BURTON MANOR

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HOUSE

Burton Manor, a Grade II listed building, dates in its present form from 1904. A year earlier, in 1903, Henry Neville Gladstone (Harry), a wealthy businessman and third son of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, had, with his wife Maud, bought Burton Hall from Walter Norris Congreve for £80,000.

The original Hall, built by the Congreves, was an L-shaped brick building with the main front facing west. It was too small for Mr and Mrs Gladstone, so architect Sir Charles Nicholson was engaged to enlarge and almost completely remodel the house, creating an imposing complex of rooms ranged around a central courtyard. The exterior was clad in local sandstone and the walls of the fountain court rendered and painted white. Nicholson also designed the stable block (Squirrel Lodge) complete with clock tower.

A little later the Orangery (now the Dining Room) was added to the design of Arthur Beresford Pite. The annexe was as an open loggia, the windows being added later. Pite also planned a series of pavilions and terraces for the garden but the main work there was that of Thomas Mawson, who, together with Lord Leverhulme, laid out the gardens at Thornton Hall, at Rivington in Lancashire and at The Hill in Hampstead.

The present Manor has many interesting features: an Italian courtyard, vaulted ceilings, big chimney-pieces and ornate plasterwork. This plasterwork, as well as depicting classical Greek and Roman themes such as laurel wreaths, vines and grapes portrays everyday flowers and plants which can be found in the surrounding fields and gardens. The Gladstone Room ceiling illustrates the symbols of the Liberal Union: the Red Rose of England, Thistle of Scotland and Shamrock of Ireland.

The original plans, published in Country Life, show the following rooms:

Downstairs

Dining Room - now the Lounge

Music Room - now Gladstone Room

Drawing Room - now Congreve Room

Family Library - now Film Room

Billiard Room - now Library

Upstairs

Main bedroom – now Lichfield Room

9 other bedrooms

4 dressing rooms

3 bathrooms

Nursery

Such a large house required an equally large indoor staff. This at one time included a butler, housekeeper, lady’s maid, footman, several housemaids, four pantry-maids, four kitchen maids and an odd job man. They lived and worked in a range of domestic rooms including a bedroom and pantry for the butler, the housekeeper’s room and a servants’ hall. When the gentry assembled for family prayers in the Music Room the servants looked down from the gallery (now glassed in). The Gladstones loved music and Maud played a Stradivarius. The Gladstone Room is still used for musical events.

Beyond the main house was the Gatehouse, formerly a joiner’s shop, and a Reading Room for the people of the village. In Burton itself the Gladstones built extra cottages, a keeper’s house and the Village Institute, a Hall designed by H.S. Goodhart-Rendell.

The Great War brought an end to the country house life style at Burton. Staff were no longer available and on the death of his nephew, Harry moved to Hawarden Castle to manage the Hawarden Estates. By 1924 the estate at Burton was sold and the property bought by Liverpool estate agents Boult, Son and Maples. The land was sold off piecemeal for development and the Manor itself eventually acquired by Mr Alfred Joynson and was then rented out to various parties.

During World War 2, like so many, the Manor was requisitioned and became the Headquarters of NAAFI, for Western Command. In 1947 it was acquired by compulsory purchase order for £14,500 by a consortium of local authorities to establish a Residential College for Adult Education. Today, of the original consortium, only Liverpool City Council remain. The College is a member of ARCA (the Adult Residential College’s Association) and continues its mission to offer adult education in pleasant surroundings.

The Stable Garden Area

In 2008 renovation of the ground floor of the Stable block (Squirrel Lodge), the Gatehouse, Reading Room and Granary was completed. The created space became branded as ‘Atelier’ and consists of a set of studio spaces and a resource centre to support artisans practising and teaching creative skills. The project represents the start of a significant new phase in the college’s development, with the start of a partnership with the University of Chester stabilising the future of adult education at Burton Manor for decades to come.