Historic Liverpool Dwellings - Court Hey Hall

 

Court Hey Park is a park in the Bowring Park suburb of Knowsley borough in Merseyside and it lies about 4.5 miles east of Liverpool city centre. It can be traced back to 1783 when it was a farmer's field forming part of the estate of Lord Derby. The grounds were acquired by Robertson Gladstone who was the elder brother of the four times Prime Minister, William Gladstone. Robertson Gladstone married Mary Ellen Heywood-Jones in January 1836 and the mansion house, Court Hey Hall, was built the same year in the 60 acre walled estate and was an imposing L-shaped building constructed in red sandstone. The Architect may have been John Cunningham, the designer of Liverpool Lime Street Station. Gladstone, who was a director of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, acquired the original sandstone railway sleepers once traversed by George Stephenson's world famous locomotive Rocket in 1842 when the railway was renovated. These were used to edge the main drives of the park and are still prominent today. 

 

The hall remained in the Gladstone family until the death of one of Robertson Gladstone's sons in 1919. In the same year it was bought by J. Bibby and Sons, a cattle food manufacturer. They established an experimental poultry and cattle feed farm and developed the park as a centre for sport and recreation, originally for the Bibby employees. Recreation continued alongside a printing business, which was established in the grounds in 1923. Football, tennis, bowls and cricket were played in the park, while the hall was used for ballroom dances, billiards and other social activities. By 1948 the hall was beginning to deteriorate and in 1951 the company sold it and the estate to Huyton-With -Roby Council. The hall was demolished in 1956 leaving the stables and walled garden, and part of the grounds were turned into a public park called Court Hey Park with the remainder of the estate used for housing development.

Vernon's Pools made their home here for the latter part of the 20th century prior to the stables and some of the land being taken over for the National Wildflower Centre in 2000 until around 2017. The entrance drive has been re-aligned but the original gate posts can still be seen on the perimeter with Roby Road. In 2013 its heritage was uncovered in a Time Team-style investigation when The Gladstone Roots Project was officially opened at the Park in Huyton. Its unique lottery-funded archaeological inquiry explored the heritage of the Gladstone family in the park by excavating the site of a Victorian mansion house. The project was undertaken on behalf of The Friends of Court Hey Park and Knowsley Borough Council as part of the Gladstone Roots Project and was a designed as a programme of community archaeology aimed at allowing members of the public to participate in archaeological excavation. The excavation aimed to locate and record remains belonging to Court Hey Hall.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/03/historic-liverpool-dwellings-19-poplar.html