Wavertree Playground

Coordinates: 53°23′41″N 2°55′16″W / 53.3947°N 2.9211°W / 53.3947; -2.9211 Wavertree Playground, also known locally as The Mystery was one of the first purpose-built public playgrounds in the United Kingdom. It is based in the Wavertree area of Liverpool, England.

In May 1895, a stately home called "The Grange" was demolished and it looked inevitable that the estate it was based within would used as building for the increasing suburbs of Liverpool. Much to the surprise of Liverpool society, it was however announced that an anonymous donor had purchased the Grange estate together with some adjoining properties, and was presenting the whole 108 acres (0.44 km²) to the City of Liverpool.

The donor had levelled and grassed the area - eradicating the ornamental lake that was once a feature of the grounds - and suggested the name 'Wavertree Playground'. It was to be a venue for organised sports, and a place for children from the city's public schools to run about in, not a park for 'promenading' in the Victorian tradition. He expressed the hope that the City Council "might approve of giving it a fair trial for this purpose ... before appropriating it for any other use".

Wavertree

Coordinates: 53°23′53″N 2°56′01″W / 53.398°N 2.9337°W / 53.398; -2.9337

Wavertree is an area of Liverpool, in Merseyside, England, and is a Liverpool City Council ward. The population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 14,772.Historically in Lancashire, it is bordered by a number of districts to the south and east of Liverpool city centre from Toxteth, Edge Hill, Fairfield, Old Swan, Childwall and Mossley Hill.

History

The name derives from the Old English words wæfre and treow, meaning "wavering tree", possibly in reference to aspen trees common locally. It has also been variously described as "a clearing in a wood" or "the place by the common pond". In the past the name has been spelt Watry, Wartre, Waurtree, Wavertre and Wavertree. The earliest settlement of Wavertree is attested to by the discovery of Bronze Age burial urns in Victoria Park in the mid-1880s. The Domesday Book reference is "Leving held Wauretreu. There are 2 carucates of land. It was worth 64 pence".

Wavertree was part of the parish of Childwall in the West Derby hundred.

Wavertree (ship)

Wavertree is a historic iron-hulled sailing ship built in 1885. Now the largest iron sailing vessel afloat, it is located at the South Street Seaport in New York City.

History

Wavertree was built in Southampton, England in 1885 and was one of the last large sailing ships built of wrought iron. She was built for the Liverpool company R.W. Leyland & Company, and is named after the Wavertree district of that city.

The ship was first used to carry jute between eastern India and Scotland. When less than two years old the ship entered the "tramp trades", taking cargoes anywhere in the world. In 1910, after sailing for a quarter century, the ship was dis-masted off Cape Horn and barely made it to the Falkland Islands. Rather than re-rigging the ship its owners sold it for use as a floating warehouse at Punta Arenas, Chile. Wavertree was converted into a sand barge at Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1947. This ship was discovered in 1967 at the Riachuelo River in Buenos Aires by an American citizen working on a sand barge and acquired by the South Street Seaport Museum in 1968. The ship was sent to the Arsenal Naval Buenos Aires for restoration. In 1969 after restoration was complete, the ship was towed to New York. The vessel was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 13, 1978.

Wavertree (ward)

Wavertree is a Liverpool City Council Ward within the Liverpool Wavertree Parliamentary constituency. It was formed in 2004 taking in parts of the former Picton, Childwall and Church wards.

Councillors

The ward has returned six Councillors

Warren Bradley was suspended and eventually expelled from the Liberal Democrats following allegations of electoral fraud which he later admitted in Court, he contested the 2012 elections as an Independent.

In May 2013, Liberal Democrat Rosie Jolly, who faces re-election in 2014, defected to the Labour Party...

In June 2013, Jake Morrison resigned his membership of the Labour Party, due partly to internal disputes with the local Labour MP and partly over disillusionment with national Labour policies.

Election results

Elections of the 2010s

Elections of the 2000s

After the boundary change of 2004 the whole of Liverpool City Council faced election. Three Councillors were returned.

• italics - Denotes the sitting Councillor.
• bold - Denotes the winning candidate.