall Lane joined All Saints Church with Woolton Village via Cuckoo Lane, and with Gateacre (originally called Much Woolton) via Grange Lane. Part way down is a stone cross. I’d always been led to believe it was there as a place of rest when carrying coffins up to the church for burial. But it seems I was wrong and that it’s actually an ancient monument known as a wayside cross that marked the lands of the monks who lived here 600 years ago. 

I took a photo of the Childwall Lane entrance to Childwall Woods and Fields, as mentioned in a recent run.

Escor Road park is on Escor Road and Gateacre Park Drive. The official name is John Alderman Village Gardens. When I was a kid this was just a big field with paths. Now it’s a small woodland. 

There are no physical indications that Gateacre Comprehensive School once stood where the new estate is now. I know where the three gates on Grange Lane used to be. I can close my eyes and imagine the main building in front of me, with the lower building to the left, the swimming pool to the right, and the top field behind. There’s a considerable height difference between Grange Lane and Cuckoo Lane running parallel behind the school, so the estate builders had to get creative to raise the level of the land. You can the new embankment through the gap in the Grange Lane houses. It gave me great pleasure in running these new roads having previously added them to OpenStreetMap. 

Before these new houses were built, when you drove down Gateacre Park Drive there was a fabulous view across the playing field, over the top of the school, and out towards Prescot, Widnes, and the Runcorn Bridge.

The older roads west off Cuckoo Lane are named after birds – siskin, redwing, fieldfare and dunnock. 

Stats

  • Tuesday 16th March 2021
  • 42 streets
    Ashburn Avenue, Bloomsbury Avenue, Chantry Road, Childwall Lane, Crossways, Cuckoo Close, Cuckoo Lane, Cuckoo Way, Downham Close, Downham Green, Downham Way, Dunnock Close, Escor Road, Fieldfare Close, Gateacre Park Drive, Hathaway Close, Hayles Close, Hayles Grove, Heath Close, Heath Hey, Highfield Drive, Leybourned Close, Leybourne Green, Leybourne Grove, Leybourne Road, Mountfield Crescent, Nottingdale Avenue, Pearce Close, Quickswood Close, Quickswood Drive, Quickswood Green, Redcliffe Avenue, Redwing Lane, Rockbourne Avenue, Rockbourne Green, Rockbourne Way, Rosehill Court, Siskin Green, Thurne Way, Wallgate Road, Wallgate Way, Woolton Road
  • Total: 2,928 (51.8%)
  • Remaining: 2,724

Photos on Facebook

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

To view them click here.

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