Garston is a district of Liverpool. Historically in Lancashire, it is bordered by the suburbs of Grassendale, Allerton, and Speke. It lies on the Eastern banks of the River Mersey. History In medieval times, Garston was home to a group of Benedictine monks. The first recorded mention of settlement in Garston is of the Church of St Michael in 1235. By the 19th century, the area had become a small village, one of the eight townships forming the parish of Childwall. A small dock was first built at Garston in 1793 for Blackburne's Saltworks, which still stands today. Garston's growth accelerated rapidly in the 1840s, when in 1846, the area's first dock was constructed and opened, under the auspices of the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway Company. The "Old Dock" was followed twenty years later by a second, the "North Dock." The third and final dock, Stalbridge, was opened in 1907. In 1903, Garston was incorporated into the City of Liverpool. The population expanded as migrants flooded in to work on the docks, especially from Ireland. Description Today, Garston is a shipping and container port, with the Port of Garston second only to Liverpool Docks in the North-West. Although inside the city of Liverpool, Garston Docks are not a part of the Port of Liverpool and is regarded as a separate port. Much of the area is also residential, housing being mainly in Victorian terraces with semi-detached homes around Liverpool South Parkway. Garston is partnered with the nearby district of Speke in a series of redevelopment and regeneration schemes, which have succeeded in reversing trends in dereliction and unemployment, and house prices have continued to rise. Etymology Grazing settlement root Gaerstun, meaning 'grazing settlement' or 'grazing farm' in Old English, is one possible root of the name. Garston as a name of a place may have its etymology informed by both Old English and Norse. The area that Garston was part of during the Viking Danelaw period would have been influenced by Norse speech. When Vikings settled they would sometimes change names because of speech difficulties. For example, the Saxon name for the city Eoforwic was changed to Jorvik. Shelton, was altered to Skelton, though the old English of 'ton' meaning settlement was retained attesting to the development of language over time. Spear root Gar', from Old English (spear, dart, javelin, shaft, arrow, weapon) from Norwegian and Icelandic (spear)