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Belle Vale is a district of south-east
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
,
Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and a
Liverpool City Council Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 90 councillors, three for each of the city's 30 wards. The council is currently controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Mayor ...
Ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
that covers both Belle Vale and Netherley.


Description

The Belle Vale area shares borders with
Huyton Huyton ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. Part of the Liverpool Urban Area, it borders the Liverpool suburbs of Dovecot, Knotty Ash and Belle Vale, and the neighbouring village of Roby, with which it f ...
, Netherley,
Gateacre Gateacre () is a suburb of Liverpool, England, about from the city centre. It is bordered by Childwall, Woolton and Belle Vale. The area is noted for its Tudor Revival architecture and contains over 100 listed buildings within a quarter-mile ra ...
and
Childwall Childwall () is a suburb and ward of Liverpool, England, located to the southeast of the city. It is bordered by Belle Vale, Bowring Park, Broadgreen, Gateacre, Mossley Hill, and Wavertree. In 2019, the population was 13,640. Overview The earli ...
. The main road in Belle Vale is Childwall Valley Road ( B5178) running from Childwall through to Netherley. The old
North Liverpool Extension Line The North Liverpool Extension Line was a railway line in Liverpool, England in operation between 1879 and 1972. It was at one stage intended to become the eastern section of the Merseyrail Outer Loop, an orbital line circling the city. Histo ...
(loop line) at the back of Hartsbourne Avenue is often considered to be the border between Belle Vale and the neighbouring districts of Childwall and Gateacre. Belle Vale ''District Centre'' has a number of amenities including a fire station, police station, health centre, large shopping centre, and also Belle Vale Park. The Belle Vale Junior football league now plays in nearby Netherley. The district is often linked with Childwall or Gateacre, which are neighbouring districts. The Belle Vale area is also divided with different housing estates having their own local names, such as Hartsbourne, Lee Park and Naylorsfield. You will also find past and modern references to the area being in Gateacre further adding to the confusion.Our Lady Gateacre
/ref> District signage erected by Liverpool City Council in 2005 did not include Belle Vale as a distinct district leaving the area in somewhat of a quandary. Signs were put up on Childwall Valley Road saying ''Gateacre'' (southbound towards the shopping centre and Netherley) and ''Childwall'' (northbound towards Childwall). The centre of Belle Vale effectively falls within the area identified as ''Gateacre'' by the signs, with ''Childwall'' deemed to begin north of a new school and health centre. The area's identity as Belle Vale is recognised by the names of various local amenities including the health centre, shopping centre, police station and fire station. The
postcode A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...
for Belle Vale is L25, which is also the postcode for nearby
Woolton Woolton (; ) is an affluent suburb of Liverpool, England. It is located southeast of the city and is bordered by Allerton, Gateacre, Halewood, and Hunt's Cross. At the 2011 Census, the population was 12,921. Overview Originally a standalone ...
and
Gateacre Gateacre () is a suburb of Liverpool, England, about from the city centre. It is bordered by Childwall, Woolton and Belle Vale. The area is noted for its Tudor Revival architecture and contains over 100 listed buildings within a quarter-mile ra ...
.


History

Belle Vale was historically part of the parish of Childwall and part of the township of Little Woolton.Little Woolton
/ref> Little Woolton was absorbed into the City of Liverpool in 1913.
/ref> At the beginning of the 20th century Belle Vale was a hamlet within the rural district of Little Woolton. It consisted of cottages, farm buildings and Belle Vale Hall, an old twelve acre estate on the corner of Wambo Lane and Belle Vale Road. In 1901 Belle Vale Hall was owned by Thomas Harrison, a merchant and ship owner.
Rex Harrison Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play ''French Without Tears'', in what ...
, the actor, who was related to the family, visited the hall when he was a boy. In the 1920s the estate became a fruit farm and traded as ''Belle Vale Orchards Ltd''. The Hall was demolished in 1929. ''John Irwin Sons & Co. Ltd'' had a jam factory on the site in the 1930s and 1940s. After 1960 the factory produced spam, initially as ''Blue Cap Foods'' and later as ''Newforge''. The site of the factory is now occupied by
Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqua ...
supermarket and petrol station which opened in 2003. Part of the estate grounds survived to become Belle Vale Park. The first church in the district was St Stephen's, Church of England, built between 1872 and 1874 in Belle Vale Road. It was initially used as a chapel of ease to Childwall church until Gateacre was made a parish in its own right in 1893 and St Stephen's became its parish church. It was designed by Liverpool architect Cornelius Sherlock who also designed ''Church Cottages'' next to the church. The cottages were built in 1880 by Sir Andrew Barclay Walker for his estate workers. The cottages remained part of the Walker estate until put up for auction in 1917. In the garden in front of the church there is a stone memorial cross inscribed with the names of those local men who died in the First World War and Second World War. The west window in the church was designed by
Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman Hun ...
for Morris & Co. and was a gift from Sir Andrew Barclay Walker in memory of his first wife who died in 1882. Over one-thousand prefabricated homes were erected on land around the hamlet, named ''Belle Vale Estate Gateacre'' on the plans, between 1945-1947, to provide affordable rented accommodation for people whose homes were destroyed in bombing raids on the city during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, making it one of the largest Prefab communities in the country.Prefabs
/ref> Its most famous former resident is
Sir Terry Leahy Sir Terence Patrick "Terry" Leahy (born 28 February 1956) is a British businessman, previously the CEO of Tesco, the largest British retailer and the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues. He now lives in Cuffley, Hertfordsh ...
, previously chief executive of
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
, the UK's biggest supermarket chain. Leahy is also President of the Belle Vale Prefab Project.BVPP Newsletter
/ref> From the mid-1960s the Prefab estate was cleared. It was replaced by new housing and a shopping centre by the mid-1970s. ''Our Lady's'' Roman Catholic church, initially built on the Prefab estate in 1949, relocated from across the road from the current location of
Gateacre School Gateacre School is a secondary school and sixth form located in Belle Vale, Liverpool, England. The school is co-educational with both male and female pupils from years 7 to 11 and throughout the sixth form. History The school was built in tw ...
playing field to Hedgefield Road in 1965. Hartsbourne, Lee Park and Naylorsfield, beyond the Prefabs, were mostly retained as farm land until the 1960s when the land was acquired for development.
Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
attended Joseph Williams Primary School, then in Sunnyfield Road on the Prefab estate, from 1949 to 1953. He travelled by bus to the school because of the shortage of school places in
Speke Speke () is a suburb of Liverpool. It is southeast of the city centre. Located near the widest part of the River Mersey, it is bordered by the suburbs of Garston and Hunts Cross, and nearby to Halewood, Hale Village, and Widnes. The rural are ...
where he lived. The site of the former school, now opposite Viennese Road and Dorchester Road, is now occupied by new housing while an adjacent site was used to build a retirement living development called ''Joseph Williams Mews''.
Jodie Comer Jodie Marie Comer ( ; born 11 March 1993) is an English actress who rose to global prominence for her role as Oksana Astankova / Villanelle in the BBC America spy thriller '' Killing Eve'' (2018–2022). She has received various accolades in ...
started acting at a weekend drama school called CALS Theatre School in Unit E2 (currently occupied by Poundstretcher) in Belle Vale Shopping Centre when she was about 11 years old. Every Saturday she did an hour each of singing, dancing and acting.Jodie Comer


