And we’re back!
Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts. What with the Easter holiday, work stuff and jury service at Liverpool Crown Court for a couple of weeks (a worthy, but somewhat inconvenient civic duty), I’ve not had the time to publish items on the site. If you’ve emailed, I’ve not seen it yet.
Now, this week’s photo. Pictured above is a photo of Wilton Grange that I bought from someone in Manchester. This person was researching an area of Manchester also called Wilton Grange but when she realised the photo wasn’t of the area she got in touch with me. So I ended up refunding the fiver she paid for the photo on ebay.
Now I’m not sure but I think (hope) that this photo is of an old house on Meols Drive. We’ve discussed it before in some detail but to recap, it was once the home of Robert Cain, the owner of Cain’s Brewery in Liverpool. It was located near Pinfold Lane, which is probably West Kirby rather than Hoylake but we’ll ignore that for this post. The Cain family also had properties on North Parade – we’ve discussed that here. And to get an idea of what these two houses were like, have a look at the photos of the righthand one that’s just sold this week on rightmove.
As Wilton Grange became a convalescent home for injured officers, this may well explain why there are several people sat outside the property. Obviously it was a sizeable house and would be possibly be worth a couple of million in today’s market (if it wasn’t a hotel, nursing home or as it actually became, apartment blocks). I guess someone had a run of postcards printed off so the recovering officers were able to write home to loved-ones, though the one I’ve now got is blank.
Can anyone confirm if the photo is of Wilton Grange, Meols Drive?
I think it was turned into the deaf/blind home for a few years… They transferred the residents and staff from the house on the corner of Trinity Road Hoylake and the Promenade………
it was a home for the blind as i remember it but possibly for the deaf as well, great shame it was knocked down and flats built in its place. it looks a beautiful building
I have a black and white photo of another house in Meols Drive, taken early 1950’s called Barn Hey. At first I thought it was the same house but the black and white design on the frontage is slightly different. Around that time I think either the Royal Insurance company or Prudential used to use Barn Hey for conferences etc. Whether they owned it or just rented the accommodation there I do not know
Yes, Barn Hey was the Royal Insurance management training school. Royal Insurance was of course a Liverpool company in those days. I was told they had temporary planning permission to use it for such during the war but this was withdrawn in the 1970s following which the property was sold and sadly demolished. It was smaller the Wilton Grange but in the same style. Next door to Barn Hey was Ethandune which was grander. Both were demolished in the 70s and after many years of lying empty the combined site was redeveloped to create the Barn Hey appartments which remain today. Another sad loss.
Peter,
Barn Hey was the main Royal Insurance Group training facility for many years: I actually attended here July/Oct 1962, with all of us staying at the Kings Gap Court hotel, Hoylake. The Royal was the largest UK composite insurance company. We used the swimming pool on the front and went to places such as the Kraal, New Brighton, Reeces, and Everton FC. Great times!
Regards,
Ian Dunningham
My Grandparents lived at Barn Hey in the early to mid 1950’s.
My Grandfather worked for the Royal Insurance and was a tutor at
Barn Hey running courses for the students.
I have a clock that was presented to him in 1952 by them, with a
brass inscription on it from them titled’ Barn Hey’ with a message from the
candidates at the time.
My Grandparents lived in the whole of the upstairs of the house and I have
memories of visiting as a young boy thinking how grand it was with a beautiful
staircase and a long landing with a wonderful red carpet.
I would love to see a picture of the house if you can e-mail it and any other
information you may have.
His name was Francis Brinton.
Hoping that this will be possible.
KInd Regards,
Keith Herlock.
Barn Hey was the main Royal Insurance Group training facility for many years: I actually attended here July/Oct 1962, with all of us staying at the Kings Gap Court hotel, Hoylake. The Royal was the largest UK composite insurance company. We used the swimming pool on the front and went to places such as the Kraal, New Brighton, Reeces, and Everton FC. Great times!
Regards,
Ian Dunningham
Do you still have this photo? My great-grandmother was a parlor maid at a house named Barn Hey on Meols Drive in the 1935 which was the year she was married.
As a pupil at Calday GS in the mid 60s, I volunteered to go there every Saturday morning and read the newspapers to residents.
As they were mostly deaf and blind we used a system of spelling out each word using a configuration of signs delivered to the palm of the hand to represent each letter or number.
