The old English name for 'Wavering tree'
Probably most local historians would agree
That is the name we give to Wavertree.
People lived here we can gauge
As far back as the bronze age.
We know this reasoning to be sound
Because in the 1860s workmen unearthed a mound
And were staggered when they found
Bronze urns and artefacts lying in the ground.

Below the brow of Mill Lane, where a windmill once rotated,
A cross of sandstone marks the place where the Monks' Well was located.
In 1414 an inscription was written to the reader:
'Qui non dat quod habet Daemon infra ridet.'
'Those who do not give are laughed at below by the Devil.'
To be on the safe side, the locals in the know would just lob in a pebble.
And across the way the old lock-up still holds sway
Completed in 1796 those sandstone bricks still stand firm today.
The villager's own money built that little jail;
It was to cage overnight any drunks who overdid the ale.

It was 1884 when first in Wavertree
A new landmark appeared for all to see
It was a tall clock tower that marked the hour
A gift from Architect James Picton
At the base some thoughtful words were written
'Time wasted is existence; used is life."
A dedication to Sarah Pooley, Sir James's, loving wife

And set in the wall, just before Thingwall Road
What do we make of the symbolic code?
Some say it is known that the horseshoes set in stone
Mark the place of a horse thief's gallows
Others say that it denotes the fires of ancient blacksmith's bellows
Or are those signs just a gaffe, or a crafty Artisan having a laugh?

And then, in 1910 there was a superb plan
And construction of Wavertree Garden Suburb began
A Capital venture of some undertaking
With eighteen hundred dwellings in the making
But with only three hundred houses completed
The first world war sadly saw much of the work force depleted

There is so much more one could recount, so much more to tell
The cuttings at Olive Mount, the smallest house,
The old town hall, the Coffee House Hotel.
Yet the one- thing folks in Wavertree could never all forgive
If it wasn't said that Wavertree is a fine place in which to live

TONY LYNCH
May 2018