Beaconsfield Road, 3 May 1986
The Victorian Society introduced us to the idea of studying local history on the ground by looking at roads, buildings and features that make up the fabric of our village. The two local amenity societies have developed the technique and now we are applying it to Beaconsfield Road to unravel the story of its development as we walk from Knolle Park to Strawberry Field.
These notes are a supplement to what our guides can say in the time available as we walk. It is not our intention that you should read them during the walk; we hope to be audible and so interesting that you will not want to read them then. We do hope you will read them when you get home and that they will fill out what we have been saying. We think there is a great deal to be learned from local history if it is approached in this intensive way.
The guides on this walk would like to emphasise that they have no complete knowledge, though they have done a lot of homework on the area we are covering. In many places they are feeling their way and they base their statements and opinions on features that strike them, and their enthusiasm for architecture and local history. In our study of this area we have had sight of only two sets of deeds but those have been of great help and we have gathered some oral memories but not as many as in Quarry Street. We hope that as we walk this afternoon we shall spark off memories from you and gather clues to where more material is to be sought as we are sure that we have not yet uncovered the whole story, and until we have architects names for all these buildings we will not be really satisfied,
Contents:
1 Knolle Park
2 Beaconsfield
3 Stoneleigh
4 High Lee
5 Higher Lee
6 Beacon Hill
7 Abbots Lee
8 Newstead
9 Woodcroft
10 Strawberry Field
11 Lower Lee
Building dates: (c. = circa.)
c.1818 ? Newstead
c.1828 Knolle Park
1833 Beaconsfield
c.1858-9 Stoneleigh
c.1861 Lower Lee
c.1862-3 Abbots Lee
c.1861 Higher Lee
c.1861 High Lee
c.1867 Strawberry Field
c.1867 Woodcroft
c.1868 Beacon Hill
Table of Gross Rateable Values in 1886 (from Little Woolton books)
£510 Beaconsfield
£450 Knolle Park
£429½ Strawberry Field
£425 High Lee
£294½ Abbots Lee
£287½ Lower Lee
£263½ Higher Lee
£257 Stoneleigh
£238 Beacon Hill
£127½ Woodcroft
£85 Newstead
(Total £3367½)
‘Reconstructed’ map of the area in 1871
SOURCES
The sources used in the preparation of this walk are available to all in the Record Office of the City Libraries, William Brown Street and chiefly we have used:-
Enclosure map of 1813 with its schedule. The Enclosure Act of 1805 covering Little Woolton meant that all holders of land, both freehold and copyhold, were allocated one or more plots on the ‘commons and waste lands’ according to the extent and value of their original holdings. This allottment took place between 1805 and 1807, including the laying out of un-named new roads of which Beaconsfield Road was one, to be 30 ft wide, marked ‘F’ on the map (Church Road was to be 40 ft), and the extent of allotments and names of owners was shown on the map – and nothing else; but did that really mean the landscape was empty of man-made features?
Sherriff’s map of the Environs of Liverpool dated 1816 showed the road and a building on the 20¾ acres allotted to John Okill of Lee Hall. (This would make sense if Okill had already started farming his land.) The map also showed a building and someone called Breed somewhere in the Stoneleigh – Knolle Park area. Greenwood’s map of Lancashire of 1818 generally follows Sherriff, but G. Hennet’s map of 1830 adds a name ‘Rose Mount’ somewhere about Knolle Park. Bennison’s map of 1835 puts us on firm ground with houses, Knolle Park, Beaconsfield, (Okill’s first) ‘High Lee’ and Newstead, and their grounds, clearly shown.
The first 6 inch Ordnance Survey map is dated 1845-6. It is closely followed by the Tithe Map & Schedule of 1845-8, an invaluable document enabling us to name all owners and occupiers – in theory, in fact several show as ‘Exors. of …’ – together with the extent of holdings. A generation on they vary from the Enclosures as people have bought and sold land. Phillips map of 1881 shows Okill’s ‘High Lee’ still there, but does not show detail. The next map of importance is the first 25 inch O.S. map of 1891, and by this time the houses of our study have been built, and Okill’s ‘High Lee’ gone. We have also looked at the 25 inch maps of 1904, 1925, 1936 and 1951 noting alterations, enlargements and latterly demolitions.
SOURCES (continued):
Here we must say that the ‘1871’ map accompanying these notes is our reconstruction, based on the 1891 O.S. map, the rates books and the knowledge we have gained during this study. If anyone can lead us to estate plans which would add to this we will be delighted!
Apart from maps, we have used the 1841-1881 census returns which bring to life the people we have been meeting, their families and their servants. We are very conscious that we have not done a proper job on the people who were living in Lodges – where we number ‘servants’ they were ‘living-in’ servants as, so far, we cannot be sure who was who’s coachman, gardener, etc.
The Little Woolton Local Board (L.W.L.B.) minutes from 1867 when the Board was formed, have been useful; also the Rates Books from 1876 (the earlier books are not available) to 1912 after which Little Woolton with its neighbours became part of Liverpool. Throughout Gore’s Directory has been a useful guide about who lived where, and about his place of business, but this information has to be used with caution as the volumes were published at the beginning of the year, and before the 1870s ‘Beaconsfield Road’ was not in the ‘Street Directory’, so we must know the name of our resident.
Among the books used Edward Baines’ History of Lancashire 1825 and Orchard’s Legion of Honour 1893 and its successors, have provided biographical material, as well as various Newspapers of the time. And here we must say a warm thank you to our willing and resourceful assistant, Miss Joan Borrowscale who has done a great deal to help.
INTRODUCTION
In this study it has been our aim to tell the story of the development of Beaconsfield Road from the beginning of the 19th century to 1936 – a decent 50 years ago – but also the time when the Beaconsfield estate was being re-developed and the old order was changing. Now we must complete our notes but we are aware that in the last week we have located the Vernons, and these notes are a report on work in progress. We think we know who built what among our 11 houses!
INTRODUCTION (continued)
Now we think we can see stages, the first mainly agricultural with ‘High Lee’ and market gardening; with also perhaps something to do with file making at 35 & 37 Beaconsfield Road, the Molyneux cottage(s) and an early commuter, Mr Ross, on the other side of the road and John Bibby, the soap boiler, at Newstead.
The second stage was the coming of big houses in the country, Knolle Park the country residence of the man to be Town Clerk, and Beaconsfield with the young attorney Ambrose Lace who soon, not content with his 5 acres, added by purchase and by renting.
