Aintree - Today

Today

The village itself has two primary schools, Aintree Davenhill and Holy Rosary and a Music School; five churches, St. Giles (Anglican), Holy Rosary (Roman Catholic), Old Roan Methodist Church, Old Roan Baptist Church (which met in Davenhill Primary School until recently)now meet at the former site of Holy Rosary Infants School at the rear of the Old Roan shops, and Aintree Village Family Church (a Baptist church, meeting at Old Roan Methodist Church Hall, Altway); two small local shopping areas (on Altway and at the Old Roan); and three public houses, the Blue Anchor (which backs onto the Leeds and Liverpool Canal), the Village Inn (formerly the Valentine, named after a fence on the racecourse), and the Old Roan, which gives its name to a railway station in the village. The village also has a public library. A retail park along Ormskirk Road on former industrial land has brought a significant number of major out-of-town shops to the area.

Aintree Davenhill Primary School has a large field with a metal building that was built in the 1950s. The building was going to be a hospital building, but was turned into a school. The classrooms are along corridors that were originally going to be hospital wards.

Holy Rosary Primary School was a split-site school until 2008 with an approximate ½ mile between the schools. The reception and infant classes were based at a site at the Old Roan end of the village between Altway and Aintree Lane, and the junior classes based at the Village Inn (ex-Valentine) end of the village in the Oriel Drive site. After substantial building work to extend the Oriel Drive school, the Aintree Lane/Altway site was closed as a school at the beginning of the 2008-09 academic year, was taken over by Old Roan Baptist Church and is now called the Hope Centre, providing various services for the local community. The school has a large field used for events such as their sports day and an all-weather sports pitch. The original building was built in the 1970s and '80s.