Education

Schools in Belle Vale include Childwall Valley Primary School, Belle Vale Community Primary School, Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Primary School and Belle Vale Sure Start.
Gateacre School Gateacre School is a secondary school and sixth form located in Belle Vale, Liverpool, England. The school is co-educational with both male and female pupils from years 7 to 11 and throughout the sixth form. History The school was built in tw ...
relocated to land off Hedgefield Road, including part of the former Reggie Smith Playing Fields, in 2011. The move funded by the Building Schools For The Future scheme cost £30 million.New Gateacre School
/ref> The football facilities formerly on the site were relocated to a new centre at nearby Caldway Drive in Netherley.


Places of worship

* St Stephen's, Church of England, Belle Vale Road, "Gateacre", Liverpool, L25 2PQSt Stephen's Gateacre
* St Mark's, Church of England, Cranwell Road, "Childwall Valley", Liverpool, L25 1NZSt Mark's Childwall Valley
/ref> * Our Lady of the Assumption, Roman Catholic, Hedgefield Road, "Gateacre", Liverpool, L25 2RW * Carmel Mar Thoma Church, Cockshead Road, Liverpool, L25 2RBCarmel Mar Thoma Church
/ref> * Salvation Army, Liverpool Valley Corps, Mildenhall Road, Liverpool, L25 2SNSalvation Army
/ref>


Football

Gateacre School Gateacre School is a secondary school and sixth form located in Belle Vale, Liverpool, England. The school is co-educational with both male and female pupils from years 7 to 11 and throughout the sixth form. History The school was built in tw ...
is the home of
West Cheshire League The West Cheshire Association Football League (commonly known as the West Cheshire League) is an English football league in the county of Cheshire, which also includes teams from Merseyside. Its current principal sponsor is ''Carlsberg'', also ...
Division Three side ''Gateacre F.C.'' who were founded in 2012.


Transport

Belle Vale has its own small bus interchange next to the shopping centre on Hedgefield Road, connecting to, among other areas, Huyton and St Helens eastbound and Woolton, Halewood, Garston and
Speke Speke () is a suburb of Liverpool. It is southeast of the city centre. Located near the widest part of the River Mersey, it is bordered by the suburbs of Garston and Hunts Cross, and nearby to Halewood, Hale Village, and Widnes. The rural are ...
southbound. From May 2012 it briefly gained a service to Liverpool city centre, but lost it from January 2013 when the service was extended to Netherley and reverted to using stops on nearby Childwall Valley Road, along with other services between Liverpool city centre and Halewood or Widnes. The area has not had a train service since
Gateacre railway station Gateacre (for Woolton) railway station was located on the North Liverpool Extension Line on the north side of Belle Vale Road, Gateacre, Liverpool, England. Next door was the Black Bull public house which still stands. Official maps, ticket ...
closed in 1972; the disused railway trackbed has been converted into a cycle and pedestrian path from Aintree to Halewood, forming part of the
Trans Pennine Trail The Trans Pennine Trail is a long-distance path running from coast to coast across Northern England entirely on surfaced paths and using only gentle gradients (it runs largely along disused railway lines and canal towpaths). It forms part of ...
.


References


External links


Lee Valley Library

Belle Vale Prefabs Project
Pictures and Written Memories of post-war prefabs past dwellers {{Authority control Areas of Liverpool