But then there was a gap of over 20 years; maybe it can be partly explained by the last of the Okills having died intestate in 1851 (knowingly intestate) and the time it took to settle his estate so that the sites of High Lee, Higher Lee did not become available until 1859, and so on to Lower Lee and Abbots Lee. Or maybe it was a reflection of rising prosperity in Liverpool and the desire and fashion to have a fine house in the country on Beaconsfield Road. Whatever was the driving force, eight new houses were built in the 10 years from 1858, and they endured to 1933, just a century after Ambrose Lace built Beaconsfield – the one building date of which we are really sure.
Stylistically, the walk will show the Gothic Revival evolving from its Romantic and Picturesque un-archaeological Gothick phase towards its serious Victorian phase when it ceased to be merely a fashion and became a moral crusade under the leadership of A. W. N. Pugin (1812-52) when its buildings were structurally Gothic and archaeologically correct, though in the High Victorian period this correctness was departed from by architects seeking bold and original effects.
The Classical buildings to be seen tell an opposite story. They show a style moving from correctness to incorrectness. We see the gradual dissolution of the Georgian Rule of Taste which involved a breakdown of harmonious proportions and an increasing coarseness and heaviness of detailing.
Now, let us see what is to be seen:-
KNOLLE PARK c.1828 ? (Listed)
Architectural description –
A large Classical house of painted ashlar, six bays with a slight middle projection and broad giant pilasters. Up steps, a four-column porch of Corinthian column ‘in antis’, and projecting basement on each side. Only first floor windows have architraves (with ears), four blind attic windows and good top cornice. Entrance hall, not on axis, with four columns and a little dome. Good stucco inside. Staircase with apsidal landing.
Today, stylistically, the entrance front presents problems; the ironwork and steps over the basement, and the proportion of the whole composition are full of promise, marred by details. A photograph from the 1860s shows that there were iron verandahs on either side of the centre – hence the lack of architraves to ground floor windows and the 2 string courses above them – also that the cornice string continued across the centre with blind attic windows. Close inspection reveals that the front door has been moved. Thus these jarring elements can be explained as the result of alterations, but no explanation has emerged for the coarseness of the carving of the Corinthian capitals (if original only 17 years later than the portico of Liverpool Town Hall) which is more crude than work of the 1870s.
Owners and Occupiers – Sherriff’s map of 1816 shows buildings on a “here be houses” basis – not sited with precision. There were 2 printings of the map, the 1st published 1817 shows the name “Breed” against a house that might have been Knolle Park. Chasing Richard Foster Breed in Gore, in 1810 he was a merchant living in Kirkdale with a counting house in Tabley St; in 1818 he was living at 17 Netherfield Lane North and by 1821 he was in West Derby – by 1827 named as Grove Cottage, West Derby.
However the 2nd printing of the map has “Mr Ross” in this position. In 1813 & 1814 Henry William Ross was living in Netherfield Lane, Everton. He does not appear again in Gore until 1823-1828 when he is shown as a merchant living in Little Woolton with an office in Slater’s Court, Castle St (Baines names the house “Hill Top” in 1824). But by 1829 he is Henry William Ross Esq., Sicilian & Neapolitan Consul and Merchant, address 1 Birchfield, office 14 Harrington Street.
KNOLLE PARK (continued)
Meanwhile, Thomas Foster (1791-1836) was first mentioned in Gore in 1818 as an attorney, living at 17 Newington with his father, John Foster Sen. the architect (c.1759-1827) and Richard Foster. By 1828 (after his father had died) he was at 21 St Anne St., and in 1829 he had come to Little Woolton with an office in 8 Exchange Alley. In 1832 he was appointed Town Clerk of Liverpool, in 1834 he was living at “Rose Mount” Little Woolton (Hennet’s map of 1830 shows this name roughly in the area of Knolle Park and Bennison’s map of 1835 names Thomas Foster here). Thomas died 11 Sept. 1836 and in 1837 Sarah Foster is shown at “Rose Mount” Woolton, in 1839 she is shown as Mrs Thos. Foster, “Rose Mount” and by 1841 she is at “Woolton House”, Little Woolton though she is missing from the census that year. In 1843 she is still at “Woolton House” in addition to the “Misses Foster, ladies boarding school” – the only reference to this school. The Tithe Map & Schedule of 1848 record Sarah Foster as owner occupier of the house, outbuildings, pleasure grounds & lawn, over 18 acres in all, with what we know as “Knolle Park Mews” described as “farm buildings & yard”. But again Mrs Foster is missing from the 1851 census – possibly a butler was living in the house – though she still appears here in Gore until 1853.
In 1857 William Moon (c.1801-1873) merchant, was at Belmont House, Belmont Rd. West Derby but by c.1860 he is at “Woolton Hill House” Woolton. The 1861 census shows he was a widower aged 60, a Brazil merchant born in Garstang. Also there was his younger bachelor son Henry at 31 a merchants clerk born in Brazil and there were 6 servants including a butler, ladies’ maid & a dairymaid, and his tombstone at St Peters reveals that his wife had died in February aged 49. Wm Moon was a magistrate in 1871 by which time he had remarried. He remained at the house he called “Woolton Hill Hall” until his death in August 1873.
In 1874 John Stock (c.1804-1883) a retired merchant, had bought the house and in 1881 he is shown as a widower, born in Liverpool, a retired cotton broker and living with him was his 88 year old mother-in-law, his son James H. Stock – at 25 a student at law, and ten servants. John Stock died in 1883 & the Rates Book for 1885 shows James H. Stock as owner and occupier of “The Knoll”.
KNOLLE PARK (continued)
James H. Stock b.1855, B.A., M.A.Oxon, Barrister 1882, lived the life of a country gentleman, horseman and follower of field sports. In 1886 he married May the 2nd daughter of the Rt. Hon. A. McM. Kavanagh (1831-1889) Lord Lieutenant of Co. Carlow (see D.N.B.) & in 1892 Stock was M.P. for Walton. His residences are recorded as Knolle Park; The White Hall, Tarporley & 5 Lowndes Square. In 1892 he was still paying rates as owner occupier.
In 1893 Samuel Sanday corn merchant and, that year, President of the Corn Trade Assn and “socially among the Wellington Rooms people”, had previously lived at “Homeleigh”, Woolton Park (where he had a telephone). He now became the occupier, living there until 1904. The house was empty from 1905-1908 though the land was ‘occupied’ by W. Cunningham in 1907 & 1908 – of Gorsey Cop, Grange Lane?
