Arrowe Country Park

About

Arrowe Country Park is a country park in Arrowe Park, Wirral, England, adjacent to the Woodchurch housing estate. The estate upon which the park lies was founded and shaped by John Shaw, a former Mayor of Liverpool who made his wealth from the slave trade. When he died the estate passed to his great nephew John "Ralph" Shaw, who built Arrowe Hall, an Elizabethan-style mansion, and laid out the grounds and gardens. Ralph Shaw was a magistrate who dissuaded people from trespassing on his land with traps including spring-loaded shotguns. In 1926 the estate was bought by the Birkenhead Corporation who turned it over to public recreation. The park's facilities include nature walks, meadows, a lake, an eighteen hole golf course and it is a Site of Biological Interest.

History: The estate upon which the country park now sits was founded by John Shaw, a merchant shipping owner, who made much of his wealth from the shipping of slaves between Africa and Jamaica. He was also the Mayor of Liverpool from 1794–95 and 1800–01, being noted for his charity to the poor and needy. John Shaw retired to the Wirral and purchased Arrowe House Farm, a now-demolished mansion, and continued to buy land...