Friday 23 January 2015

Beauty in Decay : Woolton Hall




















On Wednesday the mister and I indulged in a spot of 'urbex lite' when we were fortunate enough to spend a couple of hours exploring this stunning abandoned grade 1 listed building not far from where we live.

Originally built in 1704 for the Molyneux family, much of Woolton Hall including the frontage was extensively remodelled later in the 18th century by architect Robert Adams.  The west wing of the house was demolished in the early 18th century when the building passed to the hands of Andrew McGuffie and became a 'hydropathic hotel'.  No?  Me neither.  By the time of World War 2 the building was being used as a convent and private prepatory school. In 1970 it amalgamated with Notre Dame Mount Pleasant school and relocated to a purpose built site on the same grounds.  The Hall was declared unsafe and stood derelict for years.  The local authorities in their wisdom had demolition in mind for this beauty until it was bought by a local resident in 1980.  It was most recently used as a wedding venue and a meeting place for the local chapter of Freemasons. 

We were shown around by the former owner who acts as a caretaker.  Afterwards, he was happy to allow us to roam around and take pictures to our hearts' content.  It was fascinating to see the detritus collected from three hundred years of diferent uses.  My favourite example was the plastic confetti shapes trapped in the chandelier in the main hall.  I wondered how long they had been there.

It was so hard trying to narrow down which photographs to use here because I took so many.  So many in fact that I created a Flickr account just for that purpose, where you can see the rest if your heart desires :)

Ciao for now

Sarah x    


9 comments:

  1. What a wonderful place! You were lucky to get to stroll around on your own. I'm assuming a hydropathic hotel was somewhere that offered water-based therapies, sort of like a spa? It's a fantastic building, and your photos are great. Now, I'll have a gin and tonic in the new larger metric size please! xxx

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  2. such a great experience and you've taken some good pics; what a shame that this place has just been left to decay like this. I'd love to move in :)

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  3. Wow!!! What a cool place to visit!!! You lucky thing!!!x
    I likr the incongruous phone box.x

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  4. How did you contact the previous owner to let you in? X

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  5. What an interesting place to visit. lt's always sad to see a building falling into disrepair.

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  6. glad you you liked the place, cracking set of pics

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  7. Thanks! It was great. It seems I missed a lot of the grounds and outbuildings though. Might need another trip!

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  8. I'm such a sucker for exploring old places like this. Though it's much harder to find old buildings with this much beauty where I live. All the little details like the molding and work on the ceilings are fascinating to me :)

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  9. Oh woah! What an amazing day out. The pictures are wonderful, I love all the ceilings and the mint green & gold! It's such fun wandering around derelict places wondering about their former lives and the people that inhabited them. So happy I stumbled upon your blog. Lally X

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