The earliest settlers in the area of our two school sites were the Vikings who probably found the area via the small stream 'Tew - Brook' which ran along the side of Green Lane. The stream (forced to run under the road now) was named after Tiw (Tew) the Viking God of War (from where we also get the name Tuesday). Nearby our Bankfield School Wing sits Tew-Brook House built in 1615. The oldest house in Liverpool.
Tew-Brook House
Due to the mossy marshy land nearby, the area we today call Stoneycroft was called originally Blackmoor Moss, and the part of Queens Drive near Quarry Road was called Black Moss Lane. The only surviving building from this era is Black Moss Cottage that sits opposite St Peters Church on nearby Derby Lane. At the other end of Black Moss Lane stood 'Holly Lodge' and 'Mill House' mansions and of course the Mill itself which was where the Jolly Miller Pub stands now.
Map of Quarry Road School Site in 1893 Small 'Mill Bank' Quarry still remains (Note Bankfield House top left)
Blackmoss Quarry One of many sandstone quarries in the area
The ‘stone’ from the name Stoneycroft presumably takes it’s name from the many sandstone quarries that used to be there. The largest of these was Blackmoss Quarry, behind what is now the Queens Pub on Queens Drive. There were quarries under what is now Moscow Drive and Derwent Road and of course our own Quarry Road.
The sandstone that was dug up would have gone into the making of many buildings in the area (including St James Church on Mill Lane in the 1850s) but the quarries were also used to store ice, some of which was shipped over from Norway! The ice was kept refrigerated underground before it was sold to the wealthy Merchants who lived in the area.
Map of Quarry Road School Site in 1923
Quarries now gone - site used for Allotments now
Sometime during the 1920's the Quarry Road quarries were filled in and the site was turned into Allotment Gardens. It was used for this purpose up to the building of our school.
Prior to the building of Bankfield School there stood Bankfield House, built in 1840 and home to rich Tobacco Merchant John Hignett. The small gate house to the mansion still stands today.
The school’s badge incorporates the cross of Richard Molyneux the first Earl of Sefton who lived in Croxteth Hall, West Derby.
The motto 'Ingenio Vivmus' Latin for 'We Live By Our Skills".
Hignett's Tobacco Tin
From which
Bankfield House owner
John Higgnett made his wealth.
The crest of Richard Molyneux the first Earl of Sefton From which our badge comes
