Wikipedia

Belle Vale, Liverpool

Belle Valeis a district of south-eastLiverpool,Merseyside,Englandand aLiverpool City CouncilWardthat covers both Belle Vale and Netherley.

Belle Vale
Our Lady of the Assumption
(Roman Catholic church in Belle Vale)
Belle Vale is located in Merseyside
Belle Vale
Belle Vale
Location withinMerseyside
OS grid referenceSJ337927
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townLIVERPOOL
Postcode districtL25
Dialling code0151
PoliceMerseyside
FireMerseyside
AmbulanceNorth West
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Merseyside
53°23′42″N2°51′40″W/ 53.395°N 2.861°W/53.395; -2.861
Sign indicating Belle Vale Shopping Centre from Childwall

Description

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The Belle Vale area shares borders withHuyton,Netherley,GateacreandChildwall.The main road in Belle Vale is Childwall Valley Road (B5178) running from Childwall through to Netherley. The oldNorth Liverpool Extension Line(loop line) at the back of Hartsbourne Avenue is often considered to be the border between Belle Vale and the neighbouring districts of Childwall and Gateacre.

Belle ValeDistrict Centrehas a number of amenities including a fire station, police station, health centre, large shopping centre,[1][2]and alsoBelle Vale Park.The Belle Vale Junior football league now plays in nearby Netherley. The district is often linked with Childwall or Gateacre, which are neighbouring districts. The Belle Vale area is also divided with different housing estates having their own local names, such as Hartsbourne, Lee Park and Naylorsfield. You will also find past and modern references to the area being in Gateacre further adding to the confusion.[3]

District signage erected by Liverpool City Council in 2005 did not include Belle Vale as a distinct district leaving the area in somewhat of a quandary. Signs were put up on Childwall Valley Road sayingGateacre(southbound towards the shopping centre and Netherley) andChildwall(northbound towards Childwall). The centre of Belle Vale effectively falls within the area identified asGateacreby the signs, withChildwalldeemed to begin north of a new school and health centre. The area's identity as Belle Vale is recognised by the names of various local amenities including the health centre, shopping centre, police station and fire station.

Thepostcodefor Belle Vale is L25, which is also the postcode for nearbyWooltonandGateacre.

History

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Belle Vale was historically part of the parish of Childwall and part of the township of Little Woolton.[4]Little Woolton was absorbed into the City of Liverpool in 1913.[5]At the beginning of the 20th century Belle Vale was a hamlet within the rural district of Little Woolton. It consisted of cottages, farm buildings and Belle Vale Hall, an old twelve acre estate on the corner of Wambo Lane and Belle Vale Road. In 1901 Belle Vale Hall was owned by Thomas Harrison, a merchant and ship owner.Rex Harrison,the actor, who was related to the family, visited the hall when he was a boy. In the 1920s the estate became a fruit farm and traded asBelle Vale Orchards Ltd.The Hall was demolished in 1929.John Irwin Sons & Co. Ltdhad a jam factory on the site in the 1930s and 1940s. After 1960 the factory produced spam, initially asBlue Cap Foodsand later asNewforge.The site of the factory is now occupied byMorrisonssupermarket and petrol station which opened in 2003. Part of the estate grounds survived to becomeBelle Vale Park.[6]

The first church in the district was St Stephen's, Church of England, built between 1872 and 1874 in Belle Vale Road. It was initially used as a chapel of ease to Childwall church until Gateacre was made a parish in its own right in 1893 and St Stephen's became its parish church. It was designed by Liverpool architectCornelius Sherlockwho also designedChurch Cottagesnext to the church. The cottages were built in 1880 bySir Andrew Barclay Walkerfor his estate workers. The cottages remained part of the Walker estate until put up for auction in 1917. In the garden in front of the church there is a stone memorial cross inscribed with the names of those local men who died in the First World War and Second World War. The west window in the church was designed byEdward Burne-JonesforMorris & Co.and was a gift fromSir Andrew Barclay Walkerin memory of his first wife who died in 1882.[7]

Over one-thousandprefabricated homeswere erected on land around the hamlet, namedBelle Vale Estate Gateacreon the plans, between 1945 and 1947, to provide affordable rented accommodation for people whose homes were destroyed in bombing raids on the city duringWorld War II,making it one of the largest Prefab communities in the country.[8]Its most famous former resident isSir Terry Leahy,previously chief executive ofTesco,the UK's biggest supermarket chain. Leahy is also President of the Belle Vale Prefab Project.[9][10]From the mid-1960s the Prefab estate was cleared. It was replaced by new housing and a shopping centre by the mid-1970s.Our Lady'sRoman Catholic church, initially built on the Prefab estate in 1949, relocated from across the road from the current location ofGateacre Schoolplaying field to Hedgefield Road in 1965.[3] Hartsbourne, Lee Park and Naylorsfield, beyond the Prefabs, were mostly retained as farm land until the 1960s when the land was acquired for development.

