Visited the garden centre there again yesterday; every time I walk round the old courtyard area I wonder about the history of the buildings, so I thought I'd try to find out a bit more. One in particular (to the right of the blacksmith's) looks very old, has had bits added on - you can see by change from stone to brick - and has structural timbers visible inside it. They're painted an alarming shade of blue at present - I mean, honestly...!

One is called The Old Barn and has a sausage shop in it. The building containing the little deli/coffee shop also looks very old, stone-built, low doorway, signs that it once had three stable-style doors. Nice simply carved stone lintels, too.I have looked online but can find no history of the farm other than that attached to the garden centre, which is celebrating its 30th birthday this year.

I've looked at the tithe map online, 1840-ish, to confirm what was in existence then, but don't know if there's any way to find maps older than that, as I reckon a couple of the buildings could be quite a bit earlier. Does anyone have any ideas please?

Is this of any help?

http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/m...9056666666742457891814410686492919921875

Thanks for that - the OS first series marked it, interestingly, as 'The car houses'! Before any cars, as well. Someone must have missed an 'r' off. That's a lovely map of Wirral, actually; funny that it's called NE Denbigh when most of it's Wirral.

Carr means wetland or marsh and that area certainly was/is. Car on the other hand could just be a shortened version of carriage and possibly where horse drawn carriages were kept. Just my tuppence worth.

Going back in time Wirral was part of Wales. Not sure how, why or when things changed.

Possibly political boundary changing.

If the 'Carr Houses' were part of Carr Farm then they certainly date back to before 1800 as they appear on Burdett's Map of Cheshire.

Ooh... Burdett's map of Cheshire - something else to look at! Thanks. Had another look at the buildings this morning over a cuppa with a friend; with the exception of one stone building, the deli, they've all been altered/added to over the years, and look rather like brick/stone patchwork.

Oops - looked at Greenwood's map of 1817 as well, and I now see that Car(r) Houses would not have been part of Carr Farm, as they were further east, more or less where Saughall Road meets Hoylake Road now. Carr Hall Farm is another old farm where the conservatory people have a display now, also along that road - there's a good-looking set of stone buldings there, actually.