Brimstage Hall and Tower is a

Grade I listed 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 ...

14th century building located in

Brimstage Brimstage () is a village in the centremost part of the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. It is approximately east of Heswall and south west of Bebington. Administratively, it is within the Clatterbridge Ward of the Metropolitan Borough ...

, Wirral, England. The building is composed of a 16th-century hall; rebuilt on the site of a former 12th century hall, as well as a connecting tower built in 1398. Today the area has been redeveloped, with the building's courtyard converted into restaurants and gift shops.

History

The exact date of the site's construction is unknown as well as its original purpose, however estimates suggest it was built some time between 1175 and 1350 and contained a moat with high embankments. Sir Hugh Hulse and his wife Marjory are recorded as the hall's first occupants with documents showing the granting of permission for the construction of a tower on 11 February 1398. In 1432, the estate was inherited by the Troutbeck family, with Sir William Troutbeck occupying Brimstage Hall and later dying in the

War of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the throne of England, English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These w ...

. In 2014 the site was redeveloped into a shopping area and now includes a series of shops, restaurants and a

maize maze A corn maze or maize maze is a maze cut out of a corn field. Originally, the first full-size corn maze was believed to be created in Annville, Pennsylvania in 1993; however, similar corn mazes were highlighted in newspapers as early as 1982. Co ...

Cheshire Cat

In a vaulted chamber at the base of the tower, which was possibly used as a chapel, there is a roughly-cut

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

which resembles a smiling cat, although it may actually be a red lion

rampant In heraldry, the term attitude describes the ''position'' in which a figure (animal or human) is emblazoned as a charge, a supporter, or as a crest. The attitude of an heraldic figure always precedes any reference to the tincture of the figure ...

. In his memoirs,

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

wrote that he "saw a Cheshire cat with a gigantic smile at Brimstage carved into the wall". This is therefore believed to be the inspiration for the

Cheshire Cat The Cheshire Cat ( or ) is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While now most often used in ''Alice''-related contexts, the association of a "Ch ...

character in his book

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a ...

References

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External links

Brimstage Hall
Grade I listed buildings in Wirral Buildings and structures completed in 1398 Grade I listed houses