Description

SOUTHPORT

SD31NE BOTANIC ROAD, Churchtown
664-1/2/248 (South side (off))
15/11/72 Meols Hall
(Formerly Listed as:
CHURCHTOWN
Meols Hall)

GV II*

House C17 (reset datestone of 1695), C18 and C19 alterations
with substantial additions 1960-94. C20 works by Roger
Fleetwood Hesketh (as amateur architect) for himself. Two and
three storey red brick with stone and cast stone dressings
(including materials salvaged from Tulketh and Lathom Hall),
timber sash windows, hipped Westmoreland slate roofs with lead
ridges. Main block with lower additions to sides.
EXTERIOR: entrance (west) front three bays reworked from
earlier facade with central door with cornice and architrave,
central bay projecting, cornice with parapet containing three
blank recessed roundels with low gables over, stone ball
finials to projecting parapet piers. To the right single
three-storey bay with gable and inset lozenges, to the right
of this two-storey projecting wing of 1960s in late Georgian
style. To left of main frontage a single-storey library wing
with centre three bays recessed, all of 1960s build. Stone and
cast stone plinth, quoins and cornice below second floor
windows, central stone Gibbsian doorcase. Three bay return
elevation to right flanked by blank rear wall of library with
central chimney stack and covered way of treillage. To left,
gabled bay of original C17 house with arched brick hoodmoulds
over windows and lozenges framed with projecting brick. To
left of this, single bay two-storey link block with Gibbsian
doorcase, flanked by three-bay two-storey elevation of
kitchens with blind window recesses. In garden, two gazebos of
1960-64 modelled on gazebo at Rossall with stone quoins,
Gibbsian doorcases, cornice and crenellated stone parapet with
triple oculi.
INTERIOR: Entrance Hall in centre of original block of house,
flanked by Yellow Drawing Room with two exposed beams, leads
to Library incorporating marble chimneypiece and C19 bookcase
from Bold Hall, dentil cornice. East from Drawing Room, with
simple cornice and marble chimneypiece of 1962, leads to
Garden Hall with salvaged chequerboard stone floor, leading to
Dining Room with marble chimneypiece. Staircase includes
balustrade from Harrock Hall. Painted bedroom decorated with
panoramic mural by Richard Willis, 1968.
HISTORY: Hesketh inherited the remains of this seventeenth
century house in 1938. He adapted and extended the house to
suit a portrait collection, using a mixture of salvaged
materials (many from demolished wing of Leoni's Lathom Hall,
Lancashire) and his own impeccable knowledge of classical
detailing. For its mix of old and new, Meols Hall has been
acclaimed as one of the most convincing country houses created
since the war.

Listing NGR: SD3659218333

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Meols Hall at Wikipedia
• Meols Hall official website
• Wikidata Q6817752

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)