Chester Society for Landscape History January 2011 Newsletter Number 48 Harvington Hall - read about it on page 8 Contents Chairman‟s Message 2 25 in 2011 Conference: A Tale of Three Houses 3 Landscape Discoveries 20 Down to the Wyre 7 in the North West The Year Ahead: Field Names Project 23 Lecture Programme 12 Member‟s Publications 24 Field Visits 16 Editor‟s Corner 24 Discovery Day 19 Message from the Chair Wow – what a busy year 2010 has been option will help the Society continue to „behind the scenes‟ for CSLH! To this offer great value for money by cutting end I must thank my fellow committee its stationery, printing and postage costs members for all their efforts during the at a time of rising prices. Booking past twelve months. The agenda for our forms for field trips and the conference monthly committee meetings continues can similarly be downloaded. However to grow as our Society embarks upon paper copies will continue to be sent out new projects, whilst we continue to to members who do not have internet/ endeavour to provide an interesting and email access, or to those members who varied programme of lectures and field have specifically requested them. visits. If you have your diary handy, pencil in 2011 will undoubtedly be an even busier Monday 4th April 2011 when we shall year for the Society as we celebrate our be holding our next social event - a 25th anniversary. Although you will cheese and wine evening with a quiz already be aware of our forthcoming and auction. More details to follow. conference on Saturday 10th September, this edition of our newsletter contains Before closing I would like to ask if any more detailed information on the of you have a spare hour or two once a presenters and their talks (see pages 20- month and would consider joining our 22). Conference bookings can now be very vibrant committee. New ideas are made, and as our venue has a limited always welcome and I guarantee a few capacity, I would urge you to book your laughs along the way. Just come and place early for what promises to be a have a chat with one of the committee memorable day. A booking form is members if you are interested . either attached or included with this newsletter. Finally, I would just like to wish you all a very happy new year and I look Another new event for 2011 is our forward to seeing you at our spring „Discovery Day‟ offering members the lectures. chance to sharpen their landscape Sharon Varey detecting skills. You can find out more about this on page 19. AGM Yet another first for 2011 is that this Just a reminder that our AGM will be edition of our newsletter is being held on Monday 28th February 2011 at received by many of our members on- 7.15pm. Additional items for the line. This „environmentally friendly‟ agenda should be forwarded to Mike Page 2 Page 3 A Tale of Three Houses: the Royden family estate mansions at Frankby on the Wirral On the high ground of the sandstone outcrop looking towards Thurstaston Common there are two large stately mansions: Frankby Hall and Hillbark Hotel. At one time these were the homes of the Royden family, Liverpool shipbuilders who by the end of the nineteenth century were involved in ship ownership and management. In the seventeenth century the Royden family were carpenters in Caldy, but by the turn of the eighteenth century Liverpool was a tempting place for tradesmen, for the port was developing at an astonishing rate. In 1808, Thomas Royden moved to Liverpool to seek his fortune and secured employment as a master carpenter with Charles Grayson, a prominent shipbuilding firm. By 1818 Thomas had set up on his own and was the founder of Thomas Royson and Sons, shipbuilders of Liverpool. Despite working in Liverpool, Thomas‟s roots lay in Caldy and Frankby. With the growth of the townscape of Liverpool and Birkenhead during the first half of the nineteenth century, it became fashionable for the new breed of wealthy businessmen to invest and reside in an impressive family seat and thus they built substantial houses on the airy Wirral hills. In 1801, Thomas‟s father, Joseph, had purchased some land on the former Rathbone Estate from Gwyllyn Lloyd Wardle. Thomas decided to build on the unspoilt remote hilly land formerly tenanted by his family and farming relatives and gradually he secured parcels of surrounding land. On this land Frankby Hall was erected in 1847, a unique sandstone structure, with distinctive castellated turrets. The Hall occupies a commanding site Frankby Hall overlooking the village Page 3 and a good part of the surrounding countryside. It