In 1909 the Sisters of St Catherine were the occupiers with the Rev. Mother Praxedes recorded as owner, but by 1911 & 1912 – the last available rates book – the owner’s name was recorded as “Thomas Whiteside”, the Archbishop (1857-1921). The rateable value in 1911 was reduced to £279.10.0 and again in 1912 to £180, and the description “Knolle Park Poor Law School” remained to 1936, in charge of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God, now styled “St Gabriel’s Convent”.
Lodge to Knolle Park – “Greek Lodge” c.1828 (Listed)
Architectural description –
A single storey cottage of painted ashlar with 2 Greek Doric columns ‘in antis’ in a temple-like front with pediment. Metal glazing bars to the windows on side walls and moulded architraves. There is a cornice string at eaves level and another at sill level. Two panelled chimneys in the centre of the cottage.
Stylistically if the ‘eared’ architraves are original, and they are like those on Knolle Park, they are acceptable as part of the Greek Revival, but the lack of the triglyph frieze from the entablature under the pediment might have been an economy measure, or, perhaps, reflect an unscholarly idea of ‘rusticity’ being not quite bound to be correct? The metal framed windows of the sides correspond with the door light and are, presumably, original. The proportions of the Doric columns are slenderer than those of Gambier Terrace (c.1836) which is attributed to John Foster Jun. (c.1787-1846) brother of Thomas Foster, the Town Clerk, and therefore likely to have been the architect here too? (see our drawing of a Greek example from Delphi)
Entrance to Knolle Park (Listed) – on the corner of Church Rd has 4 octagonal stone piers, with Classical caps, and iron lamps on the centre pair and are panelled in a style similar to the panels of the pilasters of Knolle Park Mews. Indeed similarly panelled pilasters can still be seen on Knolle Park Cottage along Beaconsfield Road, which is also of painted sandstone and has an (incorrect) pediment to the road, and is likely to be of about the same date.
All this can be interpreted in two ways — at least.
a) John Foster Jun. built Knolle Park and the associated buildings for his brother about 1828, and there have been subsequent alterations.
b) Henry William Ross built Knolle Park about 1820 and some of, or all, the associated buildings were added by John Foster Jun. including The Lodge.
Perhaps having set out the story so far we may spark off further ideas and so be led to a firm conclusion.
BEACONSFIELD built 1833, demolished 1933
Architectural description –
A large ‘house in the country’, the ‘centre of an estate, built as a 2-storey H shaped block facing East and West with an additional 3-storey wing (or 2 Wings?) to the North, and to the West a 1-storey entrance block. The house was built in stone, to courses as the Coachman’s House and the Lodge but with a rougher surface, and the gables carried big finials. From map evidence the stone(!) framed conservatory was built in the late 1840s, and it may be that another room was added North of the porch about the same time. It seems that a 3-storey ‘prospect tower’ with balustrade was built/added at the N.W. corner, and, from the evidence of the photographs, this was done some time in the 1860s? The basic fenestration was tall mullioned windows, with 2-storey canted bays to the South gable and principal East gable and single storey bays to lesser gables. (This description from 3 photographs – more information is sought. We offer a reconstructed roof plan).
Style – Built in the pre-Pugin phase of the Gothic Revival and here too we have the leitmotifs: the finials, the dripstones over windows and over the front door with its Tudor arch with ogee; and there is more ornament here than on the lodges – in the quatrefoils which adorn the bays and the balustrade of the entrance block.
The Conservatory, built post 1845/8, linked up with one of the living rooms, was popular and prominent in late Georgian times with the Picturesque idea of the interpenetration of house and garden; this one was pre-Paxton in style and the door had a Tudor arch.
The tower, possibly for water but also a status symbol in the fashion, and a ‘prospect tower’ for the enjoyment of landscape and the view towards Liverpool.
BEACONSFIELD (continued)
Owners and Occupiers – In 1833 the deed, by which Joshua Lace (1762-1841) founder of the Liverpool Law Society, gave the site of just under 5 acres for 5/-d., to his son Ambrose Lace (1793-1870), an attorney like his father, reveals that the house was in course of erection, Ambrose, the last of the bailiffs of Liverpool in 1835, bought the adjoining site of 2¼ acres in 1847 for £1,900 from the executors of Henry Molyneux, file maker of L.W. (died 1830) and Bennison’s map of 1835 shows that the block, now two houses, Nos, 35 & 37 Beaconsfield Road were already erected at that time. Moreover the Tithe Map of 1848 shows that the site had not yet been absorbed into Ambrose’s estate which is described as “house, outbuildings, gardens and pleasure grounds” while “Molyneux’s meadow” and “Molyneux’s cottage, outbuildings, yards etc” was still separate. At this time the carriage drive to Beaconsfield ran from between 39 and 41 Beaconsfield Rd directly to the house, it was later moved so that the Molyneux cottages became the Lodge & gardeners cottage. The Coachman’s house at the Eastern end of the site was mapped in 1835. The 1851 census shows Ambrose Lace aged 58 living with Margaret his wife 45 and 6 orphaned nephews and nieces, children of his brother Joshua who had died the week before, (Ambrose and his wife had no children of their own), and 9 servants – probably including a butler. In 1853 Ambrose bought 11½ acres from the Marquess of Salisbury for £3,852.
In Feb. 1861 Ambrose, now 68, sold the estate to Charles Mozley J.P., b.1799, a banker with I. Barnard & Co. for £7,000. From the 1861 census we see that Mozley was born in Liverpool, was a widower aged 62 with 4 sons (ages ranging from 14 to 21), a daughter and 6 servants, including a housekeeper and a butler, but there is an unoccupied lodge as if his staffing was not complete by 7th April. In 1863 Mozley was elected Mayor of Liverpool and during his year of office the Rev. James Kelly preached a violent anti-Jewish sermon in the church of St George (roughly where Queen Victoria now stands) thereafter the Council worshipped at St Peter’s Church.
Charles Mozley went bankrupt in 1866, possibly due to the American Civil War, and on 19.5.1867 the estate was sold to Daniel James for £11,862.10.0.
