There’s some interesting tales behind these nicknames
‘Blitz Beach’ in Blundellsands(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
People, especially in Merseyside, love a good nickname. Most of us will have had one in school, and possibly in the years which followed. Some are kind, some are mean and some are just plain funny.
And it’s not just people we give alternate names to, it’s places too. We’ve got easy and more obvious nicknames such as ‘The Pool’ (Liverpool), ‘Crocky’ (Croxeth) and ‘Nogzy’ (Norris Green) however, others are less typical.
Many of Merseyside’s areas and landmarks have been branded with unusual nicknames – often with an interesting story behind them. We’ve taken a look at some of these places and listed them below.
Of course, this isn’t a complete list, so if you think we have missed any let us know in the comments and, if you know, tell us how these places earned their nicknames.
Blitz Beach
Second World War blitz rubble on Crosby beach(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Tucked away on the Sefton coastline, you’ll find a beach that tells the story of lost Liverpool. ‘Blitz Beach’ in Blundellsands is noticeable for the fragments of old buildings that lie strewn across the sand.
The wasteland of bricks, stones and ceramics belong to buildings that were bombed during the Blitz, which devastated the city and changed its landscape forever. For seven nights between May 1 and May 7 1941, Liverpool was heavily bombed by the German Luftwaffe, killing and injuring thousands of people and destroying homes, shops and landmarks.
The remains of some of those buildings can now be found on Crosby beach, from Georgian and Victorian houses to church gravestones. Photos taken by the ECHO show the wartime artefacts that cover the sand, from piles of bricks to the pillars of old buildings and ceramic tiles.
The Rocket
Queens Drive flyover at The Rocket(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
‘The Rocket’ is the unofficial name for the busy junction on Bowring Park Road, by Queens Drive and Edge Lane, which feeds into the M62. It is named after The Rocket pub which is situated there.
The junction is one of the busiest in Liverpool City Region with more than 100,000 vehicles travelling through it daily. The pub which it is named after was built to replace a pub of the same name demolished for the building of the M62 motorway. The Rocket name celebrates the winning locomotive in the first railway competition, which broke down near the site.
L8/Liverpool 8
Toxteth road sign(Image: Andrew Teebay/Liverpool Echo)
Unlike most other areas in Merseyside, many people in Toxteth refer to their hometown by using its postcode, simply calling it ‘L8’ or ‘Liverpool 8’. While most outsiders will call the town by its official name, Toxteth, many of its inhabitants can be identified as locals when they use its nickname. Importantly, however, it doesn’t mark you as an outsider to call the area ‘Toxteth’, but it marks you as an insider if you call it ‘L8’.
Bombed Out Church
St Luke’s ‘bombed out’ Church(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
St Luke’s Church, or the ‘Bombed Out Church’, as Liverpudlians call it, is a famous landmark overlooking Bold Street. The church, which opened in 1832, has been given its nickname due to it suffering catastrophic damage during the May Blitz of 1941, leaving only its external masonry standing.
Overgrown and inaccessible, the site lay derelict for over 60 years, before being cleared and reopened to the public. It is now an established venue for theatre, dance, classical and world music, visual art, cinema, and spoken word, as well as alternate and participatory forms of work.
Dodge
Hereford Drive, in Netherton’s ‘Dodge’ Estate(Image: Google Maps)
The ‘Dodge’ or ‘Dodge City’ estate in Netherton is named after the city of the same name in southwest Kansas, USA, which is known in American culture for its history as a wild frontier town of the Old West.
Park Lane Residents’ Association Press Officer John Small, told the Bootle Times in 1982: “When the estate was first built, there were no shops, and so a mobile phone shop used to visit. One day someone missed the travelling shop and remarked ‘It’s like the stagecoach coming to Dodge City’ and so the name has stuck.”
The Mystery
Wavertree ‘The Mystery’ Playground(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Wavertree Playground is affectionately known as ‘The Mystery’ by locals. The 104-acre park was given to Liverpool Corporation in 1895 by an anonymous well-wisher – the reason why it is known by its nickname.
Later, it was discovered the mystery donor was Philip H. Holt, whose family fortunes were made from the shipping trade, and who also owned the Sudley Estate. Wavertree Playground – the name chosen by Holt – is also called ‘Mizzy’ by some.
