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The History of Liverpool

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Because of the sparsity of archeological findings, very little is known of the ancient history of the land around what is now Liverpool, although given the importance of water to man both for food and transport it is safe to assume that our ancestors lived on the banks of the Mersey. There is little evidence as the Mersey shoreline has altered over the millennia and the lack of building materials in the alluvial soil means that evidence of buildings may never be found.

The earliest finds date back to the Mesolithic period 8500-4000 BC but the only finds have been these flint tools in Croxteth Park.

The Iron Age 700 BC - 43 AD. In the long period between the Mesolithic period and the Roman Occupation in 43AD, man became more and more sophisticated and evidence of an Iron Age settlement has been found in Halewood for example.

For further details and pictures of findings, visit Liverpool Museums Field Archeology site.

Officially Liverpool has existed since 1207, when King John (1167-1216) the son of Henry II needed a port for the embarcation of troops to subdue Ireland. John, infamously was the treacherous and violent King who succeeded his younger brother  Richard I (The Lionheart) in the days of the mythical Robin Hood. His final humiliation was the forced signing of the Magna Carta before he was probably poisoned at the age of 49.

The next 400 years saw very little change but as the 18th Century opened the city as we know it arose. The great impetous was the docks and the slave trade followed by the famine in Ireland causing mass emigration to the United States via Liverpool and later  by the industrial revolution and the worlds insatiable demand for manufactured goods. Liverpool became England's 2nd city and the construction of magnificent buildings is testament to the wealth generated by the merchants and shipowners of Liverpool.

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