West Derby - History

History

Mentioned in the Domesday Book, West Derby achieved significance far earlier than Liverpool itself. The name West Derby comes from an Old Norse word meaning "place of the wild beasts" and named an administrative area called the West Derby hundred, or West Derbyshire, which covered south west Lancashire.

It was home to the Earls of Sefton (family name Molyneux), whose house, Croxteth Hall, and the surrounding countryside estate now forms Croxteth Park, an attractive public space.

West Derby once had a castle, now completely disappeared, but still retains a courthouse built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I: the first (Wapentake) court in West Derby was established around 1,000 years ago. The West Derby Courthouse, built in 1586, was restored and conserved in 2005 and is the only freestanding post-medieval courthouse in Britain. The tiny Grade II* listed building is open to the public between 2 pm and 4 pm every Sunday except Easter from April to October inclusive, admission free.

Opposite the courthouse is a set of Victorian cast iron stocks once used as a public restraint punishment for offenders the villages used fruit and rotten vegetables to throw at the offenders. The stocks were placed in their current position to commemorate the coronation of Edward VII in 1902. Temporarily removed in 2008 whilst the site was renovated, the stocks have since been put back in place.

There is also some suggestion of a Roman site on a street called Castlesite (nicknamed "The Rosies" by some locals). The site is now a small public park, the shape and dimensions of which are similar to that of a Roman barracks or castra. The remnants of a wooden castle were unearthed on this plot during excavations in the mid 1930s.