How a quiet residential Woolton street helped build some of the city's landmarks

Дата публикации: 19-07-2026 09:44:08

It is has helped build some of the city's most impressive architecture

Основное содержимое страницы с новостью.

It is has helped build some of the city's most impressive architecture

Overhanging a residential street in the middle of Woolton is a cliff face that is responsible for helping to create some of the city's most remarkable landmarks.

While the remnants of Woolton Quarry can still be seen today, for most of those living in the area, its history remains largely unknown. Local historian and author, Ken Pye told the ECHO: "The quarries themselves developed in the mid-19th century and were quite significant. It was used to build the Anglican Cathedral, but it wasn't just the cathedral that was built using the stone, bits of Speke Hall, All Hallows Church, Gateacre Grange and Beaconsfield House also have pieces of the quarry.

"There was actually about three quarries, the north and south quarries were the main ones. It was the north and south quarries that produced sandstone for the Anglican Cathedral. This is why it was perfect for a building as significant, and as large, and as weighty as the cathedral."

In 1903, British architect Giles Gilbert Scott began designing the Anglican Cathedral before building work started a year later. More than 70 years later work was finally completed.

Ken said: "When building started on the cathedral, the stone was transported from Woolton by horse-drawn wagons by teams of four, six, or sometimes eight horses because of the absolute weight of the stone.

"Some of the work in carving was done at the quarry site, but most of it was done on-site at St. James's Mount, where they were building the cathedral. There is a residue of the stonemasons still at the back of the cathedral, where they do maintenance work and fill in the corners."

By the 1960s the extraction of the sandstone had largely been scaled down and new uses had been found.

Ken said: "Sections of the old quarry were already being leased as a coal yard and a corporation maintenance yard. It was also used as a timber and scaffolding merchants, and parts were let out to a haulage company. But the rear of the big quarry was used as a dump for old and used vehicle tyres."

As a child Ken lived nearby in Wavertree and later in Childwall, and the quarry became a playground for Ken and his friends during the 60s. He said: "I used to play in there as a kid, and I can remember it. The tyres were old and not looked after, and just sort of piled in great stacks. Me and my mates would go on Saturday mornings, and we would play around and chase and tag and all sorts of things in and around the tyres, and we would be filthy.

"So then we would go into Woolton swimming baths, and it is a wonder we were actually allowed in, we were so filthy. But they would allow us in, and we would go swimming to get clean and have fun in the water at the same time."

As the decades passed, the quarry gradually started to develop into what we can see there today. He said: "The quarry was officially closed in 1978, with only a small workforce being retained until Easter in 1979. It was then used as a refuse tip until 1983. Then in 1986, work began on 22 bungalows and a block of 18 flats named Stonemasons Court which faced directly onto Quarry Street."

While a number of sandstone buildings can still be found across the city today, had it not been for WWII, Liverpool would likely be even more densely populated with the stone.

He said: "We were the most heavily bombed city in Britain outside London. In the sheer tonnage of high explosive and incendiary bombs that the Germans dropped on us, it destroyed the city centre. So, a lot of the the wonderful buildings that were built from the stone from Woolton Quarry were just destroyed."

Схожие новости

#	Наименование новости	Тональность	Информативность	Дата публикации
1	Seven wonderful things Liverpool has given to the world you might never have known	7	8	18-07-2026
2	The regions beating the slump: Five high-end Perth homes as market shifts gears	3	7	30-06-2026
3	Zip Trip: History of Landrum	5	3	10-07-2026
4	Knocking down social housing helped poor children prosper	2	7	29-01-2026
5	Was Liverpool's loss of World Heritage Status worth it? One expert certainly thinks so	0	5	19-07-2026
6	Family affair: investor tax changes spawn new tactics	0	5	06-07-2026
7	Five of the best homes for sale in Sydney to entertain	5	7	03-07-2026
8	Bull Street: An Overview	0	5	16-07-2026
9	Interior designer's restoration of Victorian Bangor house is turning heads on social media	5	7	28-06-2026
10	Meet the grocer's son, ironmonger's daughter and window cleaner who defined art in the 1920s and 1930s	2	7	05-06-2026

Классификация: Недвижимость. Схожих патентов: 0. Схожих новостей: 10. Тональность: 2. Информативность: 6. Источник: www.liverpoolecho.co.uk.