Vale Park Mansions
In the last century there existed an attractive residential area known as 'Liscard Vale', in part of which Vale Park is now situated. It boasted several smaller houses and two mansions, one of which, known as 'Liscard Vale House' for many years, still survives, and for some time duly as a cafe for visitors to the park. An early occupant and possibly its builder, was Richard Bateson, a Cotton Broker, who subsequently moved to 'Newland House' in Wallasey Road, but in 1844 the property was purchased by Charles Holland, a Liverpool Merchant, who had previously been living at 'West Bank'. a large house standing in its own grounds at what is now the corner of Egerton Street and the Promenade. That house is no longer in existence, but is commemorated by West Bank Avenue off Magazine Lane.
'Liscard Vale House' when first built, was much smaller that it appears today and if care is taken to view the building one can easily see the original dwelling before it was enlarged. The early house is seen on the left hand side in a regency style character of tasteful proportions. It was a very nice looking house but when Charles Holland purchased the property it was too small for his family, he had nine children, so he enlarged it and added the Victorian exterior.
Charles Holland was an offshoot of a well known family which is said to have originated at Up Holland, Lancashire, in the 13th Century, and was later to be found at Sandle Bridges, near Knutsford. His parents were Samuel Holland, a prosperous merchant living at No.126 Duke Street, Liverpool, then a fashionable residential area, and his wife Catherine, daughter of John Menzies, a Liverpool Accountant, while his own wife was Elizabeth Gaskell, daughter of a Warrington sail-canvas manufacturer. She was well known locally for her readings at the old Egremont Institute on Tobin Street, a centre of culture in those days, and her brother William, a Unitarian Minister and Professor of English Literature in Manchester, provided her with an illustrious sister-in-law, in as much in 1832 he married Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson, better known as "Mrs Gaskell", the authoress of "Cranford", "Mary Barton" and other works, and biographer of Charlotte Bronte. As Mrs Gaskell's mother was a Holland of Sandle Bridge, who had married Thomas Stevenson, Keeper of the Treasury Records, and taken up residence in Chelsea, Mrs Gaskell was also a cousin of Charles Holland. Another cousin was Henry Holland, who spent a brief period in business in Liverpool, later studied medicine in Edinburgh, and after commencing practice in London in 1816, was subsequently appointed Physician to Queen Victoria. He was created a Baronet in 1853, and his eldest son eventually became Viscount Knutsford.