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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Danny Rigg

City street with 'lovely neighbours' where cows once grazed

A city street with "lovely" neighbours once hosted a herd of cows.

Woolton only joined Liverpool 110 years ago. Before that, it was a village on the edge of a growing city until the urban sprawl spread beyond it. "In some ways, it's hardly changed at all", according to 71-year-old Barbara, who's lived in a terraced house on High Street all her life.

In her childhood, what's now the Grade II listed home of Liverpool Cheese Company was still a dairy, owned by Barbara's friend's grandparents, with "a herd of Jersey cows" grazing on the grassy verge opposite the mismatched row of mostly brown stone houses.

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The retired office worker told the ECHO: "They used to bring them up here and down to the field adjacent to the Derby Arms in the morning, and at night they would bring them back. The lady sometimes delivered the milk with a horse and cart."

Barbara added: "It's still a village, but the traffic obviously has built up quite a lot. When I was growing up, it was a village with your greengrocers. Now it's estate agents and restaurants. Very few villages haven't changed over that length of time."

A snowman on Woolton High Street's grassy verge, where dairy cows once grazed (Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

Despite the changes, Barbara wouldn't dream of moving from this street with two churches, one of which is now a care home. High Street is too well connected - cross the the road and a bus will take you to Liverpool city centre in just over half an hour, or to South Parkway train station in 10 minutes. Plus she has "lovely" neighbours, who themselves have lived here for decades.

Although the road is busy during rush hour - making it too dangerous for kids to play out, according to Barbara - it's actually "very quiet" the rest of the time, neighbour Ann said. The 57-year-old moved here nine years to find a place she could relax after living with her dad.

Woolton High Street is home to two churches, one of which is now a care home (Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

She said: "I'm from a big family, you see. My mum and dad had 10, so the house was never empty. I'd come home from work and the house would be full. I'd go in and they'd eaten all me bleedin' food, so I was like, 'Oh I'm getting off'."

Woolton might not be as rural as it was over a century ago, but it's surrounded by "beautiful trees", and parks where Barbara walks her dog. One resident, who asked not to be named, moved here eight years ago, in part because of the "beautiful view" she can see from her house.

She said: "The other day it was beautiful when it snowed, so is the village when the Christmas tree and the lights go up. You've only got to walk over there and you've got a beautiful woods, you wouldn't know where you were."

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