It was very intensive and slow but I perservered until I left school in 1967 for a career in the Merchant Navy
I am almost certain it was a home for the blind.
We acquired a bath from there for our house in Drummond Road.
We wheeled it down Meols Drive on a handcart much to the delight of our three young children, one of whom travelled inside it, and the bemused glances of passers by.
The house is certainly in the style of the Wilton Grange that stood on Meols Drive but I cannot be certain it is ‘our’ Wilton Grange. Can anyone who knrew the building confirm?
I’ve looked at the photo that shows the bedroom interior (which is also reproduced in “Merchant Palaces” by Joseph Sharples; Bluecoat Press, 2007). The shape and style of the bay window seem to correspond with the one you can see on the exterior view that you posted – first floor, above where the vehicle is parked. Also, on the interior view of the landing, the slope of the ceiling that you can just see, towards where light appears to be coming from a window, suggests the slope of the roof above the first floor window that is above the entrance porch.
In 1911 the Cains were living at Wilton Grange and staying with them was a cousin Eliza McKeand Nadin who was related on her mother’s side. The house had 22 rooms and there were seven live in servants. On her father’s side she was great grand daughter of Deputy Constable Nadin of Peterloo Massacre. They remained friends, Eliza staying with the dowager Lady Cain at Wargrave Manor in Berkshire up to 1921
I can remember Wilton Grange as a home for the elderly who were both deaf and blind. From what I can remember, it was one of only 3 such homes in the country.
I was a guide with the 1st West Kirby Guides and our captain, Mrs Ward? was also the district commissioner. At the time I joined the guides, 1966, there were no guide companies in Hoylake.
We used to give an annual Christmas party for the people in the home and there was a competition between the patrols for a winning game for the residents.
Certain ‘expert’ residents used to judge the games, and the winning game was put into production for the following year.
From memory, my first year, in early 1967, the winning game had been devised by my patrol and was a series of concentric rings in plywood; probably produced by the Parade School, or Calday Grange and the game was to put them together to form a circle in the shortest possible time.
Our suggestion in 1967 was to fit the tops on to tablet bottles of different sizes as the so-called child-proof screw tops had just been developed from memory.
We all knew both the deaf manual alphabet and the blind version, too. As a result, every Guide in the company had their Friend to the Deaf badge.
The company won an international service trophy, from memory, it was the Walter Donald Ross service trophy.
We were all very sad when the home closed and the residents moved as they became friends, and we each had our special favourites that we used to talk to.
In fact, one year, I was priviledged to witness something that was almost a miracle there.
There was a lady there who was Polish. She was both deaf and blind, but as far as the home knew, not mute. She had been in a concentration camp in Germany during the war, and her head was covered with burn marks from where soldiers had used her head as an ashtray. She’d had a younger sister who’d died in the camp. The staff had tried everything they could think of to try and get her to talk, but nothing had worked. There was a new guide, very young and blonde and rather shy and timid who had found it too daunting to go to anyone and start talking on their hands. They was only her and the lady left. They reassured her that the lady wouldn’t hurt her and somehow explained to her that there was a young girl there to talk to her. Encouraged, the girl sat at her feet and, helped by one of the staff, the lady put out her hand to touch her on the head.From what I can remember, they made contact, possibly the young recruit to the guides tried out her deaf alphabet on her hands. We came to realise that the young guide, who was blonde was about the same age as the lady’s sister had been when she died in the concentration camp, and with that the dam was broken and the Polish lady stroked her head and tears cale down her cheeks, and after almost all hope had been lost she began to talk and communicate with the outside world. Had she not done so, they would probably have had no choice but to move her to a psychiatric hospital which would have been awful.
I’ve many happy memories of the Christmas parties we used to go to at Wilton Grange, being teased by the residents about possible boyfriends and school and finding out about their lives. I often think that we got back much much more than we ever gave the residents with our simple games.
It is Wilton Grange, Hoylake. I have a photograph of it that belonged to my grandmother. She was friends of Ernest and Dolly Cain probably through her husband to be Frank Hardenbrook Whiteley whose father Frederick William Whiteley also lived in Meols Drive.
She also had a photo of the Cain’s yacht Sabrina.
Does anyone have any information about the Sabrina?
I once owned a 1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost belonged to Sir William Cain of Wilton Manor
Photographs of the car whilst in Sir Williams possession would be welcome