West Derby, Lancashire Poor Law Union

History
The first historical reference to a parish workhouse in 1731 refers to a workhouse in West Derby, Low Hill.

In 1777 West derby is omitted from the Parliamentary report, but workhouses are included at: Allerton capacity 50 Childwall 60 Wavertree 50

The West Derby Poor Law Union formally came into being on 31st January 1837. Due to the size of the Toxteth Park population and the huge population growth in this and neighbouring Liverpool Union which was organized by a parish Vestry system, the Toxteth Park parishes left the West Derby Union to operate as a Poor Paw Parish, Toxteth Park Poor Law Union.

In 1922 the Liverpool Poor Law Union and Toxteth Park Poor Law Union were wound up as Parish Vestry and Parish Unions and all of their establishments were united within the West Derby Poor Law Union.


 * Mill Road Workhouse and Hospital

Initially the Union continued use of West Derby Low Hill site but planned and built a new workhouse 1838-1840 which came into use in 1841. (Low Hill continued to be used to house Liverpool Poor law Union paupers )

The Mill Road workhouse proved inadequate and was damaged by fire on 21 March 1843. It had no provision for an infirmary and the building had no means of isolating infectious diseases.

In 1891-1893 the site was rebuilt as an Infirmary The infirmary's architect was Charles H Lancaster who also designed the Union's buildings at Fazakerley and Alder Hey. The building had provision for both mental and general nursing and medical care.

The Infirmary was to become Mill Road Maternity Hospital. The buildings were closed demolished and site redeveloped to form residential housing.


 * Walton-on-the-Hill

Rice Lane Walton was built as a new workhouse 1864-1869. It was designed by William Culshaw who was also the architect of the nearby Toxteth Park workhouse. The Walton workhouse initially accommodated 1,200 inmates and its construction cost £65,000. It gradually expanded and by 1930 could hold up to 2,500.

Later it became Walton Institution and from 1948 Walton Hospital. The site was redeveloped to form residential housing within the original structure when Walton Hospital closed in the 1990’s.


 * Belmont Road Workhouse

In 1889-1890 a workhouse to house vagrants was built at Belmont Road. It provided 35 beds for women, and 44 for men, with venereal wards.

This workhouse became Newsham General Hospital. Virtually all the buildings have now been demolished.


 * Fazakerley Cottage Homes

Cottage homes for the accommodation of pauper children were erected at Fazakerley in 1888-9 to designs by CH Lancaster. They homes could accommodate a total of 650 children. In 1965, the site became a home for children with learning difficulties. It is used by social services to provide day centre and training facilities.


 * Alder Hey Hospital

On 3rd March 1911, Mr JS Davy laid the foundation stone for a large new hospital at the west side of Eaton Road at Alder Hey. Completed in 1915, it provided accommodation for 1,000 chronic and bed-ridden patients. During the First World War, Alder Hey was used as a military hospital. After the war, its role changed into that of a dedicated children's hospital. The site continues to house one of England’s leading specialist Children’s Hospitals, a regional resource for Northern England.


 * Seafield House

In 1914 West Derby Union converted and extended a former convent on Waterloo Road at Seaforth to provide accommodation for 'mental defectives'. The inmates of the institution, known as Seafield House, were mainly children. At the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939, all the children were evacuated to Greaves Hall Hospital, Southport. Deysbrook House Deysbrook House, on Deysbrook Lane in West Derby, was a convalescent home for children. Shaw Street Homes In 1914, the union took over Working Boys' Homes 101 and 103 Shaw Street (formerly known as the Wesleyan Mission Boys' Homes). In 1914 it was taken over by the West Derby Union. It became known simply as the 'Boys' Home' in 1948. The union also administered a Domestic Training Home for Girls at 57 Shaw Street.

