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Map sources for Croxteth at grid reference SJ405961

Croxteth is a suburb of Liverpool, on Merseyside and a Liverpool City Council Ward. Although housing in the area is predominantly modern, the suburb has some notable history. The name is believed to derive from a contraction of 'Crocker's Staithe', or the landing place of Crocker, which is a likely reference to a Viking landing via the River Alt, which passes through Croxteth and at the time of the Viking invasion of Britain was navigable through the area. The similar root is also possible for Toxteth.

The suburb is adjacent to Croxteth Hall, the former home of the Earl of Sefton, and close to West Derby, another suburb that predates Liverpool, being recorded in the Domesday Book. The 'Dog and Gun' Public House (closed, 2005) is a historic hostelry, likely associated with the hunt from Croxteth Hall.

The first tranche of housing in Croxteth was built to rehouse families from the Scotland Road area of the City that was subject to mass demolition during the construction of the second Mersey Tunnel. Within the past twenty years very large areas of the Croxteth Hall estate and a City Council playing field have been sold for housing development to create a huge housing estate, noted for its lack of local amenities.

The area is serviced by three secondary schools (11-18); St. John Bosco (Catholic Girls), De La Salle (Catholic Boys) and Croxteth Community Comprehensive (State Mixed).

Manchester United and England footballer Wayne Rooney and Blackburn Rovers footballer Francis Jeffers have both lived in Croxteth from an early age and both attended De La Salle School.

From the A580 road (the Liverpool-East Lancashire Road, abbreviated to and known commonly as East Lancs Road) passing Malpas Road to St. Swithens including the much talked about haunting of Gillmoss school Croxteth was one of the first "suburbs of Liverpool" Croxteth Park, a development, came many years later.

The first houses in the Croxteth estate were in fact built in the immediate postwar period to house skilled workers from Slough and Rugby who had been brought in to the English Electric and Napier factories on the East Lancs Road), and families from the dock area wards who had lost their homes through bombing and slum demolition. The second tunnel came much later. The first families arrived in 1951 to live in an estate that was without roads, pavements, shops, pubs or buses.

• Council Ward profile

Coordinates: 53.45827° N 2.89757° W