This shows the whole of Toxteth Park as defined in the 1765 map of the Earl of Sefton, probably produced for the Enclosure Act.  

Most of the roads still follow their marked courses today and the map displays a remarkable accuracy.

Parliament Street
Smithdown Road
Greenbank Road, Penny Lane, Ibbotsons Lane
Lodge Lane
Ullet Road
Park Road/ Aigburth Road

 Mathers stream was formed from the outlets of several ponds which finally joined and flowed together. The exact ponds involved are unclear.  Griffiths in 1907 suggested that at least some of the waters came from the Moss Lake which is off the above map and outside Toxteth. Regardless of this the waters did flow through several other ponds and streams enough to turn two or three watermills before falling into The Pool, at what is now the seaward end of Parliament Street.

It seems that much of this stream system is, or was, artificial and certainly it did not enter the Mersey through a deeply eroded valley in the way that the three westerly flowing streams did, but rather it emptied into a shallow pool. The origins may lie in the need for a water supply for the inhabitants of the  park and Liverpool, and later with the need for water power. During the reign of Charles II the Moores and the Molyneuxes contested the rights of these streams, and the latter family dammed part of the system until a stream ran down what is now upper Warwick Street and Stanhope Street. This is the stream which seems to have risen either at the junction of Princes Road and Warwick Street or on the far side of Princes Road.

Yates and Perry's map of 1768 is clearer than the 1765 one used above and shows  four mills and three dams on the stream that ran down Upper Warwick Street. There is a large water mill at the bottom of Stanhope Street.  The mills, all within the park boundary, were  in the possession of the Earl of Sefton.  A large mill at at the corner of what became Upper Warwick Street and what was even then Park Road,  was called the Toxteth Park Mill.  Right next to this mill was a large reservoir called Mather's Dam. According to Yates and Perry this was fed by a stream rising around Princes Road is now situated, running down Warwick Street, feeding the pool created by (or called) Mather's Dam.  From there it flowed to another mill at the bottom of Hill Street, and finally the last mill to be served by this stream was at the bottom of Stanhope Street. The mill was converted from a water mill to a wind mill and Griffiths records this as having taken place prior to 1803.

 The stream was much affected when Warwick Street was finally cut through and built on and parts of it were then piped into land drains and sewers.  The 1855 map (left) shows many of the above mentioned buildings but no streams connecting the pools.  As the area was developed for housing, so the pool formed by the dam was less important as a reservoir for drinking water.  Later it  was used for bathing and was apparently much loved by local children in summer.

With time the mill was turned into a manufactory for agricultural implements and spades and finally it was burnt down. The waters of the streams were turned into land drains and sewers and Mather's Dam drained and Mather's Stream ceased to exist.