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BRIMSTAGE HALL
BY ANDREW WOOD
The little village of Brimstage - in the medieval
period called ‘Brunstath’ - is set in an idyllic
location in the heart of rural Wirral. Its only
misfortune in the 21st Century is that the road
through the village is used by hundreds of cars
every day as people commute to and from
work between Liverpool, Neston and Heswall.
One of its claims to fame is that it is, at least
by some reckonings, at the geographical centre
of the Wirral peninsula. But its real fame rests
on Brimstage Hall, a Grade I Listed building,
which has been described as “a strange and
mysterious place, that oozes charisma and
is steeped in history and legend”, and which
is probably the oldest building surviving on
Wirral.
The present Hall is an agglomeration of
buildings from different periods of history,
some possibly from the 16th Century,
extensions and the north wing as late as the
19th Century, but the oldest part is the tall
tower attached to the back of the house.
This ‘pele t ower’ seems to have been erected
originally at the centre of a fortified area about
60 acres (24.2 hectares) in extent, enclosed by
a moat and high embankment.
This in itself was unusual; pele towers were
commonly referred to as “poormen’s castles”
since they were built generally by farmers
rather than members of the nobility. It is a
strongly built tower less grand for sure than
the keep of a castle, but useful as a place of
refuge and somewhere from which to keep
watch for possible raiders. Most pele towers
in England were built between the 11th and
16th Centuries and that at Brimstage is one of
about eighty which survive. But quite why such
a tower, more often found in the lawless border
regions of England and Scotland, should have
been built in peaceful Cheshire is unclear,
although Wirral may have experienced
aggressive incursions from Wales, as well as
the coming of the Vikings.
Other parts of Brimstage Hall have been
dated as being built at some time between
1175 and 1350; the original pele tower seems
to have been built much earlier, but by whom
is not known. The first recorded occupant
was Sir Hugh Hulse and his wife Marjorie.
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Many people have identified the ground floor
room of the tower as the chapel. However,
this probably comes about because of the
assumption that a vaulted room must be one
that has been used for a religious purpose.
There is no real evidence that this was the case
and the vaulted lower storey is typical of the
mediaeval pele tower. It may well be the case
that the chapel of the Hulses was built in the
grounds and has long since been demolished.
The use of the Hulse family name began after
the Norman Conquest. They lived in Hulse,
about 1¼ miles (2 km) west of High Legh
south-east of Warrington in Cheshire. The
name is associated with this area and is thought
to derive from the Old English word ‘holh’,
meaning ‘hollow’ or ‘depression’. Its variants
include Huls, Hulse, Hulles, Hulsey and others.
The family was first found recorded when they
held the Manor of Norbury near Stockport as
their family seat. It has been suggested that
they were descended from Bigot de Loges, who
held these estates at the time of the Domesday
Book survey in 1086. Bigot, a lay tenant of Earl
Hugh of Chester, was a Norman who came
from Les Loges, Calvados, and was probably a
member of the family of Roger Bigot, Earl of
Norfolk and Lord of Les Loges.
In 1397 the manor estates, which now included
Thingwall, Oxton, Raby and part of Mobberley
in east Cheshire, passed in marriage with
Margery Domville, the second daughter and
heiress of John Domville. The Younger, to Sir
Hugh Hulse of Raby. The Domvilles, whose
eldest line is now represented by the Earl of
Shrewsbury, traced their descent from Hugh de
Domville. Thomas Hulse, the son of Sir Hugh,
inherited as well as the Brimstage estate, part
of the manor of Little Neston, the hamlet of
Hargrave and land in Thornton. After Thomas’
death in August 1432, all the Domville lands
were acquired by William Troutbeck as
Margery Hulse, to whom he married his son,
was a minor.
The estate then passed to Sir John Troutbeck
of Dunham-on-the-Hill, near Frodsham, who
was High Sheriff and Chamberlain of Chester,
an unpaid, partly ceremonial post appointed
by the monarch, but also a law enforcement
officer. Sir John was killed in 1460 at the Battle
of Blore Heath in the Wars of the Roses.
Today, the courtyard of Brimstage Hall has been
converted into a thriving group of retail units
selling crafts, food, clothing and embroidery.
The retail units occupy the so-called ‘chapel’
on the ground floor level of the pele tower, and
buildings of one or two storeys on three sides
of the courtyard, with the Country Mouse
restaurant on the same side as the Hall. The
ground floor of the Hall has a shared front
entrance with the Country Mouse. On the first
floor of the main house there are a variety of
other rooms including a large room within the
tower. Stairs lead up to the second floor which
has two rooms and a large landing with stairs
leading to the loft space.
In the south-east corner of the ‘chapel’ room is
a roughly cut stone corbel, supposed to be an
early representation of the grinning ‘Cheshire
Cat’ made most widely known by Lewis Carroll
(Charles Dodgson) in ‘Alice Through the
Looking Glass”. In fact, the carving resembles,
if anything, the breed of cat called the ‘Scottish
Fold’, rather than a ‘Cheshire’. More probably, it
was the work of an unskilled stone-mason who
may have been trying to represent the red lion
rampant, which is the Domville coat of arms.
This seems more likely, since one of the ceiling
bosses in the room carries a carving of three
entwined fishes, which are the arms of the
Troutbeck family. When the coming of more
peaceful times allowed, the descendants of
the Domvilles remodelled the Hall to provide
more comfort and more natural light. With
the exception of the tower, the old walls of the
house were partly lowered, and the arrow slits
were replaced by windows. One, blocked up,
arrow slit can be seen in the ‘chapel’ room.
The ‘Cheshire Grin’ (like the ‘Glesga Smile’)
also has more sinister connotations. It was said
to be a term used to describe the practice of
execution by hanging or cutting the throat. It
seems to derive from a practice of the Celts;
an early example of which is the method used
in killing the ‘Lindow Man’, who is thought to
have been sacrificed in about 61 CE. The central
part of Brimstage Hall, which is on a north-
south axis, appears to be of 16th origin, but the