About Rice Lane City Farm

The Lodges

On the site of Rice Lane City Farm there are 2 lodges, They were built in 1852 and both are fine examples of Victorian cottage, featuring squared sandstone and slated roofs with stone verges and feature Gothic arch doorways.

Note the gargoyles on both ledges, these were to ward off evil spirits and Fleur-de-Lys above the number 1 lodge doorway.

Lodge number 1 is now a private dwelling and lodge number 3 is an office for the city farm.

The Chapel

The recently refurbished chapel has enabled us to develop conservation projects and tackle environmental issues both on and off the site with young people adults and special needs groups

The chapel provides a large multi-purpose room which can be booked during school term times. During the school holidays we run playschemes for local children and utilise this space.

The chapel also contains the tea room which sells snacks and drinks and is generally open February to October, seven days a week.

The summer playscheme is one of the largest and most successful in the city and all activities on the site are free of charge, this includes face painting, sports, inflatables, organise projects etc.

The Cemetery

The cemetery provides a wealth of beautiful countryside within the city... a nature trail gives access to grass and woodland ecology throughout the seasons. The meadows are grazed by the farm animals and in the summer, Liverpool seems miles away; there are many varieties of trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers which attract several important birds and mammals.

The cemetery contains within it's walls a number of war graves and family burial plots. In addition a number of noted Liverpool people are also buried there. The cemtery has a long history connecting it to the two institutions between which it is situated the former workhouse now Walton Hospital and Walton Prison.

Walton Park Cemetery was enclosed by Liverpool Parish church Saint Nicholas at the Pier Head because their graveyard was full; the first burial taking place in 1856.

A typical day would have 10-20 burials, many babies and children who died young, this can be seen in the burial registers and on family tombstones, which often included a list of children.

There were two classes of burial in free and paid ground. If you could afford to pay for your land and funeral you were buried in a family plot on one of the main paths and could have a grand memorial stone that can still be seen today. Such graves include governors of the prison and a past Lord Mayor of Liverpool.

However most of the people buried here were too poor to pay for their funeral and were put in a 'paupers' grave which they had to share with everyone else who was buried that day, many coming from the workhouse. Due to the extent of these graves over half a million people were buried without memorial.

The cemetery includes the now marked graves of Robert Tressel who wrote the 'Ragged Trousered Philanthropist' and James Carling whose illustration of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Rave" are registered as the definitive Poe; more information can be found in the nature trail section.