LOWER BEBINGTON
Lower Bebington is Wirral’s most recent Conservation Area, designated in 2014. Its key asset is the Mayer Building complex and Mayer Park, the legacy of the Victorian philanthropist Joseph Mayer. In sharp contrast, the Civic Centre is unashamedly modernist in style and a relatively rare example of a 1960s listed building.
The Conservation Area boundary largely follows the line of the medieval village, a linear settlement which stood on the former principal route between Chester and Birkenhead. At that time the village was mainly agricultural, with many small farms. Townfield Lane survives as a reminder of those times. In the mid19th century, the new railways, introduction of steam ferries on the Mersey and opening of the New Chester Road, led to the growth of Bebington as a dormitory township for many business and professional people working in Liverpool. The overall character remains largely residential.
Lower Bebington is essentially a rural village which became subsumed into 19th and 20th century suburbia. The Conservation Area contains a range of buildings of different periods and styles, reflecting its development over the centuries. The oldest are vernacular in style, built of local stone and presumably originally for agricultural use. Later neoclassical designs were introduced and there are good examples of Georgian and Regency style terraces and merchants’ houses. There also are some fine Arts and Crafts Houses. The main open spaces are Mayer and Ormerod Park and the landscaped area in front of the Civic Hall. A map of the Conservation Area is shown below.
A map of Lower Bebington Conservation Area
Major Buildings
Pennant House – from 1860 to 1886, this was the home of the antiquary and collector, Joseph Mayer, whose philanthropic contribution to enhancing the lives of the people of Bebington earned him the reputation of one of the great public benefactors of the Victorian period. Originally an early Victorian villa, it was remodelled for Mayer by the Liverpool architect Edward Arthur Heffer and named after Thomas Pennant, a previous occupier of the property and not, as often claimed, Thomas Pennant, the author.
No. 65 The Village – originally a farmhouse next door to Pennant House, this was bought by Joseph Mayer in 1869 and remodelled and extended to house his free library, one of the first in the country. At the same time Mayer bought 5 acres of farmland behind his house which he landscaped as a public park.
Mayer Hall – this was originally the farm barn, but Mayer converted it to a single storey public hall to be used for exhibitions and lectures. In 1878 he demolished the barn and constructed a new purpose built hall with a ground floor to be used for lectures and concerts and an upper floor gallery to exhibit his collection of pictures and sculptures.
St Andrew’s Church is listed Grade I and architecturally one of the most important churches on Wirral. Fragments of the original pre-Conquest church survive in the south wall.
The Rose and Crown public house – listed Grade II and dated 1732. It was a coaching inn on the old Chester Road.
Willow Cottage, no.25 The Village – a typical timber framed 17th century yeoman’s cottage, extended in the 18th century Civic Centre – a confident, modernist municipal building which was reputed to be one of the most ambitious district civic projects in the country when built in the 1960s. It has recently been listed.
The outstanding figure in the history of Lower Bebington was Joseph Mayer (1803 – 1886). A Liverpool jeweller and goldsmith, he was an avid collector of antiquities, eventually giving some 15,000 objects to Liverpool Council for the new museum in William Brown Street. Moving to Bebington in the late 1850s, he threw himself into village life, initiating many improvements and dedicating his life to enhancing the lives of local people through education and access to cultural activities. In 1878 he set up the Mayer Trust, to ensure the upkeep of the library and public park, although both roles were eventually taken over by the Council. He is commemorated by a Blue Plaque on the front of Pennant House.