BEACONSFIELD (continued)
The foundation of the James fortune was laid by Daniel’s father who emigrated to New York and bought up large tracts of forest in N.Y. state for timber production. Daniel James (c.1803-1876) the eldest son, married into the metals & mining firm, Phelps Dodge & Co., and later played a leading role in developing the Santa Fe Railway. Soon after 1830 Daniel moved to England as resident partner of Phelps Dodge. His first wife died in 1847 and Daniel turned over his American interests to their only surviving son, Daniel Willis James. By his second wife, of New York, he had 3 sons, Frank b. 1851, Arthur b.1853 and William b.1854. But by the 1871 census he was again a widower, the two eldest sons were Cambridge undergraduates and William was at Harrow. In the house also were 3 visitors (one being Mrs Ruth Lancaster Dickinson, 46 born at Alston, Cumberland) and 5 servants. Daniel James died in 1876 leaving £45,000 in England, now married again to Ruth Dickinson who, sometime after 1871 must have become a widow, and he continued in residence to her death in 1907. The three brothers shared a London house and were all keen hunters and explorers – in 1884 they were the first Europeans to enter the interior of Somaliland & Frank wrote the “Unknown horn of Africa” and was killed by an elephant in 1890. Arthur married Venetia Cavendish Bentinck in 1885 & in 1889 William married a beauty, Evelyn daughter of Sir Charles Forbes Bt. and is remembered here for giving the Village Club to Much Woolton.
After the death of Mrs Ruth James the estate was sold in 1907-9. 6½ acres to David Jardine of High Lee, 5 acres to the Liverpool Corporation (the site of Harold Magnay School) and 9¼ acres with the house and lodges to Mrs Dorothy Hemelryk, wife of Paul Hemelryk, cotton broker, for £4,000. The Hemelryks, who had earlier lived at the Priory, Woolton Hill Rd, lived at Beaconsfield until 1928, then the estate was sold to John Hughes, a builder of Yewtree Road, who demolished the house and started the development of Newcroft & Hillcroft Roads. At the end of Hillcroft Road gate piers etc., reused from the garden wall, remain. John Hughes died in 1933, his younger son Mr William Elwyn Hughes completed the development and it is owing to his courtesy that we have been enabled to extract this story from the deeds kindly made available to us by his solicitors Ayrton and Alderson Smith.
35 & 37 BEACONSFIELD ROAD built c.1833? (Listed) or Gothicised c.1851?
Architectural description – Small Gothic 2-storey block with cellars, in red sandstone with steep slate roofs, 2 gables to the road and 2 to the right, with stone copings and finials and entrance gateway with stone piers panelled with quatrefoils above the panels. (Entrance on left is modern). On both floors 3-light stone mullioned windows under gables with a 2-light window between (and attics lit by single lights), all with labels. Front door on right has stone Tudor arched porch, second front door (in modern porch) to road shows block is two houses.
Stylistically – An example of the pre-Pugin phase of the Gothic Revival, with the leitmotifs of mullioned windows with dripstones, and the Tudor arch of the square topped porch. Note the unarchaeological placing of an oriel window at ground floor level, and also the castellations of the yard wall tops. After c.1848 the carriage drive to Beaconsfield was sited here and a photograph shows the gate piers with Gothick lanterns with a crest of fleurons and at the bottom a kind of cusping in the metalwork.
However, a closer look reveals that the main roof of the block is at a lower pitch than the gables, the tooling of the quoins appears earlier than on windows and porch, the door under the porch has a ‘Georgian’ fanlight, the high level window in the left gable is round headed and a section of square lead-lined gutter survives at the back of 35 – all adding up to the conclusion that this is an earlier vernacular type building that was Gothicised when it became the entrance lodge to Beaconsfield some time after 1848.
STONELEIGH and No.48 c.1858-9 (Listed)
Architectural description – A mid 19th century red sandstone Classical villa facing the carriage sweep, 2-storeys with rusticated quoins with cornice & parapet (No.48 occupies rear wing). The porch is of Roman Doric columns ‘in antis’ with frieze and cornice, and balustraded balcony, 2 moulded string-courses between storeys, 2 French windows on ground floor, 3 sash windows above, all in moulded architraves. Garden front similar but a less regular composition, with a billiard room added on the right.
Style – The absolute discipline and, arising from that discipline, the wonderfully harmonious proportions and the sheer quality of the workmanship on the entrance front leads one to expect an earlier date than is revealed by the freer handling of the garden front where symmetry breaks down and harmony is lost while the workmanship remains superb.
And the sensitivity of the extension, the absolute conformity of the earlier linking portion followed by the handling of a full scale Victorian bay and the matching mouldings, quoins, etc., is exquisite.
The house has a ‘male domain’ – a characteristically Victorian idea. Its heart is the Billiard Room cum Smoking Room with its inglenook (a feature derived from the work of Shaw and Nesfield). Associated with it is a w.c. and cloakroom, and a lobby. Was the purpose of the top-lit lobby to act as a buffer between the house and the noise and smoke of the male zone?
Other rooms in the house have fascinatingly varied plaster-work cornices to their ceilings, and one has a green veined marble fireplace.
Owners and Occupiers – The house was built about 1858-9 for Barton Wrigley, son of George and Alice Wrigley, baptised 21.6. 1831 at St Peters, Liverpool. Wrigley was an attorney (Stockley & Wrigley) who had been living on Everton Brow in 1857, briefly in Canning St., and by 1860 Gore records him at “Fortfield”, the first name of this house – confirmed by a photograph of the house, from Miss Houghton’s collection, annotated “Barton Wrigley Esq.” The 1861 census shows him, his wife Margaret and 3 young daughters with 4 servants including a ladies maid at Fortfield, but after that his name disappears from Gore and by 1870 Mrs Barton Wrigley was at Fairlie, Ullet Rd. (We feel there is more to this story than we have unearthed).
STONELEIGH (continued)
In 1871/2 George Pilkington (1840-1923) Chemical Manufacturer (alkalis) of Widnes bought the house. The 4th son of Wm Pilkington of St Helens, he married in 1867, their eldest son Hector was born in 1868 and by the 1881 census he was at Eton, two more sons had been born and the family had 8 servants. In 1888 the L.W.L.B. Minutes record the building of the Billiard Room, by 1892 George Pilkington was a J.P. for Lancashire and in 1893 the “application for permission” to enlarge the Lodge was from A. Culshaw, a younger member of William Culshaw’s firm of architects. (J.F. Marsh “Story of Woolton” says that the last addition to Stoneleigh was executed by Joseph Houghton). In 1905 Hector Pilkington was a stock & share broker, living at the same address. George Pilkington died 1923 and the house was sold.
By 1925 George Leather, accountant (Harmood Banner & Son) had bought the house. His family included two rugger playing sons and two daughters – this family was still there in 1936.
HIGH LEE c.1861, demolished by 1951.
