Beating the Bounds
St Faith's parish boundaries, and the streets within
them,
in the year of our church's consecration and today.
St Faith's in
1900
The parish was carved out of surrounding parishes, but in
the early years the only concentrated urban building was to
the
SW of the church (the 'Tree' roads and the 'Dales') and
the houses around Merchant Taylors' School. To the east lay open fields, although the line of Stuart
Road existed, as did Marldon and Grosvenor Avenues.
Crosby House Farm and Carrfield Dairy are shown to the N.E. The
fields merge into what is now
the Rimrose Valley country park, and the Leeds-Liverpool canal
may be seen bottom right. Victoria Park was created in 1902 and the
roads to the north
of Myers Road West weren't laid out until much later (1925
onwards).
This map, our sleuth John Woodley says, is in fact a
cobbled together version of two maps from different periods.
The northern section is from 1907 and the southern area
(Waterloo) is from 1925. He has taken cartographer's licence
to remove
several streets in the parish to take it back to its probable
appearance in 1900.
St
Faith's in 2014
Today, as Google's aerial mapping shows, the houses are
crammed tight into the parish boundaries. Victoria Park is
prominent, as are the Merchant Taylors' grounds, complete with the new Sports Hall (pale blue roof) and
the cricket squares visible. Across Liverpool Road, Sacred
Heart Catholic College is now fully established. Houses have eaten up most of the empty land, leaving a
strip of green at the edge of Rimrose Valley Country Park,
with the canal beyond.
Population
growth
“Why on earth do you want to build a church miles from
anywhere?”
“It will not always be miles from anywhere.”
Squire Myers (as in Myers Road) replies to Howard Douglas
Horsfall, our founder and benefactor.
Population changes in St Faith’s Parish – 1900 to 2011
Year
No. of roads
Approximate Parish Population
Notes
1901
15
2196
Data gathered from 1901 census,
street by street summary.
1911
33
4454
Data gathered from 1911 census
summary books, (includes 91 occupants of
Nazareth House, 16 adults and 75 children).
2011
56
5300
Data derived from Census Output
Areas by the Diocese
Between 1901 and 1911 the population of the parish increased
by 203%
and between 1901 and 2011 the
population increased by almost 241%.
We reckon that in 2014 a more
realistic estimate of our parish's population would
put it well over 6,000
Thanks to John Woodley for researchand
corrections!
Click HERE for Denis
Griffiths's parish maps.
Click HERE to return
to the church history index page.