Across the road from a derelict cinema on the corner of a busy junction, black gates lead to a tree-lined courtyard filled with bluebells, snowdrops and crocuses in spring.
The sandstone chapel and its "peaceful" graveyard look like they've been plucked from the countryside and plonked in the middle of Liverpool, but much of southern Lancashire was a forest 1,000 years ago. Even after King John ordered its clearing and invited people to settle around a sheltered inlet - or pool - on the Mersey in 1207, he kept this area just a few miles south of Liverpool as a 2,000 acre Royal park where he could hunt deer.
Within four centuries, it had fallen out of use and a group of 20 families settled in the woods around what's now Park Road, one of the busiest roads in the city. Back then it was isolated, a perfect place to escape the strict rules of the Church of England and practice religion in peace.
