Speke Hall

Wednesday
A grey, largely wet day today. The three of us took Barry and Janet out for the day. In the morning we went to Speke Hall in Liverpool, a fine example of a Tudor manor house, in the hands of the National Trust. Most of the land around the house has been sold off over the years, and in fact it is now directly adjacent to Liverpool airport. As we approached the house, there was a plane taking off right over the house - it looked quite an incongruous sight! It was built by the devout Catholic Norris family - keen to impress visitors with the grandeur of their home and in particular the magnificent Great Hall. One of its features is a priest hole, a common feature in Catholic homes of the period, when Catholics were undergoing severe persecution. There is also an eavesdrop (a small open hole under the eaves of the house) which allowed a servant to listen in on the conversations of people awaiting admission at the original front door. The house remained in the Norris family for many generations until the female heiress married into the Beauclerk family. The Watt family purchased the house from the Beauclerks in 1795. The last surviving heir of the Watt family was Miss Adelaide Watt, who inhertited the house as a child, and returned to it in 1878 at the age of 21 years. She died in 1921, leaving the house and estate in trust for 21 years, during which time it was looked after by the staff under the supervision of Thomas Whatmore, who had been butler to Miss Watt. At the end of this period, the house passed into the ownership of the National Trust. It was raining when we arrived, and as we had to wait for the next tour of the house we started with a coffee in the cafe. By the time we'd seen the house, the rain had eased off, so we were able to have a brief walk around the gardens. We had a pub lunch on our way to Crosby to see Anthony Gormley's Another Place. About 100 cast iron figures, facing out to sea, are spread over a 2 mile stretch of beach. In common with most of Gormley's work, the figures are cast replicas of the artist's own body. As the tides ebb and flow, the figures are revealed and submerged by the sea. It was actually dry at this point, so we were able to enjoy a walk on the beach.