Eight miles southeast of Liverpool city centre, Speke sits close to the widest stretch of the River Mersey, bordered by the suburbs of Garston and Hunts Cross. To the south lies the rural area of Oglet, while Halewood, Hale Village, and Widnes are all within easy reach. The suburb is perhaps best known today as the location of Liverpool John Lennon Airport, called Liverpool Speke Airport until 2001.
History and Growth
The name Speke traces back to the Old English Spec, meaning brushwood, or the Middle English Spek(e), meaning woodpecker. The settlement appeared in the Domesday Book as Spec, with Speke Hall listed among the properties of Uctred. In the mid-14th century, the manors of Speke, Whiston, Skelmersdale, and Parr were held by William Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre. Speke became a separate civil parish in 1866, having previously formed part of the parish of Childwall, and was absorbed into Liverpool on 1 April 1932 after belonging to the Whiston Rural District. At that point, its population stood at just 384. The Liverpool Corporation purchased the Speke estate in 1928 for £200,000, intending to build a self-contained satellite town. Under development directed by Sir Lancelot Keay from the 1930s onward, the population grew from roughly 400 to more than 25,000 by the end of the 1950s. The Speke estate had been held by the Watt family from 1795 until 1921, when the family line died out; All Saints Church was built by the last resident owner of Speke Hall, Miss Adelaide Watt.
Industry and Economic Change
Speke Airport, constructed between 1930 and 1933, was the second busiest airport in the UK by the start of the Second World War, though post-war control by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in London saw it lose that position by the 1950s. Industrial activity grew steadily until the mid-1970s, then declined sharply over the following two decades, hit hard by the recessions of the early 1980s and early 1990s. The closure of the Bryant and May match factory in December 1994 and the earlier closure of the Triumph car plant were among the most prominent examples of that decline. When the 2000 Index of Multiple Deprivation was published, Speke ranked as the second most deprived ward of all 8,414 wards in England and Wales, behind only Benchill in Manchester. Pharmaceutical manufacturing has provided some economic continuity, with companies including Eli Lilly and Company (Elanco), MedImmune, and Novartis operating facilities in the area.
Speke Hall
Speke Hall is a Tudor timber-framed house now owned by the National Trust and open to visitors. Its history stretches back to the Domesday Book, and it remains one of the most well-preserved examples of a black-and-white half-timbered manor house in the country. The hall first appeared in the Domesday survey and continued as a private residence until the Watt family line ended in the early 20th century.