ess090 the ford road
everysinglestreet

#everysinglestreet [21/03/21] Speke: Part 1 – Central Way and the old Ford road

Graham Holland   

I hadn’t been in Speke since the end of November so I was due for a second visit. This time I finished all but one of the streets off Central Way. 

When I saw the solar panels on some of the houses on Heaton Close I couldn’t help but think it would be cheaper for the owners to keep the Heat-on. There are some new houses built in the square in the middle. I think this might have been one of the locations for a tower block before they were demolished.

Looking at the 1946 map you can see some of the places the current streets are named after. Alder Plantation (Alder Wood Road), Dam Wood (Dam Wood Road), Heath Farm (Little Heath Road), Woodend Farm (Woodend Avenue), Stockton’s Wood (Stockton Wood Road), Mill Wood (Mill Wood Road).

Lots of George VI (1936 – 1952) letterboxes. 

Burnage Close has a boulder at the entrance. It was obviously a work of art because it had small chunks of metal attached to the outside. Most of the metal on the top have gone, but there are still a few on the sides. In the centre is a raised square of grass which I assume was also the site of a block of flats. This green space has curious metal steps along the outside to help people get up the slope. 

All Hallows Drive is built on land where All Hallows Secondary School used to stand. It closed through lack of students and was eventually demolished. 

Speke Boulevard is on OpenStreetMap as a trunk road. This means it’s not marked on CityStrides as a road to be run. But as I’ve said before I’m a completist so I ran from the Morrisons junction to the boundary with Knowsley and back. This road used to be known locally as the Ford road because it ran alongside the Ford car factory. These days it’s Jaguar Land Rover, and is still an important employer in the city region.

Speke Boulevard has a footpath and cycle lane along this section so I was able to run safely along this busy road. I ran past the Mersey Wave and took some photos up close. 

Stats

  • Saturday 20th March 2021
  • 14 streets
    Alder Wood Avenue, All Hallows Drive, Ardwick Road, Burnage Close, Central Way, Gatley Walk, Heaton Close, Keithley Walk, Little Heath Road, Millwood Road, Oldbridge Road, Prenton Green, Upton Green, Withington Road
  • Total: 2,972 (52.45%)
  • Remaining: 2,694

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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