Netherton is an area of the
Metropolitan Borough of Sefton
The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It was formed on Local Government Act 1972, 1 April 1974, by the amalgamation of the county boroughs of Bootle and Southport, the municipal borough of Crosby, ...
, in
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 ...
.
Description
Situated in the southern part of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, north east of the centre of
Bootle
Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449.
Histo ...
, Netherton is also north of
Litherland
Litherland is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside. It was an urban district, which included Seaforth and Ford. It neighbours Waterloo to the north, Seaforth to the west, and Bootle to the south and is approximately north ...
and to the west of
Aintree
Aintree is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. Historically in Lancashire, it lies between Walton and Maghull on the A59 road, north-east of Liverpool city centre, in North West England.
It i ...
. Netherton also neighbours
Sefton Village.
Netherton is a mostly residential area, comprising the semi-rural Netherton Village, (which consists of privately owned houses set around the old Village Green) and the large
council estate
Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...
built by the former Bootle Borough Council on the other side of the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool.
Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...
.
The estate is unusual in the fact that many of the houses are still occupied by the same residents who moved in as young couples with families when the houses were brand new. The social profile of the first resident population does not comply to modern notions of council estate dwellers. Many of these people were hard working people with middle class aspirations, whose lives and careers were interrupted and often changed forever by the Second World War. However, the demographics of the Netherton area have changed significantly over time. A large number of the male residents moved in from all parts of the country to be key skilled workers at the English Electric factory heavy engineering works on Dunnings Bridge Road.
The main estate, centred on Marian Square, was built in the mid 1950s to alleviate housing shortages in Bootle after the heavy bombing the town suffered during the Second World War. Historical records show that of about 18,000 houses in Bootle, only about 1,000 survived the German bombings completely intact. A remaining 16,000 houses were partially damaged and over a thousand completely destroyed.
The Sefton Estate (which includes Stonyfield, Waterside, Harrops Croft and Higher End Park) was built by Lancashire County Council some ten years after the Netherton estate in the mid 1960s and were the first council houses in the area to have
central heating
A central heating system provides warmth to a number of spaces within a building from one main source of heat. It is a component of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (short: HVAC) systems, which can both cool and warm interior spaces.
...
.
Marian Square is opposite the health centre in Magdalene Square (the two squares are divided by Glovers Lane, and should not be confused). The first shops (approximately five, including a health clinic and opticians) were built on Magdalene Square and were later demolished when the new shops and first new post office on Marian Square were opened. The original plans for the redevelopment for Magdalene Square, which were on view as a model in
Bootle Town Hall
Bootle Town Hall is a municipal building in Oriel Road in Bootle, Merseyside, England. The building, which is the headquarters of Sefton Council, is a Grade II listed building.
History
After significant population growth in the later half of th ...
in 1965, were for a 22 storey tower block and a leisure complex including swimming pool, neither of which were built (probably due to a lack of further investment in the area).
There were also plans for a large ring road to link the motorways at Switch Island, running across fields to the north of the Sefton estate with the centre of Bootle and the landward side of
Crosby Crosby may refer to:
Places
;Canada
*Crosby, Ontario, part of the township of Rideau Lakes, Ontario
*Crosby, Ontario, a neighbourhood in the city of Markham, Ontario
;England
*Crosby, Cumbria
*Crosby, Lincolnshire
*Crosby, Merseyside
** Crosby (U ...
, along a corridor of land which included the Rimrose Valley. The council purchased land along this corridor but the road was never built. There is a large mound of earth next to the small church near the Cabbage Inn (near the present fire station); which shows the start of the earthworks for the flyover linking the proposed ring road to the goods depot on the railway line near the Girobank building on Netherton Way. The proposed ring road is shown on some old Liverpool A to Z street plans.
The unused land in the Rimrose Valley was made into an area of parkland, and new houses are being built on the old allotments at the other end of the Rimrose Valley in Litherland.
Notable firms which hold, or once held, premises in Netherton include:- Braby's; English Electric; Forticrete; Metal Box; Movie (cleaning products); National Girobank; Peerless Refining Co.; North West Timber; Porter Chadburn; Post Office Telecommunications (British Telecom.); Scott's Bakery (now part of Allied Bakeries) and now the site of a large trading estate including Odeon cinema, Matalan store, Dunelm mill furniture store and a pub called the Bakers Dozen; McDonald's restaurant with drive thru, Subway restaurant with drive thru and to a Ben Dunne gym.
Netherton was formerly the home of the
Everton F.C. youth academy, which has now been relocated to
Finch Farm
Finch Farm is the training ground for Everton F.C., in Halewood, in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside within the Liverpool City Region.
The School of Science is the nickname given to the complex by some supporters, referring to a ...
. The land was previously a fire station (the old brick building on the site) and the grounds of Littlewoods Social Club. This area has now been turned into a Goals football centre.
On 19 August 2015 the Thornton to Switch Island link road (
A5758) was opened.
History
Before the Earl of Sefton relocated to Croxteth Hall in the late 18th century the family had a large estate in Netherton, with the main house and outbuildings located on the site of Our Lady of Walsingham school. The deer park is marked on numerous 17th and 18th century maps. and covered a large tract of land between what is now Bull Lane in Walton, Park Lane, Netherton Way, and Bootle Golf Course.
Netherton was anciently a
township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...
associated with the
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
of Sefton, becoming an independent
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
in 1866. It became part of
Sefton Rural District
Sefton was a rural district in Lancashire, England from 1894 to 1932.
It was created by the Local Government Act 1894 based on West Derby rural sanitary district. It included the following parishes:
*Aintree
*Croxteth Park (to Liverpool in 192 ...
under the
Local Government Act 1894
The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...
