Mike Royden's Local History Pages

Plan of Liverpool Castle

This plan was made by the 19thc local historian Edward Cox. A paper detailing his methods and findings can be found in the Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire & Cheshire (1892) vol.42 pp195-252. The paper is entitled 'An attempt to recover the plans of the castle of Liverpool from authentic records; considered in connection with medieval principles of defence and construction'
Several plans and diagrams are included.

Liverpool Castle

Liverpool Castle - from an original watercolour by H.Magenis after a contemporary painting of Liverpool c.1680 by a Dutch artist, the so called 'Peters' painting as it was in the possession of Ralph Peters during the eary 18thC. This view is the earliest surviving view of Liverpool before the rapid development of trade with the Americas. To the left of the Castle is the Town Hall, below which Water Street runs to the shore and the Tower of Liverpool.

Liverpool Castle

Liverpool Castle

Liverpool Castle - pen and ink drawing in the Athenaeum Library, origin unknown, dated 1715, prepared for the head of a map. It is taken from near St.James' Mount (site of Anglican Cathedral), looking west. Cox gives certain creedence to the picture, although there is far too little detail for it to be of good use. The curved tower may have been an iron support for a weather vane, as the Corporation at this time gave orders for the repair of a street at 'the cock of the castle' - this may have been the reference. Again, for discussion see
Cox,E.W. 'An Attempt to Recover the Plans of the Castle of Liverpool from Authentic records; Considered in Connection with Medieval Principles of Defence and Construction' in T.H.S.L.C. vol 42 (1892) p.195-254.

Liverpool Castle

Liverpool Castle - image of the castle sketched by Daniel King to illustrate Camden's Britannia in 1656. Whereabouts of this sketch were unknown by Cox's time - he fails to track it down to test its authenticity. Nevertheless, this view is also rejected as inaccurate. (see Cox,E.W. 'An Attempt to Recover the Plans of the Castle of Liverpool from Authentic records; Considered in Connection with Medieval Principles of Defence and Construction' in T.H.S.L.C. vol 42 (1892) p.215/6.

Liverpool Castle

Liverpool Castle - sketch included in
Touzeau,J. 'The Castle of Liverpool' in The Rise and Progress of Liverpool Vol.1 (1910) p.349-358.

Custom House and Castle

This view shows the Tower of Liverpool, the third Custom House and the Liverpool Castle c.1680. The sketch was drawn by the historian and illustrator W.G. Herdman in the mid 1800's, no doubt based on detail in the Peters' Painting.

Plan of Liverpool Castle

This plan is from Gregson's Fragments relative to the County Palatine of Lancaster (1824). This comes from a Minute Book of the Duchy of Lancashire published in 1663. None of the inner structures are recorded and Gregson added the outlying buildings himself. Cox again discusses this plan, including its errors, and he supplies his own survey. (See 'plan of castle').
Cox,E.W. 'An Attempt to Recover the Plans of the Castle of Liverpool from Authentic records; Considered in Connection with Medieval Principles of Defence and Construction' in T.H.S.L.C. vol 42 (1892) p.195-254.

The Pool of Liverpool

Th Pool of Liverpool reconstructed model of what Liverpool may have looked like during the late medieval period, based on documents, images and other sources. (Model in Liverpool Museum). The castle is in the centre, while the Tower of Liverpool sits on the shoreline to the left.

St.George's Church

By the early 1700's the castle had become an eyesore and clearly a thorn in the side of the Corporation.

Soon afterwards, they petitioned Queen Anne for the lease, with a request to use the site for a church (originally, when Liverpool broke away from Walton Parish in 1699, the site was intended to be used for the Parish Church. Matters clearly couldn't wait and St.Peters was erected in Church Street in 1704).

Work began to level the area and the last vestiges of the Castle had disappeared by 1726. The new church of St.George, designed by Thomas Steers, engineer of the first dock, was constructed on the site and consecrated in 1734.

Within twenty-five years however, the Spire developed major structural problems although it was not demolished until the early 1800's. In 1819 a new foundation stone was laid, but as work progressed further defects in the church structure were discovered and it proved necessary to rebuild the whole church. The second St.George's was designed by John Foster jnr. and completed in 1825. Foster also designed St.George's Crescent, erected around the perimeter of the Square four years later (demolished 1941).

Dwindling congregations, resulting from inhabitants moving away from the town centre, led to the demolition of St.George's in 1899. The present Victoria Monument was erected in 1902.

This sketch is of the original church in the 18th century.

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