Explore life near HMP Liverpool, with unique Grade II listed homes once housing prison officers and postal workers.
Hornby Road has cottage-like houses where several families live now. These are not typical red brick houses; they’re special, with history inside. These houses are Grade II listed and were built in the mid-19th century.
Wood windows and unique exteriors stand out. A resident lived there over 15 years. They were once homes for prison officers.
Jed Woods, 44, showed the back of his home, mentioning a former pub for the workers. New residents have talked about it for years. Jed heard the houses were for officers.
Some say they were built even earlier. He joked about walking straight to the pub. The houses have thick walls and archways, and he bent a nail trying to hang a picture.
Sharon Russell, 51, and her son Lewis, 23, live nearby. They shared the homes’ history with the ECHO. Lewis said they lived there almost 21 years. They always heard the homes belonged to the prison.
They also learned the Post Office owned them first. Lewis pointed to the largest house, noting that’s where they sorted all the mail. The smaller homes housed the post office people.
Mail went out from the large house, and a car park behind allowed railway access. They sent mail out from the back. Sharon showed the home’s unique features, which include archways carved into the walls.
She said all the homes are different. They changed their house after buying it. Her neighbor’s house has a different layout.
Theirs has three upstairs rooms; next door has two. The staircases are different too. Sharon thinks the houses are beautiful. Nothing else existed when built, she believes.
The large house used to be an office block, and the smaller ones housed Post Office workers. The prison then bought the houses and used them to house wardens. Wardens rented the houses later.
Their neighbor was a warden when they moved in, and he confirmed that story. Lewis mentioned the rooms upstairs. One room has steps going down. Despite the prison’s proximity, Sharon finds Walton quiet.