ELMSVALE HOUSE (continued)
It is built in the local brick common in Gateacre in the 1840s; the front is 2 bays wide, the upstairs sash windows have lost their glazing bars, the downstairs window is a replacement and a canted brick bay has been added to the right. It is noticeable that the heads of these windows are flat rubbed brick arches and the moulded cornice is stone. The left gable end is the entrance front with a fine wide arch, with fanlight, to the wide front door (now obscured by a porch) an elevation of the type of 42 Gateacre Brow but without enrichment to the first floor window. Both these elevations are built in Flemish Bond, the back (south) and west end in the more utilitarian English Bond but with stone lintels to openings. In the yard behind the house is a neat little brick carriage house for carriage, perhaps 2 horses with hay in the loft over, and room for the groom to live above the carriage.

The Recreation Ground - It is recorded in the L.W.L.B. Minutes for 1883 that the Cheshire Lines Committee let the field to the Board as a recreation ground for £10 p.a. (in 1884 the L.W.L.B. resolved that "Mr Blackburn, butcher (of Belle Vale Road) be charged for grazing 5 sheep and a pony on the Recreation Ground at 4d a head a week for sheep and 5s for a pony".) This lease has been renewed since 1913 by Liverpool Corporation until in March 1963 the City Planning Office received an application from the Estates Board of British Rail to develop the land for residential purposes. In his report to the Planning and Development Committee the City Planning Officer advised that the proposal would probably raise strong local objections, there was a football pitch and a bowling green on the ground, and he considered this use as a recreation ground to be important.

The Committee refused the application and resolved that the area be re-defined as Public Open Space. The City Estates Surveyor was instructed to negotiate with British Rail for its sale to the City. The purchase of the freehold of the Recreation Ground was completed in 1966 by the Corporation.

(Note: Gateacre Railway Station was opened 1st December 1879, and closed for passengers 15th April 1972).

If fine we propose to walk along the disused railway line.

This Southport branch of the Cheshire Lines Committee's railway was built from Hunts Cross junction through Gateacre, Knotty Ash, Aintree, Sefton, Hillhouse, Woodvale and Ainsdale on Sea to Southport and completed in 1879.

continued . . .