The Seneschal's House stands at the corner of Halton Brow and Main Street in

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

Liverpool City Region The Liverpool City Region is a combined authority region of England, centred on Liverpool, incorporating the local authority district boroughs of Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens, and Wirral. The region is in the historic counties of ...

. 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 house is dated 1598, which makes it the oldest standing building in the Liverpool City Region. It was latterly a farmhouse although was originally built by the judge John King, called to the bar in London in the late 16th century and was originally known as "John King's New House"; the occupation of the original owner of the house, led to a later owner, Geoffrey Barraclough, Professor of History at Liverpool University in the mid 20th century coining the current name of the house. The house was, in fact, inhabited originally by a seneschal, that is the original owner, John King. The house is built with

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

and it has a stone slate roof with a sandstone ridge. It is two storeys with an attic roof. At the front are three projections rising to the full height of the house. The central projection contains a porch; the others have

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or ...

s with

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

s. Each projection is surmounted by a

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 ...

and there are gables at each end of the house. The gables have corbels and moulded copings with finials at their summits.

See also

References

Further reading