FAMOUS CHARACTERS: JOE MERCER BY ASHLEY HYNE north part is a 19th Century addition. The three storeys of the tower were originally connected by a flight of stairs which wound round a central pillar. The rectangular tower at the south-east of the Hall contains garderobes( mediaeval lavatories). At the top there are machicolations, or holes in the floor through which stones could be dropped, or boiling oil poured to deter attackers. A projecting roof, supported on massive corbels, may have been used for fires to pass signals from Storeton to North Wales.
FAMOUS CHARACTERS: JOE MERCER BY ASHLEY HYNE north part is a 19th Century addition. The three storeys of the tower were originally connected by a flight of stairs which wound round a central pillar. The rectangular tower at the south-east of the Hall contains garderobes( mediaeval lavatories). At the top there are machicolations, or holes in the floor through which stones could be dropped, or boiling oil poured to deter attackers. A projecting roof, supported on massive corbels, may have been used for fires to pass signals from Storeton to North Wales.
We know that at one time the site of the Hall was surrounded by a moat from faintly visible lines on three sides. In part of the garden, close to the tower, a number of bodies were found, laid out in such a way as to suggest that this area may have once been used as a cemetery. Finds made in the 1890s during the building of the north side of the house, close to the eastern entrance gate, included human bones and carved stones. Alan Randall suggests,“ The discovery of graves, the character of the tracery( of which fragments were found), and the finding of a stoup( a basin or font for holy water at the entrance of a church or chapel) suggests a separate ecclesiastical building, standing with its graveyard to the east of the hall”.
Until as late as 1877, offences in Brimstage and Raby could be brought before a Court Leet( a local manorial court dealing with petty offences) held under the Earl of Shrewsbury. This is an indication that the connection between Brimstage and the Domvilles and their descendents, which began in 1397, had continued unbroken. At round about that time, the Brimstage estate, like Raby and Thornton Hough was bought by William Lever. He seemed determined to amass large land holdings on Wirral, and many of the lands which had been in aristocratic hands for centuries now succumbed to the seemingly bottomless purse of the grocer’ s son from Bolton. Today, Brimstage Hall belongs to Leverhulme Estates, as does all the surrounding farmland.
It is to the enduring pride of Ellesmere Port that at the time of England’ s greatest need that one of their own became the right person for the job.
Even the great man himself would have given credit to Joe Mercer for coming to England’ s dire need at a time of supreme national emergency in 1974. Not that Sir Winston played a part in Mercer becoming England caretaker manager but the great statesman would have implicitly understood the gravity of the situation facing Ellesmere Port-born Mercer when thrust into a position very few fancied.
England had just been traumatically knocked out of the World Cup in November 1973 by Poland at Wembley when the Football Association came calling on Mercer, at the time a consultant working with Manchester City. The elimination from the World Cup, a competition England had won on that very same turf, had been unthinkable before it happened.
Sir Alf Ramsey’ s inevitable dismissal and the contractual talks with the commercially-minded Don Revie still underway meant that England were in need of a stop-gap to right their badly damaged ship when Mercer answered their call.
Mercer led our nation out of the darkness and onto a successful Eastern European tour and came out of his tenure as England manager with an unblemished record and the whiff of a resolution by some of the senior players to canvass for his permanent appointment to the job. But Mercer was far too much the gentleman to hijack the crowning rights that Revie had worked so hard to win. In that way Mercer remained as he had been, a sterling player, loved and admired by the men and women who had the privilege to witness him on the field of play.
He had started his career with Everton but the War had ripped a massive chunk out of his‘ recognised’ playing days, a fact that irked him for decades to come. In interview with Brian James( the greatest writer ever to commit words to football),
Mercer stated that he was good before and alright after but it was during the War( when he led the national side) that he played his finest football.
Alongside his playground chum, Stan Cullis, Mercer strode imperiously rather than played in that famous half-back line of Cullis-Mercer and( Cliff) Britton. Collectively they nullified the great Scots sides of the day( ones which featured Carrabine, Bill Shankly and Sir Matt) and formed the backbone of one of the most supreme attacking forces in the entire history of the game.
When you had Stan Matthews, Stan Mortensen, Tommy Lawton, Jimmy Hagan and Tom Finney up front you were bound to get goals but the best teams thrive on confidence and a half-back line of such untarnished excellence provided the foundation for an unbeatable period of English dominance.
Could that side have won the World Cup in 1942 and 1946? There are many that argue yes. Ivan Sharpe, a doyen of writers, surveying the century with a knowledgeable eye, commented that only two England teams of the 20th century were worthy of praise: that of 1907 and that of 1943. And of the latter, Mercer led them.
After the War, Mercer went from Everton to London and the famous Arsenal Football Club. In one of his last displays as a player he led the Gunners to their famous victory over Liverpool at Wembley, on the day Reg Lewis scored a brace and the club Herbert Chapman built showed off their famous gold yellow shirts for the first time.
As a manager he was not as successful as one would have hoped. He seemed more at home in a backroom position, consulting and offering a wise word or two to those in the hot seat. Manchester City felt the worth of his wisdom, wrestling honours back from Salford in the late 1960s, before England came calling and Mercer met our great country’ s need in 1974. wirrallife. com 67