Norris Green - Past and Present

I completed a project recently which covered the photographic history of Norris Green from 1920 to the present day. The images are now available on one disc and they are free of charge to all interested parties.

The images of Norris Green convey some mixed emotions, some of despair and others joy; this inter-war council estate has been through all the whole social changes and has come out of it battle scarred and weary after years of being kicked around by local council regimes, in fact some still shudder at the thought of the very name NORRIS GREEN. You could be sent to live there yourself, some say they would rather live in Baghdad.

The history of this estate in North East Liverpool goes back further than the 1920s, in fact it goes back to the 1600s. This parcel of land was populated by farmers and the farm labourers who worked the land by producing corn and wheat that would feed the population in the city centre.

The place came to prominence shortly after the first world war and a vast tract of land was carved up to be used for social housing; again the land was to be used to re-house the city centre dwellers who lived in the slums. Once the slum clearance began, Norris Green became home to thousands.

The original tenants felt as though they were right out in the country, there was no gas or electricity and there were no pubs or worse still no pawnshops. There were no schools, no churches, no roads and no decent transport system. After ten years of this 40% of the original population moved on.

I will soon be writing a book on Norris Green and hopefully it will be out by spring; in it will be photographs and a full written history, if any interested parties are out there then contact me on timminsvinny@hotmail.com