The name Gateacre is pronounced gat-ick-er, thought to derive from 'gata' - the way - to the 'acre field' of Much Woolton although Gateacre was never a township in its own right. One of the oldest buildings surviving in the village is probably Grange Lodge in Grange Lane, a house which retains some 17th century features. Among the wealthy Victorians who moved to Gateacre was Sir Andrew Barclay Walker, the Scottish-born brewer who was knighted in 1877 following his gift of the Walker Art Gallery to Liverpool. In 1867 Andrew had entered the Liverpool town council and in 1873, to celebrate his election as Mayor, he offered to donate an art gallery to the town, gifting £20,000 of his own money. In the late 1860s Walker moved from Huyton Park and settled in Gateacre, having commissioned in 1866, the local architect Cornelius Sherlock to rebuild Gateacre Grange on Rose Brow. He again employed Sherlock in 1874 in his project to build an art gallery for the City of Liverpool. Cornelius Sherlock was born in Liverpool to Thomas and Anne Sherlock and, living in Canning Street, was apprenticed to the influential Liverpudlian architect Peter Ellis who designed the Oriel Chambers.
Built in an Elizabethan style and using local sandstone, the 2 storey house had 21 bedrooms, an attic, a drawing room, library, music room, billiard room and smoking room. Extensions took place in 1883 to the north. Rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings and slate roof. With several projecting gabled bays, those to the earlier part have breaking-forward centres and lancets in gables, those to the later part have 2 light windows in gables. Windows of 2 and 3 lights are double chamfered and those to later part have transoms. Entrance on the right return in a gabled porch. The interior has a panelled entrance hall and stair hall with coved ceiling and top light plus rich balusters and a fine stone chimney piece with 2 arched recesses to the over mantel.
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( see more on Walker's life here - http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/07/a-liverpool-exemplar-andrew-barclay.html )
During early 1892 Andrew Barclay Walker was confined to his room at Gateacre Grange for several weeks with a severe illness. It was a sickness he would never recover from and he died on the 27th February 1893 leaving an estate worth £2,876,781. He was buried in the graveyard of All Saints Church in Childwall alongside his first wife. Gateacre Grange was then left to another son, William Hall Walker. Although he began playing polo and racing horses, he is best remembered as a breeder of thoroughbred horses. His most memorable victory was that of Grand National Winner - The Soarer in 1896. There are Soarer cottages in Grange Lane, Gateacre which were built to commemorate the National win and they have the initials W.H.W and the year they were built.
The old house in Gateacre is still there and was formerly Grade II listed as Gateacre Grange (Home for Retired Seafarers), on the 14th of March 1975. After serving as a home for retired seafarers run by the Apostleship of the Sea between 1970 and the late 1990s, it was converted to residential apartments in 2004 after Doyle Properties had acquired Gateacre Grange in 2002. The site compromised of 4.5 acres, a large Victorian building and a series of dilapidated outbuildings and stables. After extensive renovation and development the site is now home to 33 units (1-3 bedroom). As the name suggests those that were originally the stables and outbuildings for Gateacre Grange have been renovated into 5 units (1-3 Bedroom houses) which are accessed via a courtyard. The Gateacre Grange development was named Seafarers Drive.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/01/historic-liverpool-dwellings-62-mount.html
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