Walk back from the Olive Mount railway cutting, along Mill Lane, passing the end of Waldgrave Road on the opposite side. Cross the end of Birch Grove and Olive Grove and, a few yards further on, you will come to a row of eight very large semi-detached houses dating from the 1840s and '50s. These are 'Olive Mount Villas', and all of them are Listed Buildings.

This location - right on the top of Olive Mount, one of the highest points in the vicinity of Liverpool - was obviously regarded as a prestigious place to live in Victorian times. The four which had been completed at the time of the 1851 Census were occupied by two merchants (one born in Liverpool, the other in Scotland), an ironmonger (born in Birmingham) and a contractor (born in Dorset). The contractor was John Bowers, who lived at the present-day No.1 Olive Mount Villas - then called 'Greenfield House' - with his wife, mother-in-law, three grown-up daughters but - unusually - no servants. The birthplaces of his daughters - Caroline (aged 28) born in Kent, Selina (25) born in Middlesex and Mary Ann (20) born in Liverpool - indicate the way in which the family had moved around the country before settling in Wavertree.