MEMORIALS OF LIVERPOOL. TOPOGRAPHICAL. CHAPTER I. CASTLE STREET AND THE TOWN-HALL. CASTLE STREFT is to Liverpool what Cornhill is to the City of CHAP. London, Market Street to Manchester, Princes Street to Edinburgh, the Corso to Rome, the Strada di Toledo to Naplesthe embodiment of its character, the centre of its system, to Centre. which everything tends, and from which its influence principally radiates. The genuine "Dicky Sam "1 can form no higher idea Dicky Sam of wealth and prosperity than that exhibited between the Exchange flags and St. George's Church; and scattered as they are over the wide earth, wherever the exigencies of commerce may have guided their wandering course, from the copper-mines of Burra Burra to The continuous woods Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound when the hardy pioneers of Liverpool commerce turn their Courteous reader, take thy stand at the east end of St. George's Church and look around. The irregular circle which extends from the top of Lord Street to the top of James Street, "D. Ay Sam," the local appellation for one born within the sound of the parish bils; probably from the familiar mode of address of the halves in the olien time. VOL. IL B in the centre of which stands the church, is the site of the Castle of Liverpool, the present alignment following pretty nearly the line of the ancient fosse. According to Camden, whose description I have quoted in the historical portion, this castle was built by Roger de Poictou; but for this statement there is not the slightest authority. There is no mention of Laferpoll in any Saxon document; nor does Domesday Book, to which he subsequently refers, give any confirmation whatever to the alleged origin of the castle. The probability is, that Camden had never visited the neighbourhood, and took his information at second hand. We shall see, however, that there was some excuse for the mistake, arising out of the confused mode in which some of the documents mix up the Castles of Liverpool and West Derby. If we turn to Domesday Book, we find that the Manor of Derbe was formerly possessed by King Edward the Confessor; that it passed by royal grant to Roger de Poictou, along with the rest of the lands between the Ribble and the Mersey. At the time of the Survey it is stated: “the demesne of this manor held by Roger is worth eight pounds." It is further stated that "the thanes by custom built the king's houses, with their appurtenances." Demesne, in medieval language, always implies a residence, manor house, or "castle." That such a castle existed in West Derby is a matter of ascertained fact. In the Exchequer Rolls, 24 Edward 1. (A.D. 1296), Edmund Earl of Lancaster is found to have held the Manor and Castle of West Derby, and the Manor of Liverpool. In an inquisition taken 1 Edward III. (A.D. 1327) at Lancaster before Simon de Grimsby, it is stated that there is at West Derby "the site of a certain ruinated castle." After the erection of the Castle of Liverpool, and the incorporation of the borough, the Castle of West Derby seems to have been left to decay. A manor-house was subsequently erected on the site, which in its turn was abandoned, possibly when Croxteth Hall was built. A portion of the ruins remained standing at the close of the last century. The mound on which they stood was subsequently removed, but the site still retains the name of the "Castle Field.” 1 Domaine A principal fief, manor or manor-house; the place whereof inferior fefs are held."-- Citgrave, Danism — Terras et predia que Dm.nus hereditatis non tradit suis tenentibus sed suijsius manibus retinuit.”—Speiruan. |