Architectural description – more than 300 yards from the entrance in Beaconsfield Rd and equally far from its lodge in Druids Cross Rd, this large Victorian house must have been in a world of its own, with a view to the Welsh hills. The house was stone, the garden front of the main 2-storey block faced just South of West and a North wing showed a basement window and possibly lesser ceiling heights. The front door, with a pointed 3-light window above it, was central in a gable on the right of the South end. At the South West corner – the drawing room ? – was a 4-light stone mullioned square bay under a broad gable with rather low eaves, a 3-light window, facing West, and a tall chimney stack on South. The linking bay had a 4-light window on ground floor, a 3-light one above and a little gable. Next was a projecting gable, higher than the first, with a canted 2-storey bay with 3-lights facing West at both levels but the upper part was narrower than that below, and the top was castellated under a small 2-light window at second floor level. The slated roofs were steeply pitched with, the most striking feature, very wide bargeboards pierced in varying patterns for each gable. Part of the stable block remains as a pavilion for S.F.X. playing fields. (The above description from a single photograph from Miss Houghton !s collection annotated “Vernon”.)
HIGH LEE (continued)
Style – Characteristically High Victorian in massing and polychromy of slating and in the use of quatrefoils punched into one of the bays. However, the avant garde school of Goths would not have gone for the elaborate tracery instead they would have used plate-tracery, and though elaborate bargeboards are a feature of the time, they were here so elaborate perhaps because the long-time owner was a timber merchant displaying his wares?
Owners and Occupiers – the two houses apparently both called High Lee present problems, we have called the larger one High Lee and the smaller, near Druids Cross, Higher Lee. Reference to “Messieurs Thos. & John Vernon” in a Beaconsfield deed of 1859 indicates that land to the left of Beaconsfield and behind Abbots Lee was owned by the Vernons who, we suggest, built first High Lee and then Higher Lee.
The 1861 census shows that High Lee lodge was occupied but that High Lee had just 3 servants living there – all born in Shropshire. Consulting the Childwall census we find Thomas Vernon and his wife – who was born in Shropshire – staying at Childwall Abbey Hotel. Thomas, aged 62 was an iron shipbuilder and engineer (Thos. Vernon & Son, Tranmere & Brunswick Dock), born Davenham, Cheshire. John Vernon here (?) -in 1864.
The census shows 1 house building which could be Higher Lee and 1 house unoccupied which, we suggest is John Okill’s cottage, named High Lee on the 1816 map (!) which survived to the 1881 map whose story has so far defeated us.
By 1868 David Jardine (c.1828-1911) was living here. Born in New Brunswick, he joined a firm of timber brokers (Dempsey) at 14, rising to become senior partner of Farnworth & Jardine, world famous for their mahogany auctions. He was for some years Chairman of the Finance Committee of the M.D.H.B. and from the early years of the Cunard Steamship Co. (Reg. 1880) was chief director in Liverpool and on the death of Lord Inverclyde he became the company’s Chairman. He held many other directorships and tributes have been paid to his ability, his courtesy and “courtly bearing”. He and his wife Margaret appear to have had no children as in the 1871 census a niece, Elizabeth Rankin, is living with them aged 6 and she is still there in 1881 now 16 as well as 6 servants including a butler and a ladies maid. Jardine died in 1911 but his widow went on living at the house until 1916. House was empty 1917-1920.
HIGH LEE (continued)
Another timber merchant Laurence McLaren was in the house by 19209 and by 1930 the owner appears to be Douglas Hamilton Beckett. By 1936 the house seems to be empty.
HIGHER LEE c.1861, demolished by 1951.
No description here is possible as we have no photograph of this house. Sometimes said to have been ‘in Wavertree’ as it was approached from that direction via Gipsy Lane or Druids Cross Rd. The house is said to have been like High Lee, but smaller – the Rateable Value here in 1886 was £263.10. while at High Lee it was £425.
Owners and Occupiers – whether one of the Vernons ever lived here we do not, at present know, but we have first found James Wilson at this house in 1864 (previously living in Dudlow Lane, Wavertree). Wilson was a corn merchant, with an office in Doran Lane, Lord St. By 1867 he was styled corn & provision merchant. The 1871 census reveals that he and his wife had been born in Ireland, and that the household included two nieces (with differing surnames) the elder aged 20 had been born in Jamaica, and 3 servants. James Wilson was aged 54.
In 1874 Thomas Best (1839-1894) was living in Woolton Park, but by 1876 he is occupying Higher Lee, owned by David Jardine of High Lee. In 1881 he is recorded as aged 42, born in Liverpool and a South American merchant, with a wife Caroline age 33, his sister with her 3 daughters and 4 servants. It seems that he died in 1894 but his wife continued to occupy the house until her death in 1931. Effects £52,413.
From 1932 Reginald Stockdale, a Banks director, lived here.
BEACON HILL– built c.1868 (Listed)
Architectural description – Victorian house in the Italianate manner, stucco, of 2 storeys and a low pitched roof. South entrance front originally of 4 bays (the right end has lost about 15ft in war damage), now has open pediment ending abruptly at right. Wide boxed eaves with brackets, entrance porch in centre, left canted and right square single storey bays (? added), and all openings are round headed in architraves with keystones, often grouped in pairs or threes. The West front has an open pediment on left and a rectangular bay on right.
Style – The stucco is a continuation of a tradition, c.f. its use in Kensington etc., and with its narrow arched window openings absolutely characteristic of villas in terraces of Victorian England, c.f. terrace on even numbered side of Princes Road. The small round arches in groups of three, with their keystones, and the arched dormer on the rear (North) front is also a motif of around the 1860s. The open pediment and wide boxed eaves are also characteristic of the time.
Owners and Occupiers – We first find Alexander Rodger (1818-1891) at Beacon Hill in 1868, in 1871 he is described as a merchant (Argentine) of R. Best & Co, Imperial Chambers, Dale St. He was 53 and he and his wife Jane 49 had been born in Scotland, they had 3 children – a daughter 24 born in Montevideo, 2 sons James 21 & John G. 18 born in B.A., with 4 servants – the coachman living in. By 1881 he had retired, John Graham was a wool broker and they had 5 servants including a butler. In 1891 Alexander died in Wales, leaving £72,495, and in 1895 John G. Rodger becomes the owner occupier. By 1900 John had land & a stable in Quarry St. R.V. £16 as well as Beacon Hill and he continued here until his death in 1921, by that time a J.P. and leaving £101,913. Briefly, Graham Douglas Rodger appears in Gore for 1922 but from 1924-1927 the occupier is Major William Ed. Stirling Napier.
