Knolle Park House in Woolton was a three storey Italianate mansion, originally built in 1820 but acquired in 1828 by Thomas Foster, the brother of John Foster Junior. John Junior was an architect of alterations and embellishments and it is thought the stable block certainly has some of the traits of JFJ - the classical lines but with pilasters not pillars, similar to The Oratory and the Lime Street Station exposed facade. Thomas Foster had chosen himself a fantastic location because it is considered the highest part of Liverpool, although in those days this wasn't part of Liverpool. The house itself had a front of six large bays with giant pilasters and at the top was a cornice. The Corinthian-style porch had four columns and the windows are sashes, some with architraves. It was built in stone with a slate roof. Next to the main gates there was a Grecian style lodge, like a temple. These would have been the main gates where the carriages would have swept in this very nice corner of the property. It was one of the many mansions and mansion lodges of Victorian merchants and worthies built on Woolton Hill to command the views across the river to Wirral and Wales or eastwards towards The Pennines. These people were called 'the carriage folk' at the time and this area has been described as "the greatest example of conspicuous wealth in Britain, if not the World."
Thomas Foster was the Liverpool Town Clerk who was discharged from office by the 'reformed' Council elected after the passing of the Municipal Reform Act of 1835. He claimed, as a compensation for the loss of his office, no less than £77,000. It was, however, arranged that he should receive £2590 a year, instead of this as a lump sum. In the early fifties of last century the house was the residence of John Stock, who became a member of this Society in 1850. His son, James Henry Stock, was born at Knolle Park in December 1855, and sat as a Conservative M.P. for the Walton division of Liverpool from 1892 to 1906. Colonel Myles Sandys, sometime M.P. for the Bootle division of Lancashire, took over Knolle Park from the Stocks. The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 had created the new constituency of Bootle and Sandys was elected as the first M.P. for the seat. He retained the seat at subsequent elections before resigning in 1911.
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| St Gabriels Convent in a state of disrepair |
The property was acquired in the early 1900s and initially operated by a Roman Catholic order of German nuns as a children’s home. When the First World War broke out in 1914, the German sisters returned to their homeland and were replaced by The Poor Servants of the Mother of God. A number of additions were made to the site during the 1960s and 70s including the creation of a series of outbuildings and extensions. The 1968 street directory lists St Gabriel's Children's Home 'Knolle Park' next door to St Gabriel's Convent at the Church Road end of Beaconsfield Road. Strawberry Field Children's Home is at the other end, and Abbot's Lea School was on the other side of the road with Lower Lee Special School next door to Abbot's Lea. In February 1998 John Christian, a voluntary worker at St Gabriel's Convent, was jailed for sexually abusing young boys over two decades. He worked at the home and lived at a lodge on the grounds from the late 1960s until 1987. A court report from the time stated that many of Christian's offences were committed at the lodge, but were also carried out in the dormitories and lounge of Knolle Park. The convent was finally closed for good in the last decade.
A scheme received planning permission in August 2016 to build a luxury residential development transforming the derelict, Grade II listed former St Gabriels convent and its surrounding historic grounds into a collection of bespoke apartments and detached houses in a landscaped setting. The scheme involved the conversion of the Listed main house to apartments, construction of a new apartment block, construction of 4 and 5 bed detached houses, and the preservation and extension of the Listed gatehouse, and orangery building to form 2 unique homes.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2022/12/historic-liverpool-dwellings-bingle.html
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