Further to my posts about Robert Griffiths’ 1907 book on the history of Toxteth Park, in the first chapter dealing with the ancient history of the wider area, Griffiths mentions a Roman road that had been unearthed in 1855.
The pavement was found just 300 yards from St. Mary’s Church, Grassendale, 7 feet below the modern road level. Further evidence of early occupation was discovered in 1863 when Roman coins were unearthed in Otterspool. A possible further section of the road was found when the Cheshire Lines railway (Now the Merseyrail Hunts Cross to Southport line) was being constructed. Evidence of Roman occupation in the area is extremely scarce, Griffiths describes the exciting finds as:
ROMAN REMAINS.
Evidences of the Roman occupation have also been brought to light in the district. In 1855, in excavating for sewers, some three hundred yards east of St. Mary’s Church, Grassendale, “a Roman pavement was discovered about seven feet below the present surface, and evidently running in a south-easterly direction towards Garston or Hale. The pavement was formed of large and small boulder stones closely joined together and laid flat, and was perfectly level and without any rise in the centre. The surfaces of many of the stones were worn smooth by traffic.”
A year of two previously another portion of the same road was found at the depth of five feet near Otterspool, similarly paved.
About the commencement of the year 1863 a gardener in the employ of Oliver Holden, Esq., upon his mansion bordering the creek at Otterspool, turned up with a spade a number of brass Roman coins dating from the year A.p. 268 to A.D. 324. These came into the possession of Mr. Henry Eckroyd Smith, and are fully described by him in his pamphlet Nota. of the Arch. and Nat. Hist. of the Mersey Dist. Towards the end of the same year some navvies employed in the construction of the Cheshire Lines Railway from Liverpool to Manchester via Garston, also unearthed near the riverside of this old creek a number of similar coins.
The map used is the OS 25 inch 1841-1852 (Revised 1905)
National Library of Scotland
I was able to locate the article in the 1858 edition of ‘The Builder’ that Griffiths mentions. Of the possibility of the two sections of Roman road being part of the same route it says:
The present Aigburth-road was made about twenty-five to thirty years ago; but the former road, which was nothing more than a field track, seems to to have followed nearly the path of the Roman road.
The author is Edward Walker Cox, a broker and local historian. The story of the Roman road next to St Mary’s church must of been of special interest to Cox as he lived nearby in Grassendale Park (he had moved to Fulwood Park by 1871).
Cox wrote 19 papers for the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire from 1889 to 1899. These included a conjectural reconstruction of Liverpool Castle in 1892 and the only surviving drawing of the Lower Lodge of Otterspool, one of the two supposed ancient hunting lodges of King John and birthplace of astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks. You can read about the Lower Lodge here.
The article Griffiths mentions that details the coin finds at Otterspool is available to read in the archives of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire; Notabilia of the archaeology and natural history of the Mersey district during three years, 1863-4-5, Compiled by Henry Ecroyd Smith and read on 3rd May 1866.
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The Priory and the Cast Iron Shore 