In 1930 Edward L. Boston of the Garston Tanning Co. is living here and he continues until at least 1936.
The house was requisitioned by the War Dept in the last war and since has been in use in connection with Abbots Lee.
ABBOTS LEE built c.1862-3. (Listed)
Architectural description – Victorian Gothic house in red sandstone; on the entrance front about one third, on the right, was an addition made between 1904 & 1925 (from the maps). The house is of 2 storeys, with gables & attics stone mullioned and transomed windows, rectangular and canted bay windows & a stone eaves cornice with modillions. The porch is steeply gabled with Tudor arched doorway and Gothic glazed outer porch.
Stylistically, the house in a diagrammatic Tudor Gothic is generally High Victorian with a variety of corbel table and other details in accord with the pre-Puginian phase of Gothic Revival including a triple window with the centre light taller than the side lights. The massing of the entrance porch, flanked by buttresses and with a more ecclesiastical air, is especially High Victorian. The garden front gable, stepped forward over a double height bay, has a lancet and a two light pointed window above.
Owners and Occupiers – In 1862 John Bushby (c.1819-1896) born in Cumberland, a shipowner 79 Tower Buildings and a relative of the Laces, bought land from Ambrose Lace. Presumably he built the house 1862/3 as in 1864 Gore records him here, but he seems to have been much away as Mrs Bushby and the children are recorded as the occupants until Mr Bushby retires about 1860. He was a member of the L.W.L.B. from c.1873 and Chairman from 1881 to 1895 and died in Feb. 1896.
In 1899 William Winwood Gossage born Widnes 1862, educated St John’s College, Cambs., soap manufacturer came to live in the house, first as tenant of Bushby’s executors, then buying it in 1904, living there till 1912. He was twice married, secondly in 1896 to Ethel, eldest daughter of Sir W.H. Tate Bart., sugar refiner of Liverpool.
In 1913 Sir Benjamin Sands Johnson (1865-1937) bought the house. Born in Kirkdale and educated at Liverpool Institute, he entered his father’s business at 16 (Johnsons Dyers and Cleaners). He was Mayor of Bootle at the age of 28, stood for Parliament in Kirkdale as a Liberal – but lost to Baden Powell, was knighted 1910 & in 1917 was appointed Director General of the Royal Army Clothing Dept. In 1923 he was High Sheriff of Lancaster and he was also a Deputy Lieut. of the County. A Wesleyan Methodist, he married a daughter of the Rev. James Hutcheson in 1909. He is remembered here for the garden parties he held for his staff in the grounds of the house.
ABBOTS LEE (continued)
The house was requisitioned by the War Dept during the war and in 1948 it was bought by Liverpool Corporation, since when it has been in use as a school.
NEWSTEAD built c.1818 ?
Architectural description – small low-proportioned double-fronted house, now roughcast; with painted stone quoins, stone cornice gutter with fascia, string at upper sill level and plinth. Window openings have plain architraves with plinth blocks and the lower windows have moulded labels with carved bosses. Sash windows to the first floor lack glazing bars, both windows on the left are now blocked and the ground floor, window on the right is a replacement. Front porch notable for decorative cast iron work. The slate roof is low pitched with stone copings on gables. To the right an addition (post 1848) in a matching style, to the left a half octagon bay with hipped roof and finial.
Stylistically – the house is very like vernacular houses of the suggested date, but the refinements of the cornice gutter, the plinth blocks to architraves and especially the moulded labels with carved bosses as well as the general proportions suggest that the house was architect designed. Intriguingly there is a record of the architect Thomas Rickman (1776-1841), designer of St George’s, Everton 1813-14 (as well as houses in Everton etc.) having designed in “Gateacre, Lancs, house for John Bibby, 1816”, which has not yet been identified. Can this be the house?
Owners and Occupiers – possibly John Bibby born c.1773 had the house built. He made a personal appearance in the L.W. Manor Court in 1842 but does not appear to be in the 1841 census. The 1851 census shows the occupiers to have been Mrs Mary Taylor, aged 45, a Provision Merchant born in Sale and her two daughters aged 5 and 2 born in Liverpool.
In 1859 Edward A. Pitcairn Campbell B.A., Curate of Childwall Church had moved into the house from Childwall where he had been living since c.1852. In 1861 we find that he was 42, had been born in Paris c.1819 and that his wife was Harriet, aged 28 from Rock Ferry. They had a daughter Ellen age 2 born in L.W. and 4 servants. By 1871 the Rev. Mr Campbell, now aged 53, was no longer curate (his father the Rev. Augustus Campbell, Vicar of Childwall had died the previous year). They now had a second daughter Rose age 7 and still 4 servants.
NEWSTEAD (continued)
Charles W. Hopley (1845-1882) merchant (H. Woodhead & Co.) was the next resident and from the 1876 L.W.L.B. rates book we see that he is the owner occupier – with his mother Mrs Mary Ann Hopley (c.1819-1886) living next door at Woodcroft. The 1881 census shows that Mr Hopley is a gentleman, born in Rio de Janeiro, age 36. His mother age 62, born Rawtenstall was living with him until he died on 11.11.1882 and she continued in residence until 1885.
During 1886 & 87 the house was empty, the owners being the exors. of C.W. Hopley, but in 1888 Miss Catherine Evans was the occupier – ownership remaining with Mr Hopley’s exors. until 1906. In October 1888 the L.W.L.B. received a letter from J.H. Boult (? Joseph Boult the architect) suggesting they install a sewer in the road to drain all the houses, the Board replied that they were not prepared to do this at present. During Miss Evans’ occupation alterations to the house (unspecified) are mentioned in the Minutes in 1889 and in 1890 Pain & Coard, civil engineers of Bebington wrote about the drains of the house and were told that the owner must provide a cesspool and empty it from time to time. In 1891 Miss Evans married S. Jebb Scott, a surgeon, and they moved away.
From 1892-1898 Captain Charles E. Terry lived here and from the Minutes we learn that he was having a room enlarged over an ashpit to make a tool house, the work being carried out by Brown & Backhouse, building contractors, of Chatham Street.
In 1899 Alfred Hood, cotton broker lived here, staying till 1908, but in 1907 the owner becomes John Robert Collie, a cotton broker with A. & M. Ralli. In 1909 & 10 he is owner and occupier. In 1911 Collie remains the occupier but the ownership has now changed to Jebb Scott, the surgeon. (!) Collie appears in Gore until at least 1917 but by 1920 he had moved to Woolton Hill House.
