Building record 5632 - Mostyn House School and Chapel, The Parade, Parkgate

<1> Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council, 2007, Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council Local List of Historic Buildings, LL64 (Index). SCH5437.

Mostyn House School, Locally Listed Building - LL64 (Previously LL PG/6). The Parade, Parkgate. Architect: AS and AG Grenfell (later additions). Date: 1779

Description: Incorporates a number of 18th and 19th century buildings, including the George Inn (1779) later the Mostyn Arms Hotel.

Purchased by Edward Price who moved his school in 1855 to Parkgate from Tarvin and called it Mostyn House School (most of the land in Parkgate is on the former Mostyn Estate. The estate sold off the village in 1849).

The buildings were later extended and increased in height (approx. 1900) and then in 1932 the present applied black and white frontage was added, presumably as an attempt to unify a varied collection of buildings.

The listed chapel at the rear was designed and built by the Headmaster, AG Grenfell, opened in 1897 with windows by Robert Anning Bell.

The carillon (37 bells) was installed as a memorial to the school’s Old Boys killed in the 1914-1918 war (c1920?).

Mostyn House was the birthplace (1865) of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, renowned for his missionary work amongst Labrador fishermen in the 1890s.

The Water Tower was built in 1906 to store water from the school’s own artesian well.

Condition: Good.

Current Use: In use as school and dwelling.

Updated March 2007

<2> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England (Web Site). SCH6528.

Mostyn House School, The Parade, Neston, Ellesmere Port and Neston, Cheshire: Grade II Listed

Summary: Former public school, 1855 with 'Old Cottage' of 1881 by A.S. Grenfell and various late C19 and early C20 additions by A.G. Grenfell, also incorporates C18 inn. Brick and stone (some with black and white render and some with applied timberwork), mainly red tile and slate roofs. Various styles, including Arts & Crafts and Tudorbethan. Detached 2-storey master's house, large World War II air raid shelter underneath playing field.

Summary of Layout: Vast, irregular L-shaped complex of buildings (some attached and some detached) of varying date, size and materials. Courtyard area to north-west corner of site bordered by front range to south-west side, north range to north-west side, Old & New Cottages to north-east side and Grade II* listed chapel to south-east side. North range continues north-east beyond courtyard. Detached 'Jarrah' (master's house) set to north-east of main school buildings, WWII air raid shelter underneath south playing field.

Justification for Designation: Mostyn House School, a former public school constructed in 1855 with late C19 and early C20 additions and also incorporating an C18 inn, and designed in phases by two successive headmasters, A.S and A.G Grenfell, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural interest: it is a good example of a large, mid-late C19 public school complex employing a high quality, eclectic mixture of architectural styles - including Arts & Crafts and Tudorbethan - to successful effect * Design composition: the school's higher level of investment and evolved history has resulted in a complex of landmark buildings with a high level of architectural distinction and flair that were designed to convey and reflect the high standards of its educational provision * Setting: the school takes full advantage of its location on The Parade at Parkgate with large windows to the south-west range and a massive water tower incorporating an observation room that maximises light and views across the River Dee estuary * Intactness: it survives with little alteration both externally and internally and retains its 1890s Arts & Crafts interior schemes * Interior quality: the buildings' high quality Arts & Crafts interiors are rare within an educational context and stylistic continuity is maintained throughout. Particularly notable are the interiors of the south-west and north ranges and the cottages, which retain panelled doors, ceilings and hallways, wood block and tiled floors, carved ornamentation, decorative fireplaces, Jacobethan stairs, leaded and stained glass, and some decorative roof trusses * Specialist features: amongst its more specialist features the school complex includes a large covered playground with a corrugated-metal barrel roof; a 1927 theatre; and a vast WWII air-raid shelter that is virtually unaltered and retains numerous original features, including some wall lights * Historic interest: the school was designed, owned and run by the Grenfell family for over 150 years and was the birthplace and school of Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, distinguished medical missionary and social reformer. The family's involvement is expressed architecturally on the school buildings through the incorporation of griffins (their family symbol) on roundels and shaped hoppers, and their motto 'Loyal Devoir' in stained glass and on banner decoration * Group value: the school buildings share a strong physical, historical and functional relationship with the school's Grade II* listed chapel (1897), which was also designed by A.G. Grenfell.

See Historic England listing for further detail.

<3> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England (Web Site). SCH6528.

Chapel of Mostyn House School, 1895, Grade II* Listed.

