Storeton Hall was a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

in the village of

Storeton Storeton is a small village on the Wirral Peninsula, England. It is situated to the west of the town of Bebington and is made up of Great Storeton and Little Storeton, which is classified as a hamlet. At the 2001 Census the population of Storeto ...

, Wirral,

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

, England. It was built in the 14th century for the Stanley family and consisted of an H-shaped building including a

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 ...

. Only the north wing, a wall of the great hall, and a block between them that contained a chapel, have survived, and have been incorporated into farm buildings. The remains of the hall are 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, an ...

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 ...

History

The manor of Storeton came into the possession of the Stanley family, the predecessors of the

Earls of Derby Earl of Derby ( ) is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby, under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the en ...

, in the 13th century. Prior to this the settlement was inhabited from Viking times along with other sites in the area following the Viking expulsion from Dublin in the 10th century. It has a key strategic loci at the center of the Wirral peninsula but to date, has not benefitted from a detailed archaeological survey that the history of the site warranted. William Stanley built the hall in the late 14th century, and until about 1480 it was the principal residence of the family. The hall had an H-plan with a

, a north wing containing chambers on two storeys, a south service wing, and a block containing a chapel on the ground floor at the corner of the north wing and the great hall. Extensive remains of the hall have been incorporated into farm buildings of Storeton Hall Farm.

Architecture

The hall was 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) ...

from Storeton Quarry. Nothing remains of the south service wing. The north wing, the block containing the chapel, and the east wall of the great hall have survived. Farm buildings have been built against the outer side of the east wall of the great hall, making its inner side an outside face. The north wing, the roof of which has been lowered, has angle

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es, a blocked pointed window with a

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin ''labia'', lip), drip mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''pediment''. This mouldin ...

in the west

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 ...

end, and inserted doors and pitch holes on the north and south sides. Inside, in the upper storey, are the remains of a fireplace. The block containing the former chapel has a

timber-framed 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 ...

gable containing pigeon holes, and an external staircase. The outer wall of the east wing (the inner wall of the former great hall) contains, from the north, a blocked doorway that gave access to the north wing, traces of two blocked windows, and a blocked doorway with a pointed head.

Appraisal

The remains of Storeton Hall were designated a Grade II* listed building on 27 December 1962. Grade II* is the middle of the three grades of listing and is applied to "particularly important buildings of more than special interest". The description in the

states that "although remaining only in part, the buildings are an interesting medieval survival".

References

{{Reflist, 30em Country houses in Merseyside Grade II* listed buildings in Merseyside Grade II* listed houses

History

Architecture

Appraisal

See also

References