Canny Farm
Cantril Farm housing estate in December 1966(Image: Mirrorpix)
Stockbridge Village is often dubbed ‘Canny Farm’, after the town’s former official name, Cantril Farm. The original Cantril Farm council estate was built in the mid 1960s to rehouse some 15,000 people from inner-city slum clearances in Liverpool.
Stockbridge Village Trust Limited was established in February 1983 as a non-profit-making Private Company limited by guarantee. The estate within the Borough of Knowsley, which was owned by the Borough Council, was conveyed to the Trust in April 1983, at the District Valuer’s valuation of more than £7 million.
This resulted in the Cantril Farm Estate being split, with two-thirds owned by the Trust, and one third owned by Liverpool City Council. The main area of the estate was renamed Stockbridge Village, while the section in Liverpool kept the Cantril Farm name. All council properties on the estate were transferred to the Village housing association in 1995.
Yick
East Lancashire Road, Haydock(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
The St Helens town of Haydock is called ‘Yick’ by locals, who are themselves known as ‘Yickers’. And the strange nickname has an interesting origin few people may be aware of.
The term reportedly dates back to the days of copper and coal mining on Merseyside, of which St Helens was a powerhouse. When loading barges on the Sankey Canal to carry coal and copper down to the River Mersey, there was need for a strong but ‘dim’ young man to do a lot of the heavy work, and they were referred to as the ‘yicker’.
Over time the term was adopted by people from surrounding areas such as Parr and used in a derogatory way towards those hailing from Haydock. Historically, Haydock was one of the UK’s richest areas for coal and coal mining, which employed many of the people living in the village.
Two Dogs
Huyton Village(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
“Huyton, Huyton
Two Dogs Fightun’
One’s a Black and
One’s a White ‘un”
The above poem is an old rhyme of unknown origin, mentioned by J.E. Lloyd in ‘English Villages in Rhyme’, published in the Geographical Magazine 1944. Now, the town of Huyton is often nicknamed ‘Two Dogs’ after the poem.
Ropewalks
Bold Street in Liverpool’s Ropewalks(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
The Ropewalks area of Liverpool city centre encompasses Bold Street, Seel Street, Fleet Street, Slater Street and Concert Square – and their many restaurants, bars and nightclubs. A cultural hub for independent businesses, the story behind Ropewalks’ name is an interesting one; it was given its name from the craft of rope-making for the sailor ships that dominated the area in the 19th century.
Cast Iron Shore ‘Cazzy’
“The Cast Iron Shore” as seen from Fulwood Oil Jetty, Dingle in August 1946(Image: Mirrorpix)
The Cast Iron Shore, also known as ‘the Cazzy’, is a stretch of the bank of the River Mersey in South Liverpool, between Otterspool and the Dingle. It gained its name due to the presence of an iron foundry, with excess iron being dumped on the beach and staining the sand with rust residue.
Gerry Marsden and members of the Beatles are among those to have played at ‘the Cazzy’ as children. The Beatles even referenced the beach in their song ‘Glass Onion’ in 1968. Children spent their summers playing at the beach from the 1800s up until the early 1960s, when it disappeared with the extension of the promenade.
The One-Eyed City
View of Birkenhead from Liverpool(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
There’s a few theories as to why Birkenhead is named the ‘One-Eyed City’. One is that the name ‘Birkenhead’ has only one ‘i’ in it, while another is that, when looking across the Mersey from Liverpool, you can only see one face of the town clock.
The Bread Streets
Elswick Street – one of the Dingle’s ‘Bread Streets'(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
The steep Victorian terraces with views out over the River Mersey which make up Liverpool’s “Bread Streets” are some of the most well-known in the Dingle. Since starring in Carla Lane’s 1980s comedy Bread, they have been known, for better or worse, as the “Bread Streets” and are renowned symbols of Liverpool’s urban Victorian terraces.
It might be tempting to think that Bread is the only loaf-based connection to the streets, but the area is actually baked in a history that connects Dingle to the flour processing industry to this day. Nearby Mill Street, once a thriving hub of the Dingle heartlands, was first mentioned in a directory of Liverpool streets in the 1840s.