Just read this article: Clicky Link about the missing stadium of Liverpool Caledonians FC

And while it's not quite wirral it makes for fascinating reading and someone here may have some info on the history of the club perhaps??

They played Tranmere Rovers twice on 31st Oct 1891 and 9th Jan 1892.

Woodcroft Park is known to have been very close to Wavertree Station (a minute's walk away) so I'm sure it can't be that difficult to pinpoint.

You'd think so, but head down to tower grounds in new brighton and there's zero evidence there was once a massive building and a f**k-off-great-big (technical term) tower there.

I have strong suspicion it was in the area where Liverpool Harriers are now, known as "Mystery" or "Wavertree Playground", officially this was only donated to the council in 1895 as it was Wavertree Grange before that, significantly when the Park was opened there were "sporting displays".

That location ties up fully with the description as it is bordered by the other areas that are mentioned as having easy access.

There are very few other possibilities for the distance.

Evidence will be in maps, pictures or old photographs, I've ploughed through a few so far. I'm also having a lot of trouble pinning down "Liverpool Old Boys" who took over the ground after the Caledonians. The Old Boys may have been very short lived as they never played Tranmere Rovers.

The fixtures for Saturday, November 10th, 1900.
West Derby & District League.

Albion vs Liverpool Central, KO, 2-45, Woodcroft Park

Clarence Vs St Athanasius, Wavertree Playground.

Woodcroft could not have been Wavertree Playground.

If present day road names have a bearing on its location and its likely its going to be close, marked red on the map is where Woodcroft Rd is now. Map 1888/1913?

I assumed St Bridget's was the blob in the centre of that land but its actually where is marked "school" on Bagot Street in the top right hand corner.

Dating the maps around that era has been a problem, the main one I was using has a lot of anomalies and would appear to be a lot later than stated as there are areas built up that are still vacant on other maps dated later.

Other maps aren't North orientated which has made things difficult as well combined with various road name changes in the area.

I might have a wander over to the Picton Library and see what I can dig up.

Its good that we know the stadium was there until at least 1900, that makes things a lot easier.

Cheers

Checking Toxteth cemetery burial record's, I can only find one person buried from Woodcroft Road in the 1890's and that was number 1 so there is a fair chance the road wasn't developed until after 1899.

There were people buried from numbers 94, 74, 20 and 71 in 1901.

I wasn't suggesting it was where Woodcroft Rd is/was, but near to it, there's plenty of options if it was only a minute from the station and close to Sefton Park. I'm not so sure it was a stadium as such, one newspaper piece reports about hastily assembling a stand prior to a match. Liverpool Old Boys were a Rugby team, can't find any evidence they were also a football team.

Best thread I've seen on this is HERE

Its a substantial ground. I'm trying to find out which public school Liverpool Old Boys Rugby Club were affiliated to.

My money is on Woodcroft Park being the name of the area in the centre of Bert's map. The small buildings marked B.M.138.1 were actually the remaining outbuildings of a house or farm named Woodcroft that stood just to the south-west, but which had been demolished by the time of the large scale 1891 OS town plan. If the former grounds of the house were afterwards used as playing fields, perhaps the outbuildings were retained for use as changing rooms?

Unfortunately none of the OS maps of the area record the name Woodcroft Park, but given the lengthy gaps between the various map editions and the fact that they were produced 'down south' in Southampton, it's not unusual for local, short-lived names and ephemeral structures such as wooden grandstands to go unrecorded; it appears that the playing fields were only in use for about 10 years, until presumably the construction of Woodcroft Road and the neighbouring streets covered the site.

Could it be The Collegiate, originally public school Liverpool College ?
"Pupils upon graduation from Liverpool College are automatically granted Old Lerpoolian status and are invited to join the Old Lerpoolian Society, a registered company and charity."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_College

Rugby History/ Collegiate included.
http://www.liverpoolcricketclub.co.uk/rugby/history/

Unusually, the Collegiate took up football before rugby, rugby wasn't played at the Collegiate until 1919 and the Collegiate Old Boys didn't start rugby until 1925.

The Collegiate Old Boys FC started in 1909.

So Liverpool Collegiate Old Boys cannot be the Old Boys that played at Woodcroft Park.

Liverpool Blue Coat School based in Wavertree. At some point their team became Liverpool Old Blues.

On this link there is quite a bit about Caledonians, and mentions reporting in the Liverpool Review.
Look at passages after it says 'some pages are omitted from this book preview'

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...william%20cruitt%20liverpool&f=false

May not have been Public School Old Boys, page 128
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...0Old%20Boys%20school%20rugby&f=false

Page 264 notes
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...=old%20rugbeians%20liverpool&f=false

Will say no more, as I might be getting confused now.

Liverpool Old Boys Rugby are stated to be a public school based club HERE along with Liverpool and Broughton, about 3/4 of the way down page 65

http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/wavertreeplayground.html

At the bottom it states that Mr Topp leaked the name of the mystery donor to be a Mr. Holt. (could he be a member of the shipping family ? )
Might shed some more light.

Interesting read.