A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1907.
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'Townships: Fazakerley', in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3, ed. William Farrer, J Brownbill( London, 1907), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp28-31 [accessed 8 November 2024].
'Townships: Fazakerley', in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3. Edited by William Farrer, J Brownbill( London, 1907), British History Online, accessed November 8, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp28-31.
"Townships: Fazakerley". A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3. Ed. William Farrer, J Brownbill(London, 1907), , British History Online. Web. 8 November 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp28-31.
In this section
FAZAKERLEY
Fazakerley, 1321; Phesacrelegh, 1333.
In the thirteenth century Fazakerley was one of the Walton town fields, adjoining which, as the woodlands were cleared, there grew up a hamlet and ultimately a township. Extending about two miles in each direction, this township has an area of 1,709 acres. (fn. 1) It is separated from Walton by the brook called Fazakerley or Tue Brook, and from West Derby partly by Sugar Brook up to the point where it is spanned by Stone bridge. At the junction of these brooks on the border of Kirkby in the north-east the lowest level, about 50 ft. above the Ordnance datum, is reached; the greatest height is about 100 ft., on the south side of the township. The country is extremely flat and treeless, with nothing to recommend it to the passer-by, for it seems to be a district of straight lines, devoid of any beauty. Rather bare fields on the south and east under mixed cultivation give some variety to the pasture land. The geological formation is triassic, the southern part of the township consisting of pebble beds, and the northern part of the upper mottled sandstone of the bunter series. The population in 1901 numbered 1,887.
Agriculture is the chief occupation, but the jam works established here have attained considerable magnitude, and on the Aintree border have given name to a little town known as Hartley's Village.
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's railway from Liverpool to Manchester crosses the township with a station called Fazakerley, near which is a junction with the branch line to the Liverpool docks. Here are the company's signal works. The Cheshire Lines Committee's railways from Liverpool to Southport and to the Mersey docks also pass through the township.
The cottage homes for the children of the West Derby Union are situated near the station. Harbreck House has been transformed into an infectious diseases hospital by the Liverpool Corporation. The Everton Burial Board have a cemetery, and the Jewish connexion have a small burial-ground on the Walton border. The West Derby sewage farm occupies the eastern edge of the township.
The township was included in the City of Liverpool in 1905.
MANOR
The early history of the manor is obscure, Henry and Richard de Fazakerley, the first of the local family on record, appearing towards the end of the thirteenth century. (fn. 2) Richard had three sons— Henry, Richard, and Robert; (fn. 3) and Henry's son Robert de Fazakerley was lord of the manor for about forty years. (fn. 4) After his death the succession is again uncertain. Robert de Fazakerley, who married Ellen de Walton and claimed her father's manor, obtaining a third part, emerges in the first quarter of the fifteenth century; (fn. 5) and later, Thomas son and heir of Roger. (fn. 6) The visitations of 1613 and 1664 place on record a few generations. (fn. 7) The family adhered to the Roman Catholic faith at the Reformation, (fn. 8) and to the king's side in the civil war, Nicholas Fazakerley losing his life in the cause at Liverpool in 1643. (fn. 9) The family estates were sold by the Parliament, (fn. 10) though probably much was recovered. Spellow and the third part of Walton manor were alienated about 1726. (fn. 11) Fazakerley, however, was retained or recovered, and in the eighteenth century the family is stated to have conformed to the Established Church.
The estates passed to John Hawarden, who took the name of Fazakerley, (fn. 12) and afterwards to Henry Gillibrand, of Chorley, who took the name of Hawarden Fazakerley; his son Henry dying childless, the daughters succeeded. The eldest, Matilda, married in 1863 Jocelyn Tate Westby, of Mowbreck, who assumed the name of Fazakerley-Westby. (fn. 13) The manor of Fazakerley, however, had been sold about 1820. In 1825 the hall was the residence of Richard Bullin, nephew of Thomas Leyland, of the adjacent Walton Hall; (fn. 14) these properties have since descended together.
The Molyneux family of Sefton (fn. 15) claimed a manor here in virtue of their holding; other families of the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries which may be named were the Bridges, (fn. 16) Tarletons, (fn. 17) Stananoughts, (fn. 18) and Whitfields. (fn. 19) The ancient family of Stonebridgeley appears to have died out, (fn. 20) but the place of this name was known in 1639. (fn. 21) Edward Fazakerley of Maghull, and Robert Turner of Fazakerley, were among the church surveyors of 1650. (fn. 22) As 'papists' Percival and Thomas Rice of Liverpool, and William Harrison of Rainford, registered estates here in 1717. (fn. 23)
Samuel Hawarden Fazakerley, John Fazakerley, John Atherton, and Richard Higginson were the chief contributors to the land tax of 1785.
A schoolhouse was built in 1725 by Samuel Turner.
Emmanuel church was in 1902 licensed for service under the rector of Walton.