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Ownership of an estate in Childwall can be traced as far back as the 13th century when William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby became its heir upon his marriage to Agnes of Chester, daughter of Hugh of Cyfeiliog, 5th Earl of Chester. By 1303 the land had been obtained by Robert Holland, 1st Baron Holand and by 1361 was recorded as being the property of Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster.
The estate continued to pass between noblemen: from Robert de Lanthom to John Stanley (KG) before being obtained by the Le Grey family who sold it to lawyer Isaac Greene of Liverpool. Upon Greene's death in 1749 his daughter Mary inherited the estate and married Bamber Gascoyne (the elder).
By 1780 their son Bamber Gascoyne (the younger) was elected MP for Liverpool and eventually inherited the family estate, which he decided to have rebuilt. For the rebuild Bamber Gascoyne (the younger) employed architect John Nash, who at the time was architect to the Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases and rarely took private commissions.
John Nash designed his own property called East Cowes Castle. Completed in 1800, it was said to have been built 'at unlimited expense'. Therefore with a few changes to the design, John Nash would have been happy to work on something that reflected his own house, and probably used lots of previous drawings and plans to quicken the build rather than to build and design from scratch. We see East Cowes Castle here.
Childwall Hall could be found on Childwall Abbey Road and was situated behind Childwall Woods. However, we must not forget that Childwall Woods was once the private 'back garden' to Childwall Hall and we are most fortunate that this is now open to the public to stroll around and view the items from the past such as the carriageway, the gatehouse on Childwall Abbey Road, and the varies folly's in the middle of the woods.
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The new interior of Childwall Hall included a drawing room, a dining room, a study and a well-furnished library at the request of Gascoyne, who was a keen reader. On the death of Bamber the younger in 1824, the hall and surrounding estate passed to his only child Francis Mary Gascoyne, who a few years previously had married James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury and moved away from the area. Subsequently the estate was put out to rent and became the residence of various wealthy families.
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Between about 1901 and 1919 Childwall Hall was leased by the wealthy Schintz family. Hans Gaspard Schintz was born in Zurich in 1837 but settled in Liverpool some time before 1861 and was granted British Nationality in 1875. His wealth came from saltpetre nitrates sourced in Tarapaca province, northern Chile, by his company the Tamarugal Nitrates Co.
Hans Gaspard Schintz married Julia Anna Bleuler with whom he had three children, all born in Liverpool. The eldest child, Hans Caspar Ferdinand Max, was born in 1865 but died without issue in Switzerland in 1911. The second child, Julia Lucy Schintz was born the following year and married John Smith Moreton in 1897. The youngest child was Susan Dora Cecilia Schintz who was born in 1869 and remained a spinster. The Schintz family lived at several addresses in Liverpool and had moved to Childwall Hall by 1901. In late 1912 Hans Gaspard died. Although he did not leave anything to charity in his will, his widow donated to various charities in Liverpool from his estate. Susan Schintz inherited a share of her fathers fortune the income from which enabled her to spend generously on charitable works. Miss Schintz, like her mother, supported numerous charities including a Home for Incurables and the Schintz Nursing Home in Liverpool.
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In 1919 Miss Schintz moved away from Childwall Hall and purchased Ottershaw Park in Surrey. She maintained that this was to benefit her mother who would appreciate the countryside but it also benefited Rapson, who was by now working on an un-puncturable tyre design and Ottershaw was ideally located for easy access to Brooklands motor circuit where he carried out many trials. Over the next decade Miss Schintz invested heavily in Rapsons tyres and other inventions, to the extent that she eventually became bankrupt in 1930. My grateful thanks go to John Athersuch for the above information and below pictures!
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At the outbreak of WWI Miss Schintz, took Arrowe Hall in Birkenhead and set it up as an Auxiliary Military Hospital. She paid for the fitting out of the hospital for the staff, and provided a fleet of vehicles to transport patients. One patient was Frederick Rapson who had been a driver for the Kings messenger Service on the Western Front and South Africa, and before the war had driven for the royal household.
When he was sufficiently recovered from his injuries Miss Schintz took him on as her chauffeur and from late 1916 he lived and worked at The Garage, Childwall Hall. By 1918 he had a team of men working under him on the Schintzs fleet of cars. Rapson was not only an experienced driver and mechanic but also a prolific inventor, principally of devices for motor cars. Rapson was now associated with considerable wealth and meeting Miss Schintz was to give him the financial support he needed for a new business life. Frederick Rapson with the Schintz 1914 Silver Ghost outside the stableyard at Childwall Hall. Rapson is demonstrating his engine powered Rapid jacks. (The Autocar 28th July 1917).
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Childwall Hall was found to be riddled with dry rot, requiring expenditure of £25,000 on remedial work alone. In view of this and the general unsuitability of the building for use as a college, the house was sadly demolished. The new community college built on the site opened in 1955, but has itself now closed and the premises are now occupied by Lime Pictures. There were at one time, two entrances to Childwall Hall. Half way up Childwall Abbey Road, there is an entrance (see picture below) where the current Lime Pictures access road runs. This road ran all the way to the side of the Hall. The other, and far more extravagant main entrance to the Hall was from the top of Childwall Abbey Road. The road went through the gates at Childwall Wood just behind the current Lodge, and took the route of what is now the moat that runs deep in to the woods. The moat came around to flat land and this opened out to the main drive to the front of the house.
I (Jonathon Wild) was contacted by a member of Lime Pictures to ask if I would like to view the area as this was once the 'footprint' of Childwall Hall. I didn't need asking twice and after grabbing the camera, headed up to discover the history. The pictures were strictly limited to the original walls and surrounding area of Childwall Hall and we are very grateful to Lime Pictures for the kind opportunity! We have produced the pictures below with kind permission from Lime Pictures.
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The stable block and side entrance! The shortened wall can be seen on the right hand side picture - exactly the same place as the pre 1920 photograph!
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The views here show the gateway to the side entrance to the stable block. The picture on the right shows the outer walls of the stable block - the window itself can be found on pictures of Childwall Hall.
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The views here (left) show what was part of the original roadway from the era of Childwall House and is still used to this day. There is a set of sandstone blocks which form the entrance to the other side of the stable yard.
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This area is the entrance to the former stable yard, now used as a surplus car park. There is a great deal of original sandstone brickwork here with some very nice archways leading out of both sides of the stable yard.
At one point, this would have been a covered area but now all that remains are the surrounding walls.
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With access from Childwall Woods, the rear of the wall throws up many more puzzles as to why it is there and what it was originally used for. There are steps leading down to the right hand side of the wall, but further back there are also concrete steps that lead nowhere!
It would appear that this may have been a seperate 'porch' for Childwall Hall or perhaps an out building for storage. Certainly the arched doorways are too good for a 'standard' out building but the real puzzle is the steps that lead to a 4ft drop!
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John Athersuch was recently in contact with me to provide updated information on Childwall Hall and to provide some amazing pictures, never seen before! John met with the grand niece of Miss Schintz and her daughter in law. They had a wonderful collection of family phots including some of Ottershaw Park and Childwall Hall. They are not dated but but must be pre 1920 as Miss Schintz was at Ottershaw by then. Our thanks go once again to John and to both Sheila and Annabel Collenette for permission to use the photographs.
THE HISTORY OF CHILDWALL
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