Lodge Lane Roperies
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with very many thanks to Ken Roberts, who researched, wrote and illustrated this entire article

Liverpool's status as a rapidly growing port led to a thriving rope-making industry from the 17th Century onwards. The process of spinning hemp fibre into the standard cable-lengths (one-tenth of a nautical mile, or 608 feet) of rope, was originally done by hand, and required very long, covered sheds to protect the "ropewalks" as they were called, before mechanization, in the early 19th Century.  However, as the town grew, then so did the pressure on land for building. By that time the ropemakers were required to look further afield to places like rural Toxteth with ample open spaces to lay out the long roperies. And so they came to Lodge Lane.

The Lodge Lane roperies were laid out in 1825-35 on what was then open country. There were four main ropeworks, each consisting of a series of long parallel ropesheds leading off across the fields on the west side of the lane, together with buildings housing the machinery. The first two were situated on the sites of Asbridge Street and Ritson Street, and included a number of dwellings in an alleyway known as "Roper's Row" or "Roper's Walk" on the site of Ritson Street between the ropesheds, many years before they became streets.The lower ends of these two roperies were connected by a footpath which later became Alt Street.

Continuing south along Lodge Lane, to the site of Handel Street and Mozart Street, just below Coltart Road, the third and largest ropeworks was the Greenfield Ropery (named after Greenfield House on Lodge Lane, then home of the Coltart family of shipowners & ropemakers), and a little further along, the fourth ropeworks was the Roscoe Ropeworks, named after Roscoe House on Lodge Lane, on the north side of Bentley Road.

At the time of the 1851 & 1861 Census, the Lodge Lane rope-making industry was at its height with over 30 ropemakers, ranging from master ropemaker to apprentice ropemaker, ropeworks manager, and ropeworks labourer. Some of these rope manufacturers themselves employed 30 or more men & boys, making a substantial contribution to the local economy. They lived in various villas and cottages in Lodge Lane itself, as well as in Roper's Walk, Park Terrace, and Windsor View.

As the maritime ropemaking industry began to decline from the mid-19th Century, due to the increasing use of steam in place of sail, most of these ropeworks were destined to become the ready-made sites of long new streets to accommodate the rapid increase in Liverpool's population.

Only two ropeworks survived into the 20th Century; one of these was James Mallon's ropery, which was a truncated portion of Hutchison's ropeworks, left over when Asbridge Street was built. This occupied the space between the lower halves of Solway Street and Asbridge Street. Mallon's ropeworks was run from two houses in Alt Street, behind which it was situated. Mallon's was last used to make rope fenders for ships before finally closing in the mid-1930's.

Only one ropery (Roscoe Ropeworks) was not incorporated into a new street. The Roscoe Ropeworks continued as the Mersey Ropeworks, narrowly escaping destruction during the Blitz, until it closed in the 1960's and the site was then used as a depot & storage facility.