Issue 109 – August 2015
GARDEN OF SECRETS
INSIDE THIS MONTH
By Stephen Guy, West Derby Society THE garden was a retreat from the hustle and bustle of life in the growing port of Liverpool where fortunes could be made and lost. Moss House (pictured) stood at the junction of Derby Lane and Moss Lane (now Queens Drive). It was built in 1776 by merchant Peter Rigby two years after he served as Mayor of Liverpool.He and his wife Mary held many social gatherings at Moss House set in open countryside overlooking the port. Local historian R D Radcliffe, who did much to preserve our heritage, described visiting Moss House garden in late Victorian times. Wandering around with members of the Rigby family, they chanced upon the foundations of a summer house or belvedere standing on a knoll or hillock. “It must have been in 1776 quite an extensive view over the open country to Low Hill, Anfield and Everton,” wrote Radcliffe, born in Almonds Green and a member of a prominent West Derby family. “Portions of the stone plinth on which the gazebo had stood were visible.” There were also two fluted
white stone columns which probably flanked the doorway “where many a Rigby and his friends had sat and admired the view long ago”. Another feature was a fivesided walled garden with many greenhouses, fruit trees flowers and vegetables. “At the apex of each of the angles formed by the walls of this oddly shaped enclosure stood a well-shaped stone vase or urn of considerable merit.” Radcliffe returned to the
garden in 1904, shortly before the death of its occupant. The butler, Wallet, showed him an old stone hidden in the bushes. It was the sundial said to have been removed from West Derby Chapel when it was demolished in 1856. The Rigbys gave permission for the sundial to be moved to the south wall of St Mary’s Church where it remains to this day. Moss House was demolished in 1914. Radcliffe records that
none of the garden vases “survived the ignorant, ruthless destruction of the house-breakers and the rough element from the neighbouring town-villages who followed in their wake.” However a lead spout bearing the date 1776 and the initials P & M R was bought by Charles Crosthwaite and can still be seen fixed to The Nook on Town Row. Join the West Derby Society at West Derby Courthouse open 2-4pm most Sundays
LINK 9TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS AND THE WINNERS ARE............. SEE PAGE 3