Monument record 14929 - Old Quay House

<1> Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 1928, The Chester Companies and the Old Quay, p.143, 150, 153-6 (Article in Journal). SCH8678.

The house was built of brick in ‘…a Tudor style of architecture…’ and ‘…Its style, where the original form can be traced among the numerous alterations to doors and windows that have been made, is very like that of Wirral houses bearing house-plates about 1600. There is a notable resemblance to Willaston Hall, which was built by the Bennett family in 1558…’

The house was possibly being used as an inn by the late seventeenth century and by the eighteenth century it may have been being used as a lodging house for ‘the poorer sort of traveller’. By the mid nineteenth century it is a residence for a local company director, followed by the artist Henry Melling. Briefly in the 1890s the house was run as refreshment rooms. By the 1920s the house was been used as an occasional shelter for livestock.

The fabric of the house was described as dilapidated in 1927. A big bell hung on the eastern gable until this date. It is described as having ‘…all the appearance of a ship's bell…’ and was ‘…used…as a warning to call fishermen off the banks at the approach of high tide…’.

The house is depicted on a number of seventeenth and eighteenth century maps and charts including:

* As a landmark adjacent to the ‘the Newe Keye’ on John Speed’s 1610 ‘Map of Cheshire’ (see 2).
* As 'The Brick House' on Andrew Yarrington's 'River Dee: Proposed Improvement' dated 1677.
* As the ‘Key House’ on Greenville Collins’ ‘New and exact survey of the River Dee or Chester-Water dated 1689.
* Murdock Mackenzie's chart of Liverpool Bay dated 1760.

This source includes photographs of the building.

<2> Speed J, 1611, Map of Cheshire (Maps and Plans). SCH2111.

<3> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Butterworth L, 17/04/2019 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

Features such as the lateral chimney, the lack of symmetry and the offset window, which could have been a mullioned window which has been re-purposed, suggest that the building depicted in the photographs in source (1) could have been seventeenth century in date.

<4> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 241/2, 1849 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

This map depicts the house, with a further building attached at its north-eastern corner and two small outbuildings to the immediate east. A probable garden lies to the immediate south of the house.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ2876, 1874 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

This map would seem to indicate that the eastern end of the house comprises two extensions.

<6> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards R, 17/04/2019 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

The photographs from source (1) show a large three storied brick building with brick dentil detailing between each storey. The southern elevation shows a doorway offset to the right and a blocked window towards the left. The first floor has one twelve paned sash window, its western equivalent being replaced by a doorway which cuts the dentil detailing below. The second storey has two symmetrically placed twelve paned sash windows. There is a further square window, offset from the centre line, and whose sill level is noticeably lower. This may be a repurposed mullioned window.

On the first storey of the western elevation is a possible bricked up centrally placed window, similar to the offset window of the southern elevation. To its left is another door like aperture which cuts the brick dentil detailing. A single storey porch is visible at ground level flanked by two boarded up windows.

The photograph of the eastern elevation show the high and massively built chimney located at this end of the building as protruding from the house. The chimney narrows significantly at, and becomes off centre to, the apex of the gable. The photograph appears to show stone quoins on the buildings corners and coping stones on the gable ends. An off centre window is visible which would have served the attic. A single storey extension adjoins this elevation and is one of the extensions visible on source (5).

The photograph of the northern elevation is partially obscured by trees. A tall chimney is located centrally on this side of the building with windows on each floor to its right. It’s unclear, but it is possible that the second floor window is, at least in part, another mullioned window.

The gardens to the north and south of the house are enclosed by walls. The southern garden walls are of brick and are taller than the northern gardens wall, which may be constructed from large sandstone blocks. The building to the immediate north-east of the house appears to be a two storey barn or shippon.

<7> Huntings Surveys Ltd, 1971-1973, 1971-1973 County Survey, Run 7 no.0584, 03/05/1971 (Aerial Photograph). SCH4881.

None of the buildings are extant, but some of the walls associated with the barn and the gardens are still standing.

<8> Environment Agency, 2003-2020, Environment Agency LiDAR Surveys, D0200407, SJ2876, 30/04/2017 (Digital Archive). SCH7819.

The LIDAR data depicts sub-rectangular earthworks which would correspond with the locations of the buildings depicted on historic maps.

<9> Ordnance Survey, 1909-1912, Ordnance Survey Second Revision County Series (Epoch 3) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ2876, 1912 (Maps and Plans). SCH4361.

<10> County Historic Environment Record, Site Visit/Watching Brief Observation Report Form, Edwards R, 24/04/2019 (Unpublished Document). SCH4357.

The site of Old Quay House survives as a substantial earthwork comprising a rubble and earth overgrown with scrub. The earthworks are defined on their southern side by a modern drainage ditch. Unfortunately, undergrowth and scrub made the site difficult to interpret. The brick in the area of the house appears to be late sixteenth to early seventeenth century in date and hand made (Edwards J pers comm). In places substantial fragments of brickwork survived bonded together, but not insitu. One brick bonded to a substantial piece of slag was also observed. Low walls survive in the area of the barn, but it is difficult to ascertain if these walls are associated with the barn or one of the other outbuildings in this area depicted on historic maps. The brick here is substantially later, probably nineteenth century.

The surviving section of the quay/garden wall adjacent to the house has been reduced in height to the ground level on the eastern (landward) side when compared to historic photographs of the site (see 2). A thin concrete render has been applied to the top and western face. Notably the southern and eastern garden walls survives as a below ground archaeological feature and earthwork overlain by a hedgerow. The bricks are consistent with those recovered from the site of Old Quay House.

<11> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards J, 30/04/2019 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

The brick in the area of the house appears to be late sixteenth to early seventeenth century in date and is hand made. It is similar to brick (not insitu) recovered from a similarly dated context at 25 Bridge Street, Chester.