Constituent Parishes
The Union included the following;

Aigburth, Lancashire, Bootle St Mary, Lancashire, Childwall, Lancashire, Croxteth Park, Lancashire, Everton St George, Lancashire, Everton Christ Church, Lancashire, Garston, Lancashire, Great Crosby, Lancashire, Kirkby, Lancashire, Kirkdale St Mary, Lancashire Knotty Ash St John the Evangelist, Lancashire, Litherland Christ Church, Lancashire, Seaforth, Lancashire, Sefton, Lancashire, Thornton, Lancashire, Toxteth Park, Lancashire, Toxteth Park St Clement, Lancashire, Toxteth Park St James, Lancashire, Toxteth Park St John the Baptist, Lancashire, Toxteth Park St Thomas, Lancashire Walton on the Hill St Mary, Lancashire, Wavertree Holy Trinity, Lancashire, West Derby St Mary, Lancashire

Aintree, Allerton, Bootle-cum-Linacre,, Little Crosby, Fazakerley,  Ince Blundell, Kirkby,  Lunt, Netherton, Orrell and Ford. Later Additions (from 1894): Seaforth, Waterloo.

Records

 * Liverpool Record Office and Local History Service, Central Library, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EW. Holdings include: Guardians' minutes (1848-1930).
 * Mill Road — limited holdings include: Creed Register (1870-1939). 614 MIL/1/1 Creed Registers. There are creed registers from the West Derby Union Infirmary and the Mill Road Infimary. The time-span of the registers frequently covers an unusually long period of time because of lunacy cases which were often very long-term. The most consistent dates for each register are listed beneath each individual volume. Volumes 614 MIL/1/1/28 - 32 are in no obvious internal order, but the approximate dates covering each volume are given. (100 year privacy policy operates) 614 MIL/2/5 Maternity Registers. Details in columns include: year, number, month number, name, number, address, age, whether emergency admission, classification of admission, date of admission (after 1970 only), date of delivery, how labour started (until 1969 only), presentation (until 1969 only), complications (until 1969 only), method of delivery, third stage of births (until 1969 only), details of analgesia or anaesthetic (until 1969 only), time in labour (until 1969 only), details of baby, weight, deformities etc., whom delivered by, whom supervised by, whether medical aid sought, comments, details of afterbirth (until 1969 only), date of discharge, details of feeding and discharge weight. Some later volumes after 1970 have a list in the back of mothers who had been booked to give birth at Mill Road but had not done so due to unplanned home/ambulance births or alternatively mothers and/or their babies who had given birth/been born in another hospital but then were transferred to Mill Road. All volumes have statistical totals for each page, a monthly one to date and a final monthly one. All volumes are indexed, except volume 614 MIL/2/5/1. (100 year privacy policy operates due to sensitivity of personal information)
 * Walton workhouse — only a few miscellaneous records survive (1866-1935).
 * 353 SEL/22 Kirkdale Industrial School Admission and Discharge Registers 1862-1865
 * 353 SEL/23 Kirkdale Industrial Schools, Classification Registers 1845-1897
 * Belmont Road (Newsham Hospital) — holdings include: Admission and discharge registers (1924-1970); Birth and death registers (1909-1988).
 * Fazakerley Homes.
 * Alder Hey — no early records survive.
 * Seafield House (Greaves Hall Hospital) — various records (1914-75).
 * Shaw Street Boys' Home — Admission and Discharges (1934-51)

Hale Parish chest and Poor Law records, 1675-1831 Microfilm copy of original at the Cheshire Record Office in Chester, Cheshire, England. Hale was a chapelry in Childwall parish. Cheshire Record Office call no.: BDL/19-25, 27-28, 30-32, 34, P290/4514/11. Churchwardens' accounts, 1675-1736, 1741-1772 Township books, 1697-1799 Overseers' accounts, 1718-1760, 1774-1798 (All items were fire-damaged with some being illegible.) FHL BRITISH Film 2045908 Items 5-11 Overseers accounts, 1798-1821 Bastardy papers, 1744-1829 Settlements in Hale, 1729, 1741, 1746, 1809, 1819, 1831 Settlements outside Hale, 1705, 1707, 1725-1726, 1728, 1731-1732, 1734-1735, 1738, 1741, 1753, 1763, 1809, 1818, 1823, 1827, 1830-1831 Removal orders, 1707, 1723, 1726, 1728-1729, 1732, 1740, 1742, 1748-1749, 1756, 1789, 1801, 1810-1811, 1819-1821, 1824-1825, 1831 FHL BRITISH Film 2045909 Items 1-5 Constable accounts and papers, 1740 1744-1745, 1749, 1823, 1829 Surveyors' accounts, 1773-1791 Apprenticeship indentures, 1715, 1717, 1725, 1727-1729, 1740-1741, 1745-1747, 1751-1752, 1754, 1757-1760, 1769, 1774, 1785-1786, 1801-1802, 1805-1806, 1811, 1813, 1822-1823, 1825, 1828, 1831