In c.1920 Col. Arthur Braun, bought the house and it was from his widow that the present owner purchased the house in 1943.
WOODCROFT (Streatlam Cottage) c.1867
Architectural description – a smaller 2-storey Victorian Gothic house built in red “compressed” bricks, finely jointed with cream stone dressings. Main block faces West with two joined wings running East, roof patterned with lozenge shaped slates. North entrance with gable end chimney stack emphasised with shield, bargeboards in upper third of gable. (Porch is later). Garden front (West) has 2 bay windows with double French doors with side lights and brick cheeks. Windows are sashes, with rounded off top corners, of varying widths or grouped in pairs with a slender shaft. Staircase window is round with 4 spokes above such a pair.
Style – So far the most thoroughly High Victorian Gothic we have seen with such expected features as polychromatic brickwork (the very choice of brick is itself High Victorian), polychromatic slating and bold massing and has a relieving arch, though not expressed polychromatically. However it was not designed by an architect who was a true follower of the Butterfield-Street-Webb domestic parsonage style tradition who would not have allowed the chimney stack to punch through the roof ignoring the bargeboards, both on the entrance front and at the other end of the wing; though such rogueishness is a High Victorian trait. Nor would the three masters named have accepted the artless distribution of windows on the South East front.
The Porch is a later addition, in the Perpendicular style, out of keeping with the style of the house; though there is an attempt with the bricks and especially the slating to tie it in with the design.
The Stables are High Victorian with polychromatic, though basically and appropriately less expensive, brickwork and slating to be in keeping with the house.
Gate Piers characteristically High Victorian in their boldness and with ornamental detail ubiquitous at that time,
WOODCROFT (continued)
Owners and Occupiers – called Streatlam Cottage by the man who had this house built in 1867 – James L. Bowes, living previously in Canning St. Born in Leeds he was educated at the Liverpool College becoming a wool broker (J.L. Bowes & Brother, est. 1859), but his family came from Streatlam Castle, Durham where they had lived from the 13th century. Mr Bowes was distinguished as an art collector. “Between 1867-1874 he accumulated a collection of Japanese art unequalled for reliability, extent and beauty, that despite efforts since made by monarchs and millionaires, is still the finest in existence. His publications drew the attention of the Western World to Japanese ware and the fashion of ornamenting house interiors with either originals or imitations is chiefly due to him” (1893). By 1871 he had married and built Streatlam Towers, 5 Princes Rd, with a gallery for exhibiting his collection to the public at 1 shilling per head – donated to charity. The Bowes Museum is now at Barnard Castle and well worth a visit we are told.
The 1871 census shows Mrs Alice Tinne living here, she was a widow age 29 born in Rio de Janeiro living with her daughter Alice 4, born Wavertree and 4 servants. (The firm of Sandbach, Tinne & Co, were West Indian merchants).
By 1876 Mrs Mary Ann Hopley age 57 was the owner occupier, moving in 1881 to live next door at Newstead with her ?invalid son, but retaining ownership until 1911. The next occupant was Fenwick Harrison, ship owner (Harrison Line) who lived here for a year before moving to Fulwood Park. He was followed by Henry Tate jun. in 1884, son of Sir Henry Tate Bt. (sugar refiner) before he moved to Allerton Beeches designed for him by Norman Shaw.
In 1885 the name Nixon appears as the occupier and from 1886 to 1890 John Naylor, banker (Leyland & Bullins) lived here, leaving to move into Elmwood, at the top of Yew Tree Road.
During 1891 the house remained empty, but from 1892-1900 it was tenanted by His Honour Judge Charles Lister Shand – ed. Harrow & Oxford, Barrister 1870 who then moved on to Stand Park House, Wavertree.
John Hutchinson, flour miller came in 1901, he was from a Wesleyan Methodist family of Liberal politics, and stayed for 2 years. Then in 1904 Mrs Sophia Benson Rathbone moved in, remaining until her death in 1914. Mrs Rathbone (1832-1914) bought the house in 1911.
WOODCROFT (continued)
Mrs Rathbone was followed immediately by Mrs Herbert Savile (Shaw, Savile Line), she was Margaret Helena Kate the eldest daughter of Mrs Chapple Gill then living at Lower Lee.
In 1932 the house was empty, but from 1933 to at least 1936 David Shepherd Douglas lived here.
STRAWBERRY FIELD built c.1867 (demolished 1960s)
Architectural description – Large Victorian Gothic house built of local brick (“Garston picked commons” as in the Village Club), with sandstone dressings and window surrounds. The entrance front, to the North, was a 3-storey block of 4 bays, the centre two stepped forward, with a gable over the left centre bay above a large 4-light staircase window with a circular window containing 3 quatrefoils above it. The other bays were lit with 2-light windows of varying designs, they had string courses at floor levels and steeply pitched dormers. To the left was a 2~storey wing. The opposite (South) garden front had 2 single storey canted bay windows in the left half, to the right a 2-storey rectangular bay with castellated top.
Stylistically – this was a thoroughly Gothic mansion in the mainstream of the Sir Gilbert Scott manner, that is to say using the features of the time, polychromy, steeply pitched roofs and gables in a straightforward way – neither wilfully nor with originality – as did the High Victorian architects. (From 2 photographs lent by the Salvation Army)
Owners and Occupants – this house was built for George Warren (1819-1880) a shipowner, born in Surrey, who had come to Liverpool in 1853 with his American born wife Mary Ann to manage the Liverpool office of the White Diamond Line of Boston. At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 the firm transferred its ships to the British flag and made Liverpool the headquarters of, henceforth, the Warren Line. The first steamship was employed in 1863, but it was not until 1877 that the last sailing ships ceased service with the line, noted for importing cattle. George Warren in 1867 was in Grove Park, in 1868 at Strawberry Field and the 1871 census showed him a widower with 5 children, living with his mother-in-law and 7 servants. On 10.10.1880 he died at Bellagio, Italy leaving in his will just under £250,000.
STRAWBERRY FIELD (continued)
His son George Hignett Warren (c.1852-1912) born in Boston, and a footballer, athlete, competitive yachtsman, tarpon fisherman and big game hunter who also rode with the Cheshire Hunt and was a photographer. He took over the firm and, although often away in America, lived at Strawberry Field and died there. However the house had been bequeathed to his eldest sister, Mary who in the 1881 census is shown living there with George, her sister Edith Emily and 7 servants.
