Hill Bark
| Hill Bark | |
| Cheshire | |
|---|---|
 Hill Bark | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SJ244858 |
| Location: | 53°21’50"N, 3°8’5"W |
| Village: | Frankby |
| History | |
| Built 1891; rebuilt 1928-31 | |
| For: | Robert William Hudson by Grayson & Ould |
| Country house | |
| Vernacular | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Hillbark Hotel |
| Website: | hillbarkhotel.co.uk |
Hill Bark (also known as Bidston Court) is a large, late Victorian country house in Cheshire, to the south of the hamlet of Frankby on the Wirral peninsula. It was built in 1891 on Bidston Hill but less than thirty years later was dismantled, moved and rebuilt on its current location at Frankby, three and a half miles south-west of its original location. In the early twenty-first century the house was converted into a luxury hotel.
Hill Bark is a Grade II* listed building.[1] The authors of the Pevsner Buildings of England series comment that it is "one of the most notable Victorian essays in half-timbered design anywhere in the country".[2]
In its original location and by its original name, Bidston Court, the house was visited by Crown Prince William of Germany. The prince was so impressed that his father, the Kaiser, had a similar house built in Potsdam as a home for Prince William and his wife, the Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerinbride: the Schloß Cecilienhof. Cecilienhof remained the Crown Prince's home until he was forced to flee the approaching Red Army in 1945.
History
The house was originally built in 1891 for the soap manufacturer Robert William Hudson on Bidston Hill outside Birkenhead;[3] (53°24’4"N, 3°4’27"W) It was designed by the Liverpool architectural firm of George Enoch Grayson and Edward A. L. Ould (probably by Ould), and was then known as Bidston Court.[2]
In 1921 the house was sold to Sir Ernest Royden, who arranged for the house to be dismantled and rebuilt on the present site, at Royden Park, between 1928 and 1931.[3] This work was supervised by the architectural firm of Rees and Holt.[2]
In 2001 the house was being used as an old people's home,[1] and later in the 2000s it was converted into a hotel.[4]
Architecture
The house is built on a U-plan. It is constructed in timber framing on a stone base, and has stone and brick chimney stacks and a slate roof. There are multiple gables and the half-timber exterior framing is highly decorated. Internally there is a great hall with an organ gallery and an open roof.[1] In the great hall is a Jacobean fireplace dated 1527, said to have come from a house of Sir Walter Raleigh, stained glass windows by William Morris, and a pair of church screen doors dating from the 13th century. In a room now used as a restaurant is a fire surround dated 1795 and designed by Robert Adam.[3]
Cecilienhof
It has been claimed that Bidston Court so impressed Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany that he built a replica of it in Potsdam.[3] However while the Cecilienhof Palace is very similar in theme to Hill Bark, it is no replica. The inspiration is clear though. (The Schloss Cecilienhof has had a more interesting history than its progenitor, as the Crown Prince's home untl 1945 and later that year as the place where Germany was divided up, at the Potsdam Conference of 1945. Like its 'parent', the Cecilienhof is operated as a hotel.)
The house today
The house is now used as a hotel, and is known as Hillbark Hotel. It is licensed for weddings, and offers facilities for conferences.[4]
The hotel was used for the Juice FM Style Awards, which was filmed and featured in the reality television programme Desperate Scousewives on 29 November 2011 on E4.[5]
The grounds adjoining the hotel are used by the Hillbark Players, who present traditional open-air Shakespeare plays every two years in a purpose built 'theatre in the woods' with all seats under cover. The group take their name from Hillbark House and have been performing here since 1964 (the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth). Productions take place in June, in odd-numbered years.[6]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hill Bark) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 National Heritage List 1242748: Hill Bark, Frankby
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Cheshire, 1971; 2011 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09588-3page 360–361
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 History, Hillbark Hotel, http://www.hillbarkhotel.co.uk/history.html, retrieved 14 November 2009
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A unique hotel, Hillbark Hotel, http://www.hillbarkhotel.co.uk/home.html, retrieved 14 November 2009
- ↑ The Juice FM Style Awards 2011, Juice FM, http://www.juicefm.com/pics-and-vids/the-juice-fm-style-awards-2011-177085/, retrieved 18 August 2013
- ↑ The Hillbark Players