Garston District Board of Health General district rate books, 1854-1894 Microfilm of original records at the Liverpool Record Office. Liverpool Record Office no.: 354 GAR 2/1/1, 354 GAR 14/1/1-35, 354 GAR 14/2/1-3, 354 GAR 14/3/1-4, 354 GAR 15/1/1, 354 GAR 15/2/1-2, 354 GAR 28/1/1-4, 354 GAR 29/1, 354 GAR 30/1. Highway rate book 1852-1854 District rate books 1854-1855 FHL BRITISH Film 1656116 Items 18-20 Board of health rate books 1855-1867 FHL BRITISH Film 1655924 Board of health rate books 1868-1876 FHL BRITISH Film 1655925 Board of health rate books 1877-1883 FHL BRITISH Film 1655926 Board of health rate books 1883-1887, 1892 FHL BRITISH Film 1655927 Board of health rate books 1892-1894 Board of health highway rate books 1856-1858 Board of health special rate books 1854-1858 Returns of births 1877-1878 FHL BRITISH Film 1655928 Returns of births, 1877-1879 Returns of deaths, 1861-1881 General district rate books, 1895-1899 FHL BRITISH Film 1655929 General district rate books, 1898-1899 Returns of deaths, 1898-1900 Reports of operations, 1884-1916 FHL BRITISH Film 1655930 Items 1-4

West Derby Board of Guardians Minute books, 1848-1930 and a punishment book, 1880-1934 Microfilm copy of original records at the Record Office in Liverpool, England. Includes indexes. Liverpool Record Office no.: 353 WES 1/1-58, 13/5. Minute book Apr.-Dec. 1848 FHL BRITISH Film 1655289 Item 7 Minute books Oct. 1848-July 1857 FHL BRITISH Film 1655290 Minute books Apr. 1857-Mar. 1862 FHL BRITISH Film 1655291 Minute books Mar. 1862-May 1872 FHL BRITISH Film 1655292 Minute books May 1872-Aug. 1880 FHL BRITISH Film 1655293 Minute books Sep. 1880-Sep. 1884 FHL BRITISH Film 1655294 Minute books Oct. 1884-Feb. 1888 FHL BRITISH Film 1655295 Minute books Feb. 1888-Dec. 1890 FHL BRITISH Film 1655296 Minute books Dec. 1890-Sept. 1893 FHL BRITISH Film 1655297 Minute books Dec. 1893-Jan. 1897 FHL BRITISH Film 1655298 Minute books Jan. 1897-Mar. 1899 FHL BRITISH Film 1655299 Minute books Feb. 1899-May 1901 FHL BRITISH Film 1656107 Minute books May 1901-Jan. 1907 FHL BRITISH Film 1656108 Minute books Jan. 1907-Nov. 1909 FHL BRITISH Film 1656109 Minute books Nov. 1909-Dec. 1912 FHL BRITISH Film 1656110 Minute books Dec. 1912-Oct. 1915 FHL BRITISH Film 1656111 Minute books Oct. 1915-July 1922 FHL BRITISH Film 1656112 Minute books July 1922-Feb. 1927 FHL BRITISH Film 1656113 Minute books Apr. 1927-Mar. 1930 Punishment book 1880-1934 FHL BRITISH Film 1656114 Items 1-4

Websites
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?WestDerby/WestDerby.shtml Peter Higginbotham’s website contains maps and images of the Union.