Pictured above is the detached property on the corner of Valentia Road and Queens Road. It’s quite a unique style of house for Hoylake, off the top of my head I can’t think of another house locally that has been built in the same style.
Does anyone know the history of the house at all? I’ve often wondered if it was once the residence of some local official (coroner, coastguard, etc)?
The two semis in-between this house and the old lighthouse are grand, substantial properties too.
Here’s a similar view taken on Tuesday during an unwelcome hail storm that thoroughly soaked me and my dog!
I remember the Hough family living there, of Hough’s builders merchants, now Travis Perkins, in Hoylake.
Yes, I also remember the Hough family: Beatrice, Graham and Roland. My mum worked for the family as a maid in the 30s.
I have always understood this to have been at some time the Bishop’s Palace, presumably the Bishop of Birkenhead. I was also told that the back garden (ie between it and the red/white building) contained a croquet lawn.
Out of interest, the brother of the present Bishop of Birkenhead is the actor that plays the diplomat shot by Daniel Craig at the beginning of ‘Casino Royale’, thereby gaining his Licence to Kill (doule 00 number) and maintaining a local connection!!