Mansions of Wallasey
by J.S Rebecca

In the early years of the 19th Century, Wallasey, then consisting of the Townships of Liscard, Poulton-cum-Seacombe and Wallasey, was populated principally by people who earned their living in rural occupation, mainly agriculture, and apart from such places as Leasowe Castle, Poulton Hall and Liscard Manor House, there were few large residences to be found. In 1832 James Atherton, a retired Liverpool merchant who had already emerged successfully from several property speculations on the Liverpool side of the river, and his son-in-law, William Rowson, a Prescot Solicitor, entered into an agreement to purchase 140 acres of sandhills and heathland from John Penkett, Lord of the Manor of Liscard, for £23,000, in what was later to become New Brighton, and proceeded to level the area on the basis that every house built would be the possessor of a good sea-view and be surrounded by ample grounds. As a result, during the next few years, roads such as Wellington Road, Montpellier Crescent and St. George's Mount, which still exist to some extent in their original state, came into being, and large houses began to spring up in the more outlying parts of the district as Liverpool cotton brokers, shipowner's and merchants awoke to the realisation of the natural attractions of that particular part of the Wirral Peninsula. Many of those houses have since disappeared and left no pictorial record behind them, but fortunately there are some instances where either the building, although converted to other uses, are still standing, or demolition has taken place sufficiently recently for photographs to be available. Enough evidence has survived, however, to indicate why, in earlier days, Wallasey earned the title of "the bedroom of Liverpool", a distinction which, to lesser degree, it still retains.

In the Wallasey of the 19th Century there were several large landowners to be found, and as their names crop up from time to time in telling the stories of Mansions of Wallasey, it might be helpful if they are mentioned now. Apart from those already mentioned, the two largest were probably Sir John Tobin, of Liscard Hall, who made considerable speculative purchases of land, notably in what is now the docks area, and John Ashley Marsden, a brush manufacturer, of Liscard Castle, who practice appears to have been to buy up various estates in the district with mortgage assistance, develop then if necessary, and then let them. He had fingers in many pies, but after his death in 1853 the properties were sold off, in some cases to existing tenants. Other landowners to a lesser degree were John North, of 'Stonebark', Warren Drive, John Davies, also an Attorney, who lived originally in Liverpool and later at 'Hoseside Farm' and the Holland family of 'Liscard Vale House'.