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Speke Hall is a wood-framed
wattle-and-daub Wattle and daub is a composite building method used for making walls and buildings, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung a ...
Tudor manor house in
Speke Speke () is a suburb of Liverpool. It is southeast of the city centre. Located near the widest part of the River Mersey, it is bordered by the suburbs of Garston and Hunts Cross, and nearby to Halewood, Hale Village, and Widnes. The rural are ...
,
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 ...
, England. It is one of the finest surviving examples of its kind. It is owned by the
National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
and is a Grade I
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 ...
.


History

Construction of the current building began under Sir William Norris in 1530, though earlier buildings had been on the site, parts of which are incorporated into today's structure. The
Great Hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great c ...
was the first part of the house to be built, in 1530. The Great (or Oak) Parlour wing was added in 1531. Around this time the North Bay was also added to the house. Between 1540 and 1570 the south wing was altered and extended. The west wing was added between 1546 and 1547. The last significant change to the building was in 1598, when the north range was added by Edward Norris. Since then there have only been minor changes to the Hall and gardens. The oak frame, typical of the period, rests on a base of red
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) ...
surrounded by a now dry moat. The main beams of the house are stiffened with smaller timbers and filled with
wattle and daub Wattle and daub is a composite building method used for making walls and buildings, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung ...
. During the turmoil of the
Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...
the Norrises were Roman Catholics so the house incorporated a
priest hole A priest hole is a hiding place for a priest built into many of the principal Catholic houses of England, Wales and Ireland during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law. When Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, there were se ...
and a special observation hole built into a chimney in a bedroom to allow the occupant to see the approach to the house to warn the priest that people were coming. There is also an eavesdrop (a small open hole under the eaves of the house) which allowed a servant to listen in on the conversations of people awaiting admission at the original front door. In 1612 a porch was added to the Great Parlour. A laundry and dairy were founded in 1860; the laundry was altered in the 1950s. The house was owned by the Norris family for many generations until 1736 when Mary Norris, the heiress, married
Lord Sidney Beauclerk Lord Sidney Beauclerk (27 February 170323 November 1744) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1733 to 1744. He acquired a reputation as a fortune hunter. Early life Beauclerk was the fifth son of the 1st Duke of St ...
. After Mary's death in 1766 the house was leased to various tenants. Richard Watt, a Liverpool merchant, purchased the house and estate from the Beauclerks in 1795. The last surviving heir of the Watt family was Miss Adelaide Watt, who inherited the house and returned to it in 1878 at the age of 21 years. She died in 1921, leaving the house and estate in trust for 21 years, during which time it was looked after by the staff under the supervision of Thomas Whatmore, who had been butler to Miss Watt. At the end of this period, in 1943, the house passed into the ownership of the
National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
. The house was administered by Liverpool City Corporation from 1946 until 1974 when it passed to Merseyside County Council who carried out a seven-year programme of major structural repairs and restoration which was completed in 1983. The National Trust took over full responsibility in 1986. The gardens date from the 1850s. In the courtyard of the main building are two ancient yew trees, male and female, called 'Adam' and 'Eve'. First recorded in correspondence dating to 1712, they are estimated to be at least 500 years old.


21st century

The Home Farm building has been renovated and now houses the shop, restaurant and reception. The
laundry Laundry refers to the washing of clothing and other textiles, and, more broadly, their drying and ironing as well. Laundry has been part of history since humans began to wear clothes, so the methods by which different cultures have dealt with ...
has been converted into the education room and the
dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a ...
contains interpretation material. Furthermore, rooms such as a gun room have been changed over the years and then changed back by the National Trust in order to show more of the History of Speke Hall. Walks in the grounds give panoramic views over the
Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...
estuary towards the
Wirral Peninsula Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to ...
.
Liverpool Airport Liverpool John Lennon Airport is an international airport in Liverpool, England, on the estuary of the River Mersey south-east of Liverpool city centre. Scheduled domestic, European, North African and Middle Eastern services are operated f ...
is adjacent to Speke Hall. The house received 224,913 visitors in 2019.


In Art and Literature

An engraving of a painting of the great hall by
Thomas Allom Thomas Allom (13 March 1804 – 21 October 1872) was an English architect, artist, and topographical illustrator. He was a founding member of what became the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He designed many buildings in London, in ...
was published in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835, with a poetical illustration by
Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...
.


Images

Speke Hall, Liverpool.jpg, Speke Hall from the rear Speke Hall courtyard 5.jpg, Courtyard at the centre of the hall Great Hall, Speke Hall 1.jpg, The Great Hall Oak parlour, Speke Hall 5.jpg, The Oak Parlour Tapestry Bedroom, Speke Hall 2.jpg, Tapestry bedroom Visitor centre, Speke Hall 05.jpg, Visitor centre, the former home farm of the estate Maze at Speke Hall 1.jpg, Maze behind the visitor centre


References


External links


Speke Hall information at the National Trust
{{Liverpool B&S Country houses in Merseyside National Trust properties in Merseyside Grade I listed buildings in Liverpool Grade I listed houses Museums in Liverpool Historic house museums in Merseyside Timber framed buildings in England