The Wavertree Society was founded in 1977, at a time when many local residents felt that the character of our 'village in the city' was being threatened by the development of the green spaces around the periphery (e.g. Crawfords Playing Fields at that time) and the neglect of some major buildings (e.g. Wavertree Town Hall, which Liverpool City Council was proposing to demolish).

Left: Early publicity material for the Society, such as this article from the local free newspaper 'Merseymart' in April 1979, featured the Lock-up prominently.

Below: The Lock-up on Heritage Open Day 2006.

The City Council had sandblasted the stonework of the Lock-up in the early 1970s - as it had with other Council-owned buildings, all of which had become blackened with smoke pollution. It had also planted numerous trees - mainly Norway Maples - on the village green.

Now those trees - mere saplings in the 1979 photo - have grown to such an extent that the Lock-up is largely hidden from view for much of the year. One of the Wavertree Society's current campaigns is to have some of those trees removed, and replaced by more appropriate species elsewhere.