Collegiate chapel. 1895 with C20 porch extension. By AG Grenfell, Headmaster, for the Mostyn House School; original interior fittings designed by Frederick Fraser of Warrington. MATERIALS: Ruabon red brick in English garden-wall bond on weathered plinth; window dressings and eaves frieze of terracotta; red tile roof with ridge cresting, stone coped west gable and finial on east end. PLAN: nave and chancel continuous, with eastern apse, western bellcote and porch extension. EXTERIOR: building articulated by 2-stage gabled buttresses and encircled by eaves frieze and 4-course deep moulded cornice. Nave and chancel windows are of 2 cinquefoiled lights with quatrefoils in the head beneath 2-centred hoodmoulds. Apse windows are of 3 similar lights with traceried heads and hoodmoulds. West porch link-unit gives access to the chapel from the school and externally via a 2-centred north doorway. This supports octagonal bellcote pierced by a trefoiled opening to each face, raised on square pedestal with 2-light windows to three faces, and surmounted by octagonal spirelet with finial. Further west, an exposed iron girder bellframe supports a 31-bell carillon which is a memorial to the 1914-1918 War. INTERIOR: 5-bay nave and chancel articulated by tall slim shafts rising from corbels and supporting hammer beam roof. Apse, nave and west end are panelled, apse incorporating four canopied niches. West end has panelled door in moulded 2-centred door arch flanked at outer edges by lancet windows and glazed cinquefoil in gable apex. Roof has arch braced hammer beams carry armorial shields at the beam ends; ceiling is of raking boards. FITTINGS: altar table flanked by chaplain's and reader's desks, low communion rail and original benches by F Fraser. Later seating has traceried pew ends and fronts of slender wrought iron rails incorporating bosses of various designs. All exposed surfaces of dado panelling and backs of seats carry brass plates giving the names of former students. Original eagle lectern by H Hems of Exeter and wall mounted pipe organ with crocketed cresting at west end. STAINED GLASS: apse glass by Morton and Co. of Liverpool representing the Seven Virtues and based on a design by Sir J Reynolds for New College, Oxford. From the west the second and fourth north windows and all south windows have stained glass by Robert Anning Bell dating from 1897 to 1921. West end lancets are memorial windows.

<4> Architectural History Practice, 2013, Mostyn House School, Parkgate: Significance & Impact Assessment, R4145 (Client Report). SCH8433.

Heritage assessment comprising desk-based research, photographic record, condition statement and statement of significance, produced in 2013 for Mostyn House School, Parkgate, prior to a programme of refurbishment and adaptation of the buildings for residential use, including some demolition and new development. The school chapel is Grade II* listed and most of the school buildings, Grade II listed. The site is also located within the Parkgate Conservation Area.

The school developed from 1855 when it was first established in the Mostyn Arms Hotel by Edward Price who leased the hotel. However, for most of its life it was associated with the Grenfell farmily who ran it from 1863 until its closure in 2010. Initially it operated as a boys' boarding school until the 1980s when it became co-educational. In 1989 it became a day school and nursery, prep school and senior school with the former dormitories adapted for teaching.

It consists of a roughly L-plan arrangement of buildings, that expanded from the original hotel south along the Parade and eastwards to the rear. The distinctive buildings were strongly influenced by the taste and priorities of the Grenfell headmasters. A.G.Grenfell extended the school dramatically in the 1890s, including the addition of a covered playground, 2-storey rear wing, dormitory built over service wing, gymnasium, swimming pool, 4-storey front range, electric light plant, chapel, cottage extended eastwards for headmaster's house, water tower and 3-storey block for master's rooms, 'Jarrah' a master's house, and a theatre. He hired architects Frederick Fraser & Warburton of Warrington for The New Cottage and chapel; it is not known whether they also advised on other additions. Late 20th century additions to the school included a 2-storey block for art and music, rebuilding of the swimming pool, incorporating changing rooms, also re-modelling of the gymnasium.

A World War II air raid shelter, 18 bays long and built in 1939, lies underneath the west part of the school playing field. In 2006-7 it was adapted for use as a shooting range. A condition survey of the shelter was undertaken in 2012 and concluded that the condition of the the concrete and steel roof was a cause for concern, as was water ingress.

The school is considered of high significance for its historic value as an example of a small privately-run boarding school, established in the mid nineteenth century, also for its association with A.G.Grenfell, Victorian maverick and explorer. It is also the birthplace of Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell , medical missionary and social reformer. It is also of interest due to the eighteenth century history of the site when there was an inn here. Locally it is recognised as one of the most important building complexes in the Parkgate conservation area, with the distinctive appearance of the black and white timber-framed frontage, along with other timber-framed elements, highly regarded, both aesthetically and also as part of a long tradition of revival-style architecture echoing Cheshire's medieval timber-framed buildings.

<5> L-P Archaeology, 2015, An Archaeological Watching Brief report. Mostyn House School, Parkgate, Wirral, R3900 (Client Report). SCH8087.

An archaeological watching brief was carried out in 2013-14 during groundworks on land to the rear of Mostyn House School due to the potential for archaeological remains on the site, in particular any remains associated with the Post Medieval development of Parkgate as an out-port to the city of Chester. The work was done in support of a planning consent granted for the conversion and change of use of the school building and Jarrah Cottage into 48 residential units, including the demolition of listed structures, internal alterations and subdivisions, as well as external refurbishment. Additionally a total of 40 new build units are to be built in the grounds of the former school.

A small assemblage of Prehistoric stone tools dating to the Neolithic/ Early Bronze Age period were recovered. The exact nature of the prehistoric activity is uncertain but the presence of a light scatter of heat fractured stone might suggest domestic occupation or perhaps communal feasting. Faint traces of Roman activity were also identified, although little can be deduced from such a small assemblage of material.

The artefacts recovered from the topsoil are indicative of domestic occupation in the vicinity and the assemblage range in date from the later seventeenth to later nineteenth/early twentieth century. Amongst the earlier Post Medeival material is a small group of imported pottery which serves to demonstrate the trade connection which Parkgate had during the later seventeeth and early eighteenth century. The later material is far more abundant and survives in a less fragmented state, suggesting that it was tipped onto the site either as backfill to negative features of as part of landscaping associated with the development of Mostyn House school during the early twentieth century. At least some of this tipping appears to have come from the adjacent property formerly known as the Union Hotel.