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.

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