Hill Bark (also known as Bidston Court) is a large
country house to the south of the hamlet of
Frankby
Frankby () is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside, England. It is located between Greasby and Newton on the outskirts of the town of West Kirby. The hamlet of Larton is to the north west. Historically within the county of Ches ...
,
Wirral,
Merseyside
Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...
, England. It is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...
as a designated Grade II*
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
The authors of the ''
Buildings of England
The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were publish ...
'' series comment that it is "one of the most notable
Victorian essays in
half-timbered design anywhere in the country".
[
]
History
The house was originally built in 1891 for the soap manufacturer Robert William Hudson
Robert William Hudson (1856–1937) was born in West Bromwich, the eldest son of Robert Spear Hudson who had founded a soap-flake manufacturing business. Hudson managed his father's company until it was taken over by Lever Brothers Ltd in 1908.
...
on Bidston Hill
Bidston Hill is of heathland and woodland containing historic buildings and ancient rock carvings, on the Wirral Peninsula, near the Birkenhead suburb of Bidston, in Merseyside, England. With a peak of , Bidston Hill is one of the highest poi ...
, Birkenhead
Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...
. It was designed by the Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
architectural firm of George Enoch Grayson and Edward A. L. Ould (probably by Ould), and was then known as Bidston Court. It was the home of John Laird, Chairman of Laird Brothers Shipbuilders of Birkenhead (later Cammel Laird) until approximately 1910. In 1921 the house was later sold to Sir Ernest Royden, and he arranged for the house to be dismantled and rebuilt on the present site, at Royden Park
Royden Park is a park in Frankby, Wirral, England, managed by Wirral Council. The grounds of the park were originally part of an estate owned by Ernest Royden which comprised the park, Hill Bark house and Thurstaston Common. Upon his death th ...
, between 1928 and 1931. This work was supervised by the architectural firm of Rees and Holt. In 2001 the house was being used as an old people's home, and later in the 2000s it was converted into a hotel.
Architecture
The house is built on a U-plan. It is constructed in timber framing
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
on a stone base, and has stone and brick chimney stacks and a slate roof. There are multiple gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
s and the half-timber exterior framing is highly decorated. Internally there is a great hall with an organ gallery and an open roof.[ In the great hall are a mantlepiece dated 1527, from a house of the father of Sir Thomas More, stained glass windows by ]William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
, and a pair of church screen doors dating from the 13th century. In a room now used as a restaurant is a fire surround dated 1795 and designed by Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his ...
.[
It has been claimed that Bidston Court so impressed ]Crown Prince Wilhelm
Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Prussia (Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst; 6 May 1882 – 20 July 1951) was the eldest child of the last ''Kaiser'', the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, and his consort Augusta Victoria of Schles ...
of Germany when visiting Cammel Laird shipyards, that he built a copy of it in Potsdam
Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...
.[ However the authors of the ''Buildings of England'' series point out that this is untrue, and that the house in Potsdam was only vaguely inspired by Bidston Court.][
]
Present day
The house is now used as a hotel, known as Hill Bark Hotel. It is licensed for weddings, and offers facilities for conferences.[ The hotel was used for the ]Juice FM
Capital Liverpool is an Independent Local Radio station serving Liverpool, England. It is owned and operated by Global Style Awards, which was filmed and featured in the reality television programme '' Desperate Scousewives'' on 29 November 2011 on E4.
The grounds adjoining the hotel are used by the Hill Bark Players, who present traditional open-air Shakespeare plays every two years in a purpose-built 'theatre in the woods' with all seats under cover. The group take their name from Hill Bark House and have been performing here since 1964 (the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth). Productions take place in June, in odd-numbered years.
See also
*
*Listed buildings in Hoylake
Hoylake is a seaside town in Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It contains 41 buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings. Of these, two are listed at Gra ...
*List of works by Grayson and Ould
Grayson and Ould was the title of an architectural practice based in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. George Enoch Grayson (1833/4–1912) (usually known as G. E. Grayson) established an independent practice in Liverpool in 1857. Edward Ould (185 ...
References
{{Reflist
Grade II* listed buildings in Merseyside
Grade II* listed houses
Houses in Merseyside
Hotels in Merseyside
Timber framed buildings in England