The long boarded up old nursing home toward the Hoylake end of Meols Drive – The Paddocks – is up for auction with Allsops (note the use of a premium, generic domain name – sorry, but I spot these things ‘cos of my web design job). The guide price is £800,000 – £900,000 and of course the purchaser will need additional cash to do something with the building. The auction listing details:
The property may afford potential for a variety of alternative uses. We are informed by the Vendor that under existing planning guidelines, planning would be considered for a number of uses including refurbishment of the existing building as a nursing home, new build nursing homes development, boutique hotel, office accommodation and use as a single dwelling (new build or refurbishment) all subject to obtaining the necessary planning consents. Architect drawings of a proposed new build 42 bedroom nursing home are available from the Auctioneer’s office upon request, however prospective purchasers are advised to make their own planning enquiries with the local authority.
So, we’ll wait and see what happens in our current property market.
do you know if the paddock used to be a deaf blind home before it became a nursing home?
b jones
Hi Brian, I don’t know what the building used to be. Can anyone else answer that?
It had been divided into flats when I was a kid in the ’60s and 70’s. We used to play footie on what was a spare bit of land on the links behind The Paddock. If the ball went into the back garden it was a real problem as the grumpy old guy who lived in the ground floor would ‘confiscate’ the ball. It was a real battle to get to the ball first…..
I’m not sure it was ever a blind home though. I think it went straight from flats to old folks. Is it being confused with Wilton Grange at the WK end of the Drive? That was run by the RNIB until they sold it off for redevelopment. Along with Barn Hey and Ethendune (now the Barn Hey flats) they were the 3 finest houses on the Drive, mock Tudor black & white with Westmorland roof slates.
Apparently The Paddock is so named as it was the site of the paddock for the old Hoylake race course. Interesting it’s up for sale, I hope it is restored as a private house. Let’s hope it keeps the name whatever. It’s been the subject of an ongoing planning wrangle for a very long time and there’s still a pending planning application from 2003 on the council website. It perhaps shows that Conservation Area status has some meaning after all……. Or maybe a distressed sale in light of credit crunch?
Ethendune was my favourite house on Meols Drive. When i was going home on the school bus i used to look out for it and wonder who had lived there and what sort of stories a house like that could tell?
It’d make for a rather large house for someone.
It is a little curious that it’s come up for sale when the market is dead – credit crunch does spring to mind. My wife had heard a rumour that a consortium of local builders and the like had bought it a few years back.
I might have a typo in the title ..it’s probably The Paddocks (rather than Paddock)
I noticed a ‘SOLD’ board up in 2005 (I think) so yr wife may well be right. An auction sale often means a reposession but I notice it is a local solicitor on the Allsops website so maybe they’re just trying to take a profit or offload it to cut their losses? Probbly bought it as a speculation hoping for planning permission to increase its value.
Yeh, large for sure but it was built as a private house and there are some very large houses on Meols Drive already! Inside I understand it was divided up into lots of little cells (sorry, rooms) for the old folks. Once the original floor plan is restored it would probably make a fabulous house again. The extension could be removed or used as guest suite, home office, party room, games rooms/gymn/ even swim pool if you had the cash. Sadly I haven’t! I always liked that house and it’s always looked neglected.
It’s definitely ‘The Paddock’ not paddocks by the way though the original gateposts which had the name on have gone.
Please keep us posted on developments!
Checked Allsop site, seems The Paddock didn’t make the reserve price at today’s auction.
Well spotted!
There was an article in The Telegraph yesterday that referenced Allsops. It suggested that auction bidders are currently holding back …if nobody bids then a canny bidder attempts to conclude a post-auction deal.
I ran past the building the other day. No names on the brick gate pillars …not the original ones!
the paddock was a private home. the home for the blind was wilton grange unfortunatly demolished to build a lot of smaller homes JR…
I’m sending the link to The Paddock to an old friend who lived in the property, for a while, as a child. As I recall it was divided into 2 flats and relatives lived in the other part. This would have been in the 1950s.
am I right in thinking it was used by DSS at one time?
DSS – not so far as I know but The Priory next door was the local ‘dole office’ for many years. Now replaced by Meols Court apartment development about 5 years ago. The same developers wanted to demolish The Paddock but never got planning permission.
Thanks Peter- of course I remember now- The Priory was the DSS. Very near to The Paddock though.
Thanks for that one.
Sue
I’m Sue’s old friend now living in Canada. I lived in the ground floor flat of the Paddock around 1955-1957. My cousins, the Saville’s lived upstairs. We used to walk across the Links to St. Hilderburghs Church and I remember watching the British Open Golf there one year.
I last walked passed the old house 3 yrs ago while on holiday – many happy memories! Jill
My husband who is now 58 Lived in “The Paddock” with his family when he was a young boy of about12ish I
think that would have made it about 1965 ish, sorry im vague but we have only been married 9 years and this was when he was a Lad and the story’s he told me about the house and the big tree on the right of the house as we look at the photograph was the first tree he climbed, mainly because his bedroom was on that side of the building. there was a small pond in the front lawn and he and his father built that pond.
Rob speaks of christmas mornings and the christmas carols playing echoing up the stairwell to the upper floors he said it was wonderful with all the wonderfull smells coming from downstairs cooked by their housekeeper and her husband was the chauffer/handyman and lived on the premises. Robs father was a Commander in the Navy and lived here with his elderly parents too.
I lived there in the 40’s – I put this up weeks ago but it has not been added
My family lived there in the 40’s
Can someone please help me – we lived in a big old house about 1970 that had a very long drive and a kind of small bush roundabout right in front of the house. There were about 4 or 5 garages down one side, a huge garden that went forever to the right, with old stables at the end. There were many trees, but one extremely large one right outside the large French windows off the lounge (sitting) room. Cannot remember how many rooms this house had but there were many, and they were large rooms. If my memory serves there were also servants quarters off the house. The name of this house was “West Paddocks” would love to know what happened to this old house, After we moved out to come to Australia, we heard it was going to be demolished due to building a new flyover.
Would love to hear any scrap of information. Thanks!