In 2015, the Wavertree Society asked for help in tracking down 'Liverpool's lost football stadium'. Known as Woodcroft Park, this venue was described as big enough to accommodate 30,000 spectators. It was the home of Liverpool Caledonians FC who, in 1892, narrowly failed to get elected to the Football League. About a year later the club went into liquidation. Although the ground is said to have continued in use as the home of the Liverpool Old Boys rugby team, and to have hosted occasional cricket matches and athletics events, it had soon disappeared without trace. It is not marked on any Ordnance Survey map, probably because it was created after 1890 (when the 1893 edition of the map was surveyed) and had disappeared by 1905 (when revisions were made for the 1908 edition).

The question was, where exactly was Woodcroft Park situated? Following appeals on the Liverpool City Council and BBC News websites, the Liverpool Echo, and various online football history forums, the Society received numerous suggestions, copies of documents, contemporary newspaper articles and other leads to follow up. In the end, we narrowed down the options to three possible sites - all of them between Picton Road and Smithdown Road, west of the main Liverpool-Runcorn railway line. But in every case, some of the published 'facts' were inconsistent.

Continued . . .