, and then
West Lancashire Rural District
West Lancashire was a rural district from 1894 to 1974 in Lancashire, England. It was created with other rural districts in 1894, based on the Ormskirk rural sanitary district. It was expanded in 1932 by the abolition of the Sefton Rural Distr ...
in 1932.
Netherton parish lost areas to the
county borough
County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...
of
Bootle
Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449.
Histo ...
in 1940, 1951 and 1968 (reducing the parish from in 1931 to in 1951). The residual parish no longer exists, forming part of
Sefton parish.
The area has been a part of the
Metropolitan Borough of Sefton
The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It was formed on Local Government Act 1972, 1 April 1974, by the amalgamation of the county boroughs of Bootle and Southport, the municipal borough of Crosby, ...
since local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974.
For
parliamentary elections
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
Netherton is within the
Bootle
Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449.
Histo ...
constituency represented by the
Labour Party MP
Peter Dowd
Peter Christopher Dowd (born 20 June 1957) is a British Labour Party politician. He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bootle in May 2015. From 2017 to 2020, he served as the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Early life
D ...
.
For elections to
Sefton Council
Sefton Council is the governing body for the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in the county of Merseyside, north-western England. The council was under no overall control from the 1980s until 2012 when the Labour Party took control. It is a cons ...
Netherton is split between the
electoral wards
The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and distri ...
of
Netherton and Orrell, whose three representatives are Susan Ellen Bradshaw, Robert John Brennan, and Ian Ralph Maher, and
St. Oswald, whose three representatives are Paula Spencer, Carla Thomas and Linda Cluskey. All six councillors who represent the Netherton area are members of the
Labour Party.
Architecture
The oldest houses are to be found at the heart of the old hamlet of Netherton, clustered around the green in what is now known as Netherton Village, just north of the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool.
Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...
. The old catholic
church of St. Benet nearby was built in 1793.
Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist
* Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo
* David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...
, Nikolaus - The Buildings of England: South Lancashire, 1969. Unusually it appears as an ordinary house from the road with the church backing onto what was once open fields. A modern church was built over the road in the 1970s.
Nowadays, Netherton is formed with many modern housing, the most recent being the
George Wimpey
George Wimpey was a British construction firm. Formed in 1880 and based in Hammersmith, it initially operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919, and he developed it into a constructio ...
estate, completed in 2000, built just from Netherton Village green. Housing in this part of Netherton is considered rather desirable, unlike the council-owned housing closer to the town's shopping amenities.
Education
Netherton is home to one secondary school,
Savio High School
The Salesian Academy of St John Bosco (formerly known as Salesian College Grammar School, Savio Catholic High School and then Savio Salesian College) is a Roman Catholic secondary school in Bootle, Merseyside, England. The school is under the ca ...
. Formerly there was St Ambrose Barlow High School, Bootle Grammar School and Warwick Bolam County Secondary School as well as a Girl's County Secondary School. In August 2009,
Bootle High School closed its doors for the last time as students transferred to
Litherland High School
Litherland High School is a secondary school in Litherland, Merseyside, England, headed by interim Principal Mr David Yates since 2019. The school was established in March 1948 as the first post-war school to be built in Lancashire, costing £1 ...
. In December 2009, works started to demolish the school on Browns Lane.
Now however the properties on the council estate are mostly privately owned and were bought under the
right to buy scheme
The Right to Buy scheme is a policy in the United Kingdom, with the exception of Scotland since 1 August 2016 and Wales from 26 January 2019, which gives secure tenants of councils and some housing associations the legal right to buy, at a large ...
brought in by the conservative government under Margaret Thatcher. St Ambrose Barlow was formerly St. Catherine's Roman Catholic High School and was for girls only, also closed on 11 November 2016. The corresponding boys' school was St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic High School, situated approximately on mile away on the other side of the canal.
Transport
Netherton is served by two railway-stations:
Aintree
Aintree is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. Historically in Lancashire, it lies between Walton and Maghull on the A59 road, north-east of Liverpool city centre, in North West England.
It i ...
and
Old Roan
Aintree is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. Historically in Lancashire, it lies between Walton and Maghull on the A59 road, north-east of Liverpool city centre, in North West England.
It i ...
, on the
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, two ...
of the
Merseyrail
Merseyrail is a commuter rail network serving the Liverpool City Region and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail operates 66 railway stations across two lines – the Northern Line and Wirral Line, which are dedicated electri ...
network. The Old Roan station is technically in Aintree, but is on the border between the two areas. Old Roan bus station is next to the railway-station. Buses run from here and Magdalene Square into central
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 ...
(those from Magdalene Square also serve parts of
Bootle
Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449.
Histo ...
) as well as North to
Maghull
Maghull ( ) is a town and civil parish in Sefton, Merseyside (historically a part of Lancashire). The town is north of Liverpool and west of Kirkby. The area also contains Ashworth Hospital.
Maghull had a population of 20,444 at the 2011 Cens ...
,
Ormskirk
Ormskirk is a market town in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England, north of Liverpool, northwest of St Helens, southeast of Southport and southwest of Preston. Ormskirk is known for its gingerbread.
Geography and administr ...
and
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England.
Southport lies on the Irish ...
.
The area is situated close to the major interchange,
Switch Island
Switch Island is a major road junction near Aintree in Merseyside, England, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton. The junction is at the western terminus of both the M57 and M58 motorways, which converge on the A59 trunk road, the north-s ...
, at the end of the
M57 and
M58 motorways.
The
Leeds and Liverpool Canal
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool.
Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...
flows through Netherton and whilst this provides a local amenity, there is very little boat traffic on this stretch of its course.
References
External links
Liverpool Street Gallery - Liverpool 30Netherton Baptist ChurchNetherton Arts CentreNetherton on a Vision of Britain website{{Metropolitan Borough of Sefton
Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton