Edge Hill, Merseyside
| Edge Hill | |
 Sign on Holt Road at the boundary of Edge Hill |
|
  Edge Hill Edge Hill shown within Merseyside | |
| Metropolitan borough | Liverpool |
|---|---|
| Metropolitan county | Merseyside |
| Region | North West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LIVERPOOL |
| Postcode district | L7 |
| Dialling code | 0151 |
| Police | Merseyside |
| Fire | Merseyside |
| Ambulance | North West |
| EU Parliament | North West England |
| UK Parliament | Liverpool Wavertree |
| |
Edge Hill is a district of Liverpool, England. It is located to the south east of Liverpool city centre, bordered by the city centre, Kensington, Wavertree and Toxteth. Edge Hill University was founded here, but moved to Ormskirk in the 1930s.
History
The area was first developed in the late 18th/early 19th century (Georgian era). Many of the Georgian houses of the time still survive. Edge Hill was designated a Conservation Area in 1979. Most of the Georgian property around St. Mary's Church is now English Heritage listed. The later terraces, of the Victorian era, have also largely been demolished. Although some modern housing has been built, the area still has a depopulated appearance, with many vacant lots and derelict pubs and shops.[citation needed]
A notable resident was Joseph Williamson (1769–1840) a tobacco magnate who was responsible for much of the building in the area during the early 19th century.[citation needed] He is remembered as the "Mole of Edge Hill" due to his employing hundreds of men to construct a network of tunnels beneath the Edge Hill area. Part of the tunnel network is now open to the public as a tourist attraction.
In the early 19th century, it was the site of two railway works. Both the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Grand Junction Railway initially set up workshops there, but with little room to expand as business grew, the Grand Junction Railway moved its main locomotive production to Crewe in 1843. The Liverpool and Manchester was absorbed by the Grand Junction in 1845, which in turn became part of the London and North Western Railway in 1846, but locomotives continued to be built at Edge Hill until 1851.
The first Edge Hill station was built in 1830 on a site about 150m from its present location. Of this little remains. There was a "Moorish Arch" with a stationary engine hauling trains up and down from Crown Street Station until locomotive-hauled trains were able to cope with the gradient. The current station dates from 1836 when the main city railway terminus was moved to Lime Street. The station retains its original buildings but is very quiet owing to the sheer lack of population or industry in the area. These buildings are the oldest in the world still open to the public at a working railway station.[1]
Formerly all trains stopped at Edge Hill at the entrance to the tunnel to Lime Street station, giving rise to "getting off at Edge Hill" as a euphemism for coitus interruptus.[2]
Edge Hill was the site of huge railway marshalling yards until the 1960s, sorting trains to and from the docks via the Victoria Tunnel and Wapping Tunnel to Park Lane and Waterloo goods stations on the dockside.
The Old Stableyard on Smithdown Lane once housed Roy Rogers' horse Trigger during a visit to Liverpool.[citation needed].
The Liverpool writer Tom Slemen, author of the bestselling Haunted Liverpool books, was born and raised in Edge Hill.
Crown Street Resource Centre is a mental health resource centre in Edge Hill opened in 1982 and run by Liverpool social services and Merseycare for people living in the Liverpool city area.
Groove Armada wrote a song entitled "Edge Hill" during a period in which they lived in a homeless shelter in the neighbourhood.[citation needed]
Edge Hill University began work in the area in 1885 as a teacher training college, though it moved to its current Ormskirk site in 1933.[3]
References
- ↑ Civil Engineering Heritage: Northern England, p. 250, Rennison, R. W & Barbey, M. F., London (1996)
- ↑ Lern Yerself Scouse, vol. 4: "The language of Laura Norder", Fritz Spiegel, Liverpool (1989)
- ↑ Edge Hill University - History