Creation of harthill
Calderstones Park
The 33 acres of the Harthill estate, Allerton, was originally the home of the Bibby family and was purchased by the Council in 1913 for the sum of £20,250.
John Bibby (1775–1840) founded the Bibby Line in 1807. The Bibby Line had operated in most areas of shipping throughout its 200 plus years of history.
Calderstones Park, 94 acres in extent, the home of Charles MacIver, one of the founders of the shipping company that became Cunard, was itself purchased in 1902, for the sum of £43,000.
Design
Their “scheme” was range of glasshouses as a collection of growing and propagating houses, heated and cold frames, show houses, together with potting sheds, a soil sterilization plant and permanent buildings for storage.
The show houses and propagating houses have individual access onto, and are served by, a central corridor, this corridor being linked directly to the potting sheds etc.
The show houses are sited on the south of the central corridor and access by the public would be through a small entrance vestibule, and the public would be restricted from the area of the propagating section.
The Committee agreed that the new Botanic Gardens should be housed at Calderstones Park, and therefore the range of greenhouses as suggested, now, will ultimately serve for these Botanic Gardens, but must, for the time being, be used entirely for propagating purposes.
The scheme of greenhouses will occupy approximately the same area as those at the [Wavertree] Botanic Gardens with a slight addition in the area occupied by cold frames.
The Build
The Echo said in May 1963:
“...the Chairman said that the idea of re-creating the Botanic Gardens at Harthill had come from Mr P. H. Conn, the Parks Chief Superintendent, in 1951, when the work, including the erection of a number of new greenhouses, had been estimated to cost £59,212.
A start was made in the following year. and the scheme was now nearing completion, but when three more greenhouses had been built, the fernery completed, and a sun colonnade provided, the cost would be about £73,726.