Historic Liverpool Dwellings - Elmswood

 

The substantial Victorian property, Elmswood in Briarwood Road, Mossley Hill was built in 1850 for the former Mayor of Liverpool, Thomas Sands Esq. He was a J.P. and general merchant who became a businessman in Liverpool and was also a Wesleyan preacher. His firm sent him off to New York and when he returned in 1843-1844 he became Mayor of Liverpool. In 1844 he called a public meeting on the 18th of October to make arrangements for the establishment of a 'Sailors' Home, Registry and Savings Bank for Seamen'. His house was Tudor Gothic in pale ashlar with barge boarded gables oriel and a huge square  headed traceried stair window. William Dawbarn, a timber slate merchant based in Liverpool then purchased the estate in 1867 from this former mayor of Liverpool. His business had accumulated him a considerable amount of wealth, with his net personal worth (excluding real estate) at his death being £47,000 which equates to about £55,000,000 in 2008 if we take his wealth as a proportion of Britain’s GDP. He may have been making some effort to emulate the upper classes of society, as was deemed characteristic of a mid-Victorian businessman, by acquiring Elmswood Hall. He died on 26 May 1881, in his sixty-first year, at this fourteen-acre suburban estate and his death was unexpected; as reported by the Liverpool Mercury in an obituary on the 27th of May 1881, 'Dawbarn was at business on Wednesday, but getting home in the evening he complained of being ill . . . the cause of death was heart disease'. His will revealed his substantial investment in real estate in his purchase of Elmswood Hall. Under the terms of the will, Elizabeth continued to live at Elmswood following her husband’s death. The 1881 Census taken shortly before William's death listed a total of fourteen people living at the property. Five of the Dawbarn children were living in the family home, namely spinster daughters Elizabeth and Harriett, ages thirty-five and thirty-four respectively and sons Joseph and Climence, aged twenty-four and twenty-two. By the time of the 1871 Census the house was even more populated with nineteen people resident; nine of the eleven Dawbarn children were at home plus Elizabeth’s spinster sister, all supported by seven servants but in 1884 the only family still remaining were four women: Elizabeth, her two spinster daughters, and her spinster sister. Elmswood may have been much too large, and possibly too expensive to run, for the four remaining women. Whatever the reason, the property was available for purchase by mid-1884. The 17th of June 1884 issue of the Liverpool Mercury advertised the auction sale of Elmswood: 'All that Capital MANSION, known as 'Elmswood Hall', . . . together with the entrance lodge, land, pleasure grounds, shrubberies, and outbuildings thereto belonging, including vineries, conservatory, pine and forcing houses, stabling for eight horses, shippon for four cows, pigstye, fowl pens, etc. [is for sale]. The elevated property ‘commanded lovely views over the river Mersey and the Cheshire and Welsh ranges of hills.’

The window, part of an extension dated 1878 has the initials of the subsequent owner Nicholas Duckworth, who had followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a cotton merchant, on the porch to the right. On the 27th of October, 1889, he died at his residence, Elmswood House and was buried with his wife, Lucinda Ann Eyes, at Holy Trinity Church, Wavertree.

 

In 1940 the house was bought by the Salvation Army to be used as a mother and baby home for unmarried mothers, the idea being that the babies would be given up for adoption. Such an arrangement was made with the Salvation Army for a pregnant Julia to spend a period of confinement with them at Elmswood in North Mossley Hill Road, not far from her home at Newcastle Road and she was sent there in early 1945 and John was sent to live with his Uncle Alf's brother Syd and his wife in Maghull. As the signs of her pregnancy became visible Julia would be hidden here, away from the eyes of prying neighbours until she reached full term. The subsequent adoption of the as yet unborn child would also be taken care of by the home. John Lennon's mum Julia gave birth to her second child in the home and baby Victoria was adopted by Julia's friend Margaret Pedersen (nee Edwards*****) and her husband Pedar. Even though they were friends Julia was not allowed to make contact with her. The Pedersens renamed the baby Ingrid and Julia had the impression that they moved to Norway. That seems to be the last that anyone knew about her. 

 

Sometime later it became Mossley Manor Care Home, which was shut in 2015 by the Care Quality Commission due to the neglect of its residents, as it was found that unwell pensioners lived in 'dangerous' conditions with some left more than a month without a bath or shower. The millionaire owners were fined more than £82,000. It lay empty and abandoned for some time, suffering decay and vandalism.

It was recently for sale in 2017 for 2.5 million, and the proposed plans to convert the main building and extension into 16 residential apartments, and to build 3 new houses in the grounds have now been achieved.

http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2022/10/historic-liverpool-dwellings-carnatic.html