Paul McCartneyattended Joseph Williams Primary School, then in Sunnyfield Road on the Prefab estate, from 1949 to 1953. He travelled by bus to the school because of the shortage of school places inSpekewhere he lived.[11]The site of the former school, now opposite Viennese Road and Dorchester Road, is now occupied by new housing while an adjacent site was used to build a retirement living development calledJoseph Williams Mews.[12]

Jodie Comerstarted acting at a weekend drama school called CALS Theatre School in Unit E2 (currently occupied by Poundstretcher) in Belle Vale Shopping Centre when she was about 11 years old. Every Saturday she did an hour each of singing, dancing and acting.[13]

Education

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Schools in Belle Vale include Childwall Valley Primary School, Belle Vale Community Primary School, Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Primary School and Belle Vale Sure Start.

Gateacre Schoolrelocated to land off Hedgefield Road, including part of the former Reggie Smith Playing Fields, in 2011. The move funded by the Building Schools For The Future scheme cost £30 million.[14]The football facilities formerly on the site were relocated to a new centre at nearby Caldway Drive in Netherley.[15]

Places of worship

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  • St Stephen's, Church of England, Belle Vale Road, "Gateacre", Liverpool, L25 2PQ[16]
  • St Mark's, Church of England, Cranwell Road, "Childwall Valley", Liverpool, L25 1NZ[17]
  • Our Lady of the Assumption, Roman Catholic, Hedgefield Road, "Gateacre", Liverpool, L25 2RW[3]
  • Carmel Mar Thoma Church, Cockshead Road, Liverpool, L25 2RB[18]
  • Salvation Army, Liverpool Valley Corps, Mildenhall Road, Liverpool, L25 2SN[19]

Football

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Gateacre Schoolis the home ofWest Cheshire LeagueDivision Three sideGateacre F.C.who were founded in 2012.

Transport

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Belle Vale has its own small bus interchange next to the shopping centre on Hedgefield Road, connecting to, among other areas, Huyton andSt Helenseastbound and Woolton, Halewood, Garston andSpekesouthbound. From May 2012 it briefly gained a service to Liverpool city centre, but lost it from January 2013 when the service was extended to Netherley and reverted to using stops on nearby Childwall Valley Road, along with other services between Liverpool city centre and Halewood or Widnes.

The area has not had a train service sinceGateacre railway stationclosed in 1972; the disused railway trackbed has been converted into a cycle and pedestrian path from Aintree to Halewood, forming part of theTrans Pennine Trail.

References

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  1. ^Belle Vale Shopping Centre
  2. ^Photograph of shopping centre
  3. ^abcOur Lady Gateacre
  4. ^Little Woolton
  5. ^Liverpool
  6. ^Beryl Plent & Mike Chitty.Gateacre & Belle Vale,2009, pp. 55-56.
  7. ^Beryl Plent & Mike Chitty.Gateacre & Belle Vale,2009, pp. 62-64.
  8. ^Prefabs
  9. ^BVPP Newsletter
  10. ^Belle Vale Prefab Project.More Prefab Days (Belle Vale Remembers),2008, pp. 102-103.
  11. ^"Paul McCartney".Archived fromthe originalon 10 December 2015.Retrieved9 December2015.
  12. ^"Joseph Williams Mews".Archived fromthe originalon 22 December 2015.Retrieved11 December2015.
  13. ^Jodie Comer.
  14. ^New Gateacre School
  15. ^"South Liverpool Football Club".Clubbz.Retrieved14 August2012.
  16. ^St Stephen's GateacreArchived2015-05-18 at theWayback Machine
  17. ^St Mark's Childwall Valley
  18. ^Carmel Mar Thoma Church
  19. ^Salvation Army
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