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During the eighteen and nineteen centuries the former
estates of the Perceval family, comprising well over a thousand acres in the
south of Liverpool, were sold off to become the grounds of fine houses built by
captains of commerce. At the start of the
twenties century they together formed a spacious and well-timbered
corridor that separated the rapidly developing suburbs of Mossley Hill,
Aigburth and Allerton from those of Wavertree and Childwall and also divided
the old township of Woolton from Riverside Garston. In the following thirty
years these appurtenances of individual wealth were to become the property of
the citizens of Liverpool.
The first of them to be acquired in 1902 by the Corporation,
today’s Liverpool City Council, was Calderstones, home of Charles MacIver who
was one of the founders of the shipping company that became Cunard. Thus the
Park became the first link in a chain of ten open spaces that today form as
handsome a green belt as could be found anywhere in urban Britain. 
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In MacIver's old home are the offices of the
Recreation and Open Spaces Department (No
2 on
the map) and views from their windows are as extensive and sylvan as those from a stately house in the heart of the countryside. Most of the trees that MacIver must have
particularly admired are still standing. These includes magnificent
beeches, holms and other oaks, monkey puzzles, cedars and other
conifers, mulberries and walnuts.
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Also in the Park is a
very old oak
(No 6 on the map), with a hollow
trunk, and the legend, highly suspect, is that the Court of the West
Derby Hundred deliberated under it Branches.
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From the main drive (No 1 on
the map) leading to the offices of the Recreation and Open Spaces Department there are views, on the one hand, of a glade leading
to the Allerton Oak, of a rock garden (constructed of Woolton sandstone, this
used for the Liverpool Cathedral) which contains a collection of heaths and
heathers.
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There is a Lake (No 3 on the
map) made in 1932 where Canada geese and mallard cruise sedately round wooded islands. It is used for boating and it is very popular with
anglers, a number of them frequently in position at daybreak. There is a view
from the broadwalk, across the lake, of a pavilion that was used as headquarters
for Liverpool University Athletics until a move to more spacious playing fields
about a mile away.
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On the opposite side of the main drive are a
Japanese garden (No 7 on the map)
and an extensive Old English Garden (No 4 on the
map) of serpentine paths and containing splendid
magnolias, a goldfish pond and a
greenhouse filled with cacti and other succulents. Adjoining the Old English
Garden are formal beds, some of roses, fuchsias and others of spring flowering
plants which are replaced by summer blooming subjects.
Set amongst the rose beds is a
memorial to Jet of Iada (No 5 on the map), an
Alsatian awarded the canine V.C. for bravery during the flying-bomb
attacks on London. The dog was bred close to Calderstones Park and the memorial
was executed by a Hoylake artist.
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