Historic Liverpool Dwellings - Dove Park Mansion

Dove Park was one of the many mansions and mansion lodges of Victorian merchants and worthies built on Woolton Hill to command the views across the River Mersey to Wirral and Wales or eastwards towards The Pennines, and several mansions have stood on the site adjacent to Church Road over the past 200 years. In many cases they were owned by these great 'Victorians' who contributed in a variety of ways to the development of the City of Liverpool. The Walled Garden, one of Reynolds Park's finest features today was the creation of an early owner, John Crosthwaite. It was he who, in 1828, had bought 8½ acres of land from 'Richard Weston & others', the assignees of John Weston, a Liverpool merchant  and slave trader who invested in more than 20 voyages and who had acquired land under the 'Childwall, Great and Little Woolton Inclosure Act' of 1805 but by 1813 Weston was bankrupt. John Crosthwaite was a West India Merchant, a Trustee of the Blue Coat School, and a director of the Demerara Railway (Guyana) and a man who also had undoubtedly profited greatly from the slave trade. He was also Director of the Great Western Railway, who set the standard rail gauge for the British Rail system, still in use today. Bennison's Map of Liverpool shows that by 1835 he had built a substantial house, walled garden and outbuildings here. The Much Woolton Tithe Map of 1840 shows that, by that time, the walled garden was almost complete, and the sunk fence at the boundary of the 'pleasure grounds' was in place. Another resident here was John Farnworth, a former Mayor of Liverpool in 1856, and benefactor of half of the cost of St. James Methodist Church, Church Road South, and all of the cost of The Manse, High Street, both in Woolton.

James Philip Reynolds, born in 1865 at Hillside, Acrefield Road, Woolton, was a cotton broker in the family firm, Reynolds & Gibson, which had been founded in Liverpool in 1810 by his great-grandfather. He and his wife had spent their early married years at Elm House in Halewood Road, Gateacre, before moving to Fern Lea in Quarry Street and then to Dove Park. Before the Reynolds family, with their 12 children, took residence in 1907, Dove Park was the home of George Cope, a tobacco manufacturer ('of Liverpool and London') who had bought it at auction in 1873 and whose widow sold it in 1907. It was the Cope family who had enlarged the original estate (and its house, on the site of the present-day sheltered housing complex, Calvert Court, Church Road) by acquiring an adjacent property which had its entrance in Woolton Hill Road. This next-door house, which was demolished around 1886, had been the home of John Dennison, a retired Liverpool ironmonger who was also a 'conchologist' (his collection of shells was acquired by Liverpool Museum). Woolton Park was called Dennison Road in the 1861 Census, so presumably he had been involved in its creation as well.

Originally the entrance lodge to the early 19th century Dennison's House which was situated adjacent to the deep stone quarry on Woolton Hill Road. Although the house was demolished in 1886 the driveway to the house continued to be known as 'Denison's Road' and lead to Dove Park, later to be renamed Reynold's Park

The Reynolds family, owning not only Reynolds Park but also a Welsh castle and Levens Hall, Cumbria had long been known for their philanthropic work. James Reynolds, although beyond military age, served in France during the Great War and was awarded the DSO. He was knighted in 1920 and was bestowed with a Baronetsy. In 1929, having retired from active cotton broking, he became M.P. for the Liverpool Exchange division, with houses in London and Abercromby Square, Liverpool.

Dove Park mansion was greatly damaged by fire on 2nd June 1921 with the house being rebuilt in the 1920s, and was in use as a functions venue until being demolished in 1997. It had remained empty since the serious fire. Reynolds Park was given to the city of Liverpool in 1930 by Sir James Reynolds. It was, he said, "a thank-offering to my city for a successful business life of forty-seven years". He died in 1932, and, as a Roman Catholic, was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's Woolton. Leila Reynolds continued to live at the park and together with Prof. Sir Charles Reilly (Head of the School of Architecture at Liverpool University 1904-33) designed the Yew Garden and the outdoor dining area, in a fashionable 'European Modernism' style. This unique topiary feature was laid out in the late 1920s and was a renowned centre for the gatherings of the academia of Liverpool University and the literary/arts set of the time, echoing the 'modernism movement' and the attendant life style.
Reynolds Park as we know it today, with the addition of Dove Park in 1907, has developed over the past years and now stands within the boundaries of the 1929 bequest. Unusually for its period the 14-acre park has not been eroded by land sales and provides a key asset to the immediate local community. It could well be described as a 'hidden gem', providing an area of passive recreation and contemplation, with the capacity to absorb limited informal recreation for families, and a safe and secure haven for young children. The original parkland was of fairly modest proportions until that date having been sub-divided in accordance with the requirements of the Enclosures Act 1805, to provide common grazing lands. It comprises 14-acre (57,000 m2) area of open lawns, formal gardens and woodland on a sloping east-facing site bounded by Church Road to the west, Woolton Hill Road to the north and Woolton Park Road to the south and east, and is surrounded by a high sandstone wall. There are entrances from the various roads, with the main entrances guarded by lodges. These originally gave accommodation for the gardeners, and continued to do so when it became a public park, but are now in private hands.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/02/historic-liverpool-dwellings-wavertree.html