By 1919 Alexander C. Mitchell (1844-1927) son of a Dundee flax spinner and a merchant (Duncan Fox & Co) for whom he worked for 50 years, trading with the west coast of South America, came to live here from Weston House, Halewood. He and his family were members of the congregation of the Fairfield (Beech St.) Presbyterian Church. After his death his widow and their daughters went on living in the house until 1935.
In 1936 Strawberry Field Salvation Army Children’s Home was in the charge of Brigadier Ruth Gill, and the Salvation Army are still on the site though the house was demolished.
LOWER LEE built c.1861 demolished c.1963
Architectural description – Victorian Gothic house in red sandstone (built to random courses) generally of 2 storeys but a 3-storey block at the South contained the front entrance. This face had a gable with bargeboards to the West with a 1-storey canted bay, a window of 2 pointed lights above, and a single light at second floor level. In the middle was a rectangular projecting porch with a segmental arch for the front door. The rather plain right wing had a 1-storey canted bay to the right with a two-light window over it, a single light over the porch, and two small squareish dormers with curly bargeboards.
LOWER LEE (continued)
The West garden front was composed around a roughly central crow-stepped gable of small projection with a rectangular bay and 2-light window over. To the right the eaves of the entrance front gable were on a corbel table; 2 square headed windows at ground level, 3-light window above with moulded string at sill level. To the left of crowstep gable, a canted bay with cresting of strapwork; above, first a projecting 2-light dormer window (with the fattest finial of the six visible), beyond another lower dormer with a 1-light window. Some South and West facing ground floor windows were fitted with sunblinds, and the chimney stacks were insignificant.
Style – this house was truly eclectic, which one would expect from a building of that date; it had Gothic barge-boards, a corbel table, pointed windows, even a cusped trefoil to one of the dormers; mixed with Jacobethan strap-work balustrading to two of the ground floor bay windows, as well as a crowstepped gable – a feature of Scotland and also of East Anglia. The random courses of masonry were in keeping with this eclectic style.
In its eclecticism Lower Lee showed one face of Victorian architecture.
Owners and Occupiers – In 1859 Thomas Carey was a ‘gentleman’, in 1860 an ‘estate agent’ living in Church Rd Woolton with an office at 6 Parker St. (earlier he had been living in Windsor St.). The 1861 census shows Thomas Carey, aged 52 as a ‘fundholder’ and Catherine, his wife age also 52 living with their daughter Catherine Smith Carey age 14 and his mother Margaret aged 80 all born in Liverpool, living at Lower Lee with 1 servant. By 1871 census he was describing himself as a ‘retired merchant and gentleman’ and he and his wife were living with 3 servants, including a butler.
By this time his daughter Catherine Smith Carey (1847-1916) had married Chapple Gill (c.1833-1901/2) on 10th June 1868 at Childwall. Her husband was the son of Robert Gill, a cotton broker of Knotty Cross and R. & C. Gill, joining the business in 1857 and by 1880 head of the firm. (The Gill family is another story). In 1877 Mrs Chapple Gill’s portrait was painted, sitting in the drawing room window of Lower Lee, with two of her five children, by James Tissot (1836-1902) – this picture is now in the Walker Art Gallery.
LOWER LEE (continued)
After Thomas Carey’s death Mrs Carey went on living at the house until about 1881, then George C. Dobell became the occupier in 1882 & 1883. In 1884 the Chapple Gills moved in, the owners being the exors. of Thomas Carey; but by 1885 the owner was Chapple Gill. After the death of Chapple Gill in 1901/2 his widow lived at Lower Lee until she died in 1916.
Their eldest son, born c.1869 Thomas Carey Gill-Carey was required by a codicil dated 19.4.1874 in his Grandfather Carey’s will of 16.5.1873 to take the name of Carey as his surname, and a clause in Mrs Chapple Gill’s will confirms that he did so when she left her grandson Chapple Gill Carey £300. Chapple Gill Carey’s Times obit. of 23.12.1981 shows that his father Thomas Carey Gill-Carey emigrated to New Zealand becoming a farmer, and Chapple Gill Carey (1896-1981), educated in New Zealand, had a distinguished medical career in England, and his son, also a medical practitioner is living in Devon.
The Chapple Gill’s 2nd child is still remembered in Woolton as Mrs Savile (see Woodcroft story) and their 4th, Robert Carey Chapple Gill continued the cotton broking firm, and in 1918 was a member of the “Hobnail Club” – a rambling club for professional people who wore a green tweed uniform and carried a compass on a piece of string round their necks.
(We are indebted to his son, Mr Berkeley Chapple Gill of Brinderwen for guidance).
In 1920 Mrs Margaret A. Smith was living at Lower Lee, followed by Mr G. L. Pilkington in 1936.
We hope you have enjoyed our walk!
J.D., S.M.L., J.B.G.
The Notes were transcribed in 2011 from the original (1986) mimeographed typescript.
Please notify the Gateacre Society of any errors and omissions which may be found, so that
these can be recorded above for the benefit of future researchers.
GLOSSARY – for Beaconsfield Road.
architrave – the lowest of the 3 divisions of an entablature; also, moulded frame surrounding a door or window opening.
axis – any line in a regular figure which divides it into two symmetrical parts; hence, loosely, centre line.
(x) bays – from early times the sections in which timber framed buildings were made; so, vertical divisions in the length of e.g. a barn, cathedral, Georgian house etc.
column – upright member (post), circular on plan and usually tapering; (base, shaft & capital) carrying an entablature.
‘compressed’ brick – machine made brick not yet developed to the pressed brick (Accrington, Ruabon, etc.) of e.g. Princes Rd.
cornice – the top, projecting, division of an entablature; also any projecting ornamental moulding finishing the top of a building.
eclectic – ‘selected such (motifs) as pleased them from every school’ (Liddell & Scott, of philosophers.)
entablature – the upper horizontal part of an order (a beam) consisting of architrave, frieze and cornice.
frieze – middle division of an entablature, frequently decorated.
Gothic – the architecture of the pointed arch and its system, ‘Early English’ ( 13th century), ‘Decorated’, ‘Perpendicular’ and ‘Tudor’ (16th cent.) with certain survivals. (We owe the descriptive terms to Thomas Rickman – see page 21.)
Gothick – Strawberry Hill, 1747-76, was the ‘Gothick’ plaything of Horace Walpole – hence a fashionable dressing up with motifs without the underlying structural system of Gothic architecture.
‘in antis’ (see drawing) – when columns are set within the line of a building.
Above: The architect’s inspiration for the Lodge to Knolle Park?
Left: ‘Reconstructed’ roof plan of Beaconsfield.
