Woolton Hall

Woolton Hall
Woolton Hall
	Woolton Hall in 2020.
Location	Woolton
Nearest city	Liverpool
Coordinates	53°22′18″N2°51′54″W/ 53.3718°N 2.8649°W
Area	3.92 acres (15,900 m2)
Built	1704
Built for	Richard Molyneux
Restored	1772
Restored by	Robert Adam
Architectural style(s)	Classical
Listed Building– Grade I
Designated	28 June 1982
Reference no.	1217943
	Location in Merseyside

Woolton Hallis a formercountry houselocated inWoolton,a suburb ofLiverpool,England.Built in 1704 and extensively renovated in 1772 by the influential architectRobert Adam,the building is praised as the finest example of Adam's work inthe North of England.Throughout its first 200 years, the building was the residence of a number of notable figures, including theEarl of Seftonand Liverpool shipownerFrederick Richards Leyland.

During the 20th century, the building went through a number of uses, eventually becoming a school in the 1950s, and later beingabandonedwith plans for its demolition. A campaign against its destruction was successful and the hall was made aGrade I listed buildingin 1982. However, in 2021, the building was declared at "immediate risk" byHistoric England.^[1]

History

Early records indicate that the land of Woolton Hall had been occupied since 1180 when the area of Much Woolton (now simply Woolton) came under the lordship of the holy Catholic order of theKnights Hospitallerwho held the land for almost 360 years until theEnglish Reformation.In the 16th century,Henry VIII'sdissolution of the monasteriessuppressed theKnights Hospitallerleading the land being confiscated but then later restored byMary I.The land was permanently confiscated from the order in 1559 underElizabeth Iand was kept by the crown until 1609. Eventually, the land came under ownership of the Brettarghs of Holt who were reputed to have acquired it from an ancient family named "de Woolton".^[2]

On the death of William Brettargh in 1609, the land was described as being home to a cottage.^[3]Sometime between 1700 and 1704, the house and surrounding estate was sold to politicianRichard Molyneux, 1st Viscount Molyneux,who built the northern block of the hall.^[4]

A 1781 watercolour byPaul Sandby.

An 1819 engraving by J.P. Neale.

In 1772, Woolton Hall was acquired by Nicholas Ashton, a formerHigh Sheriff of Lancashire,whose father was one of the original undertakers and the principal financier ofSankey Canal,the first canal of the BritishIndustrial Revolution.Shortly afterwards, Ashton commissioned the notedarchitect Robert Adamto remodel and expand the building extensively.^[5]

Nicholas Ashton died in 1833 leaving the house to his son Joseph Ashton who in turn left it to his son Charles Ellis Ashton. Charles Ellis later sold the house in 1865 to James Reddecliffe Jeffery who was the owner of Liverpool's largest department store,Compton House,located onChurch Street.A fire at the store on 1 December 1865 destroyed much of Jeffery's uninsured stock, eventually leading to the business failing. Jeffery put the hall up for action in 1869^{[citation needed]}but failed to find a buyer until 1877 when Liverpool shipownerFrederick Richards Leylandpurchased the house for £19,000,^{[failed verification]}moving in with his family from nearbySpeke Hall.^[6]Leyland, who was somewhat of an art enthusiast, decorated the house with paintings of varying styles includingEdward Burne-Jones'sNight and DayandFord Madox Brown'sThe Entombment.^[7]^[8]Leyland later sold the building to the McGuffies, a family of shipowners who demolished the west wing and converted the remainder into aHydropathic Hotel.After living there for some 30 years, the hotel closed in 1912.^[9]

After a short spell as the headquarters of theMiddlesex Regimentand as an army hospital in the 1950s, the building was converted into a fee-payinggirls'school under the management of theConvent of Notre Dame.^[10]In 1970, the small school merged withNotre Dame High Schoollocated onMount Pleasantto form Notre Dame Woolton (nowSt Julie's Catholic High School). As the school expanded, new modern buildings were built nearby leading to Woolton Hall being abandoned.^[11]

Soon, the building fell into disrepair, eventually being marked for demolition in the 1980s. The building was saved after local resident John Hibbert purchased the Hall and spent £100,000 in refurbishments;^[12]soon after, on 28 June 1982, Woolton Hall became aGrade I listed building.^[13]In 2005, there were plans to convert the house into a retirement home and build 62 other new retirement flats on the grounds of the estate.^[14]In 2021, following years of stagnation, a major fire in 2019^[15]and incidents of vandalism, the building was added to Historic England's "Heritage at Risk Register"as a category A site, the highest priority, meaning the building is at" immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric ".^[1]^[16]

Ownership

Molyneux family 1704–1766
Rev Bartholomew Booth 1771-1772
Ashton family 1772–1865
Judge James Reddecliffe Jeffery 1865–1877
SirFrederick Leyland1877–1898
Captain Peter McGuffie 1898–1948
Sisters of Notre Dame 1948–1970
Mr J.B Hibbert & family 1980 – c.1985
Jim Murray c.1985 - c.2005
Jim Murray and Abid Chudary c.2005 - Present

Architecture

Exterior

From its outside, the slate roofed two-storey structure is built entirely of stone consisting of seven bay windows, two of which break forward underpediments.The windows, although now boarded up, havearchitravesand are sashed with glazing bars. The façade of the building was re-fronted in 1865 byRobert Adamto include aporte-cochèrewhich covers the entrance. This consists of four pairedDoric columnsbetweenrusticated antae,entablatureandbalustrade.^[13]

Interior

Tapestry Room.

Principal staircase.

Passing through the front entrance is a large lobby flanked by two main halls. The lobby has marble flooring and an imposing oak fireplace which is one of the buildings original features, having been designed by Adam. Adjacent to the fireplace are three doors with the leftmost allowing access to a kitchen area and a stairwell. The door directly to the fireplace's left leads to an octagonal shapedturquoiseroom with and a decorated ceiling that contains a circular painting ofFrederic Leighton'sThe Garden of the Hesperides.The door on the right leads to the building's main staircase.^[17]

Regarding the two main halls, the left side hall is a function room with two full-length windows, a stone set bar and fireplace and a back kitchen area. The hall's ceiling is decorated with painted with gold foliage centred around a bust of a man dressed in 18th-century clothing. On the right side of the building is a dance hall and adjoining tapestry room with high ceilings and oak panelled walls.^[17] The dance hall with two large front facing windows is decorated with paintings of previous residents and a large painting ofQueen Annwhich sits above a brick fireplace. Next to this is a wooden bar area that leads into the tapestry room while at the room's centre is aparquetdance floor which has been damaged to reveal stone flooring underneath. The tapestry room is an elongated semi-circular area decorated with mostlyFlemishpaintings and two glass candle-stylechandeliers.Set back to back with the dance hall's fireplace is another fireplace creating a mirror image, this time with a portrait ofKing George IIIhanging above.

The principal staircase which ascends to the second floor is another of Adam's original features consisting of wrought ironbalusterand a mouldedmahoganyhandrail.^[2]The upper floors boast large opens rooms with original Adam's ceilings, as well as many smaller rooms which have acted as bedrooms and classrooms throughout the hall's history.^[18]

Paintings

The hall contains a number of replica paintings including those of former residents; most of the originals have since been relocated to theWalker Art Gallery.