seems likely that the materials for the house would have come from within a few miles radius, possibly from the quarries at Irby or Heswall. Perhaps this is why it looks like a natural outcrop, something cast up from the undulations of the Wirral landscape in which it sits. Thomas died at Frankby Hall in 1868 and his son Thomas Bland Royden was encouraged to follow in his father‟s footsteps and enter politics. He rose to greater heights, becoming Tory MP for Toxteth and a JP in 1874, and Lord Mayor of Liverpool 1878-79. In 1905 he became a Baronet in recognition of his concerns for marine insurance and the safety of ships at sea, and was an enthusiastic supporter of the introduction of the Plimsoll Line. Sir Thomas Bland Royden died in 1917. His eldest son Sir Thomas Royden, 2nd Baronet, became Chairman of the Cunard Line, as well as sitting on the board of the Midland Bank and Shell Transport. He also held the office of High Sheriff and became a Baron in his own right in 1944. He was the last owner of Frankby Hall. In the early 1930s, he left Frankby to move down south to retire to his wife‟s home in Hampshire. In 1933 he decided to sell the estate and offered the Hall and its 61 acre estate to Hoylake Urban District Council for £8,000. They turned the offer down. The estate was finally sold to Wallasey Corporation for £12,500 for use as a cemetery. Wallasey was fast running out of land when they acquired the estate and there were some misgivings about establishing a cemetery in another authority‟s area six miles away. The Liverpool Daily Post did not think much of the idea and made the point that: “Not only will it be difficult for relatives of the deceased to visit but motor hearses will be required.” It took seven years to transform the estate into a cemetery. Many of the trees had to be felled and the area grassed over. The main part of the Hall itself was converted into two chapels - one Church of England and Non-Conformist, the other Roman Catholic - complete with tall Gothic windows. The cemetery officially opened in 1940, with space for 36,000 graves. Today the other stately home near to Frankby Hall is “Hillbark”, one of the sights of Wirral. Built on top of Frankby Hill – albeit a low hill – with Thurstaston Common rolling away beneath its windows, its view of the Dee estuary and the Welsh hills is uninterrupted. This beautiful, black and white, half-timbered, pseudo-Elizabethan mansion was heavily influenced in design by Little Moreton Hall, near Congleton in south-east Cheshire. The house was built in 1891 for Robert William Hudson the soap manufacturer. However, the house is not in its original location for it was originally sited on Bidston Hill where it was known as „Bidston Court‟. This was the home of Sir Thomas Royden‟s younger brother, Sir Ernest Bland Royden, 3rd Baronet who purchased the house in 1921. Page 4 Page 5 „Bidston Court‟ a „transplanted‟ mansion, later renamed „Hillbark‟ (image courtesy of I. & M. Boumphrey) On the death of Lady Royden‟s mother, the original “Hillbark” became the property of Lady Royden. The couple decided to move back to Frankby but did not want to leave “Bidston Court” so they decided to take their home with them. As a result, the original sandstone “Hillbark” mansion, believed to have been erected on the site of a late seventeenth century house, was pulled down in 1929 to make way for „Bidston Court‟. Every brick, stone, slate and timber beam was numbered and the whole building was dismantled and transported by road to its new site in Royden Park where it was re-erected within three years (1929-31). “Bidston Court” was then renamed „Hillbark‟. Photo of the original „Hillbark‟, built in 1870 (image courtesy of I. & M. Boumphrey) Page 5 Sir Ernest Bland Royden died in 1960. By this time the family business interests had been transferred to the south of England. Sir Ernest‟s eldest son, Sir John Ledward Royden‟s business was in London and his family home was in Battle, East Sussex. The family had no further interests on Merseyside and therefore sold the family home and the 250 acres of parkland to Hoylake Urban District Council. The council reopened the mansion as a care home for the elderly and the surrounding grounds became a public park. Following the closure of the care home in the 1990s, “Hillbark” was converted into a fully modernised hotel, whilst still retaining much of its character both inside and out. Bibliography: I. & M. Boumphrey, Yesterday’s Wirral Pictorial History 1890 to 1953 (2000), pp.74 & 80. K. Burnley, The Illustrated Portrait of Wirral (1987).