THURSTASTON
Thurstaston was designated as a Conservation Area with the aim of conserving the historic settlement, with its Church, Hall and traditional farm buildings grouped round the green. It has also retained its existing stone walls, hedges and unmade tracks thus protecting the surrounding fields and the wooded hillside of the former Dawpool Estate. In addition, stretches of woodland which lie within the core of the village and add to its character are protected by Tree Preservation Orders.
The manor of Thurstaston was first mentioned in the Domesday Book. For centuries it remained a small rural hamlet. A mile from the Dee shore, its inhabitants depended mainly on farming and fishing for their livelihood.
From medieval times two buildings stood out from the rest – the parish church, dedicated to St Bartholomew, and the adjacent Hall.
No trace of the original Norman church now remains. It was taken down in 1820 and replaced by a new church, erected in 1824. Only the bell tower of this church survives. It is Grade II listed and a stone, set in its east wall, bears the inscription W. Johnson and T. Reilly, Church Wardens, 1824. The current church is listed Grade II*. It was constructed of local sandstone to a design of John Loughborough Pearson (1817 – 1897) and consecrated in 1886. The cost of building it was born by the heirs of Joseph Hegan.
The lychgate, designed by R. Norman Shaw, was erected in 1900, by Margaret, in memory of her husband Thomas Henry Ismay (1837 – 1899), ship owner and founder of the White Star Line. He and Margaret, the parents of J. Bruce Ismay, the owner of the Titanic, are buried in the churchyard. Also in the churchyard is a sundial, dated 1844 and two Commonwealth War Graves. To the front of the church is the parish war memorial, unusual in that it carries more names from WWII than from WWI.
Thurstaston Hall, listed Grade II*, is in private ownership but can be viewed from its gate. It is significant in that it incorporates one of the handful of medieval domestic buildings still surviving in Wirral. U-shaped in plan, the west range is formed by the original medieval hall, built of sandstone and probably dating from the 1400s. The central range, built of brick on a stone base with stone dressings, is Baroque in style and dates from c.1680. Over its grand, pedimented entrance are the arms of the Whitmore family, long term owners of the Hall. The stone built east range mirrors the west range and was added in 1836. To the rear is a range of out buildings, no longer serving their original purpose.
While descendants of the Whitmores continued to occupy the Hall, two wealthy families, the Hegans and the Ismays, radically altered the landscape of the village in the second half of the 19th century.
In the 1850s Joseph James Hegan (1795 – 1865), a Liverpool financier, with interests in Peru, erected a large house, Dawpool Hall, to the north of the village. In 1858 a school and school house, built at his expense and designed by the Birkenhead architect, Walter Scott, opened on the green. Intended to educate ‘the children of the poor inhabitants of Thurstaston and the adjoining parishes and townships’ it is listed Grade II and is today a private house. Also Grade II are the buildings of Hegan’s model Home Farm. The work of the Liverpool architect, W.H Gee (of Leighton Hall fame) these include the impressive former farmhouse, a barn, dated 1862, a granary, the shippons, a smithy and an implement shed, the whole completed by 1863. (All have now been converted to residential use.) Also of this period is the South Lodge, which today with its attached gates and gate piers is Grade II listed.
In 1877 the Dawpool estate was sold to Thomas Ismay, who demolished the existing Dawpool Hall and replaced it with a vast, sandstone mansion, designed by R. Norman Shaw and built in 1882-1886. Shaw also designed the Clock Tower, a massive stable block of 1892, still standing and in residential use.
To increase the privacy of Dawpool Hall, Ismay had the old route of Telegraph Road diverted. Today the High Road runs through a deep rock cutting, beyond which lie Thurstaston Hill and Common. Ironically Ismay’s Dawpool Hall has vanished, having been demolished in 1927, when no buyer could be found for it. Its site still retains its secluded wooded character but is now home to a number of substantial private houses. These lie within the Conservation Area but are not visible from the road.
Despite all the changes Thurstaston has seen over the centuries, the settlement still retains its quintessentially rural character. To view a map of the Conservation Area click here.
