AYMESTREY COURT - Listed Grade II - and Lodge & Coach House

This house is not properly part of our walk today - we dealt with its history in Gateacre Walk III in August 1980. However as we pass today along Acrefield Road, it is worth pausing to take another look so that we may draw comparisons with Overdale farther along.

First - the main block; "built 1881-2 for Henry Tate (for his daughter) architect unknown. A red-pressed brick 3 storey building with stone dressings and red-tiled roof; bold and with its heavy broad bays (on the far side) rather coarse. Its style carries a lingering whiff of 'high Victorianism' (period c.1850-1875)." Thus we wrote in 1980.

Now we add that - ignoring the plumbers' paradise of pipes arising from conversion to institutional use - the elevation to the road is unsatisfactory because elements of the plan have been unresolved. Note the four first floor sash windows for instance: the 2 to the right light one room (it seems to be a sitting room now) next on the left a similar sized window lights what seems to be a w.c.; the same sized window on the left corner is a bathroom; yet all 4 proclaim by their similarity that they light a room, or rooms, of similar size and status. An architect who had properly resolved his plan would have found a means of either sorting out the rooms, or of adjusting the window sizes and characters, so that such a conflict of uses was not obvious (especially on the front elevation) to all passers-by.

Having been so critical of the main block, we must say that now the composition of the whole group - as seen from across the road rather nearer Woolton - is pleasing; the stable block part of the Coach House (1884) with its ventilator, pyramidal roof and fox weathervane particularly so. Note also on the Lodge of the same date, the terra-cotta panel and the motto "EAST OR WEST, HOME IS BEST" omitted in our 1980 notes. Also in those notes: -

2nd: The Lodge & Coach House, 1884, built for the Robinsons -shows that subtle combination of materials - hand made brick, half timbering, stucco & tile hanging; all ingredients of the Vernacular Revival & so beloved of the Victorian domestic architect.

3rd: the Billiard Room, dated 1887. Gentlemen could withdraw to smoke and play.

4th: the extension to the house, dated 1891, much more refined & sensitive than the main block. Built in a golden age for domestic building in England - architect also unknown.

continued . . .