BROMBOROUGH POOL
NEWSFLASH: Autism Together is very keen to have people’s thoughts on the future use of two of the three public buildings they have been gifted by Riverside Housing. (These are all within the Conservation Area and Grade 11 listed) The former Village Hall, built in the 1860’s to the design of Price’s company architect has already had money spent on it but the sandstone built former school requires a lot of work on the fabric. There are “drop in” sessions at the Garden Centre on Tuesday, 5 December between 10 and 12 noon and on Thursday, 14 December, between 1 and 3 pm. Please go along and make your views known.
Bromborough Pool is one of the planned industrial villages constructed by far sighted factory owners that revolutionised the working and living standards of their employees. It was developed in 1854 to house the workers of the nearby Price’s Patent Candle Factory (erected in 1853 and Grade II listed). The site was chosen for its proximity to the Mersey, land in Liverpool, Wallasey and Birkenhead proving too expensive. It was through Liverpool, that palm oil, a key ingredient of candle making, was imported.
As the Pool was situated some distance from other settlements and many of the key workers were to be brought up from London, it was necessary to construct a village in which the employees could live. The factory’s owners, William Wilson and his sons George and James, already known for their philanthropy at their Belmont works in Battersea, further displayed this in the layout and management of Bromborough Pool.
Although begun in 1854, the village’s development has taken place in several phases. By 1858 there were 76 houses, with gardens front and rear, each with its own W.C. and designed by Julian Hill, a London architect. In 1872 fifteen more were erected in Manor Place, in 1873 came 1-6 South View and in 1877 came a further terrace of six. In 1896 twenty-four very different and larger houses appeared, built of red Ruabon brick, followed by a further fourteen of similar design in 1900. Most recently, and a subject of heated controversy, has been the development of 50 new homes in a C21st style.
The first community building was the village hall, of 1857, originally used as a school and constructed of London stock brick, with a curved corrugated metal roof similar to the roofs in the factory. Later public buildings included the church, opened in 1890 and a new school, opened in 1899, both constructed of local sandstone. Other buildings included a hospital, a shop and a cricket pavilion, all of which remained in the ownership of the factory. With these facilities, it represents an early example of English private company philanthropy.
There are 16 grade II listed buildings, or groups of buildings, within the Conservation Area. These designations include all of the remaining houses built during, or before, the 1870s and a number of the principal 19th century public buildings such as the church, school and village hall. The first houses in Bromborough Pool were designed by Julian Hill, a London architect. The church is r eported by Pevsner as being designed by ‘a Leach of London’, probably Claude Pemberton Leach, known for his work on churches and for the invention of a bomb-throwing catapult used by the British Army on the Western Front during WWI. A map of the Conservation Area is shown below.
Map showing the Bromborough Pool Conservation Area
Bromborough Pool, with its gardens, allotments and playing fields is one of the earliest examples of a garden village, pre-dating the much grander Port Sunlight by over thirty years.
