Visited with Agent Smith, Mr Pink and a non member (mr x) for the purpose of this report.
History
Thomas Scarisbrick born in 1874, built Greaves Hall in 1900 on a 124-acre (0.50 km2) site given by his father as a wedding present when he married Josephine Chamberlain of Cleveland, Ohio, USA in 1895.[1] The mansion was surrounded by sculptured lawns, gardens with ornamental trees and flowering shrubs. The hall had approximately 55 rooms, open areas situated on the ground, first, second and attic floors and a vast basement.[2] A porter's lodge by the main entrance, a gardener's lodge, engineer's workshop, laundry and general workshop in mock Tudor style were built in close proximity.
After the school closed, the house was used as a hospital for patients with tuberculosis. In 1948, it was used for patients from Liverpool with mental health problems. The mental health unit had wards and ancillary buildings in the leisure grounds of the old house. The hospital closed in the early 1990s when services were moved to Southport.
The hall suffered from acts of vandalism and arson after it closed and its owners claimed it was beyond repair. Applications were made to demolish the building,[1] and other buildings including the landmark water tower. Despite having Listed building status Greaves Hall suffered arson attacks which led to its partial demolition in 2003 and 2005. The building was removed from the heritage at risk register in 2009 and demolished shortly afterwards, having become structurally unsafe. Demolition took two months due to the grand scale of the building.
Redrow homes have developed most of the site where the hospital wards once stood. The old the hospital school was converted into a new school for St Stephen's Primary. The former communal hall at the centre of hospital activities was converted into "Banks Leisure Centre" retaining the gymnasium, stage and function hall. The swimming pool was filled in and replaced by football/tennis/basketball courts. The nurses' houses are privately owned. The recreational ground and golf driving range are used for football and archery. In 2009 a development of houses was built next to the old nurses' homes. A small business park has been developed in ancillary buildings south of the water tower, which is known as 'Greaves Hall Industrial Estate'.The hospital water tower is derelict and its future is uncertain. The remains of the maintenance buildings were demolished in late 2010.
In late 2013 development began on the wasteland site behind 'The Close' for the construction of a care facility for the elderly called Sutton Grange which should be completed by Autumn 2014.
There have been proposals for the re-generation of the site. Part of the site has been designated for employment. More shops and businesses are needed in the village and Greaves Hall has been identified as a prime location.[3] This will also incorporate the "Greaves Hall Industrial Estate" into the employment plan. The playing field is designated as green space along with the wood and cannot be developed
The Scarisbricks remained at Greaves Hall until after the First World War when they moved to Scarisbrick Hall and sold the estate to a consortium of farmers from Banks. The mansion stood empty while the land was cultivated by the consortium. On 3 May 1932 the house was leased to Dorothy Glaister Greaves and became Sherbrook Private Girls' School. The ballroom was used as the school hall, with dormitories in the attic rooms, the library was re-stocked. The gardens were used for sports and leisure with tennis courts and hockey pitches. The house and grounds were used by the school until 1938 when it closed.
Greaves Hall Water Tower
There is just wasteland and rubble now where the hospital once stood, i would of liked to of seen it, I hope that they preserve the tower in all its glory as this is a rather nice water tower to look at.
Iv always wanted to have a look at the tower since I was a kid as I used to live not too far away but never got round to it, I used to be able to see it in the distance but when I walked up to it a saw a lovely architected building which was also bigger than what I thought it would be, its around 30 metres tall, I mentioned this place to mr x in the passing a few weeks and we went for a reccy and decided we will do it so a few night later we turn up with gear to assist topping it and get to work.
The lower window is now bricked up and the doors at the bottom are backfilled with rubble and large blocks of concrete so we agreed the way we would get in was to go through the second (middle) window so we got to work, I get up onto the first ledge and get watched for a while by some blokes in a white van, hes on the phone, maybe hes ringing the authorites… who knows?
Then theres 2 separate dogwalkers watching with curiosity, I carry on about my business…… get inside the window and sort the rope out for the rest to get up whilst getting bumped into, flown over and getting knocked by these cooing and pooing pigeons, ever so slightly distracting but tried not to disturb them too much, everyone's in so we climb the ladders up two more levels to the top of this gigantic pigeon bird cage! Everything is covered by pigeon poo and feathers, the floor is like a 1 inch thick crust of excrement. Once ontop it was really quiet and peacefull with nice views looking at the illuminations at blackpool. We wandered about abit and set about taking photos, chilled out for a while, after that we made our way down to the window and abseiled off, by this time it was dark, packed up our gear and found a pub for tea.
Next time.........daylight.
Since none of us are really good at taking good photos iv cobbled together some of everybody's.
Hope you enjoy them, we are still learning to take decent pics.
History
Thomas Scarisbrick born in 1874, built Greaves Hall in 1900 on a 124-acre (0.50 km2) site given by his father as a wedding present when he married Josephine Chamberlain of Cleveland, Ohio, USA in 1895.[1] The mansion was surrounded by sculptured lawns, gardens with ornamental trees and flowering shrubs. The hall had approximately 55 rooms, open areas situated on the ground, first, second and attic floors and a vast basement.[2] A porter's lodge by the main entrance, a gardener's lodge, engineer's workshop, laundry and general workshop in mock Tudor style were built in close proximity.
After the school closed, the house was used as a hospital for patients with tuberculosis. In 1948, it was used for patients from Liverpool with mental health problems. The mental health unit had wards and ancillary buildings in the leisure grounds of the old house. The hospital closed in the early 1990s when services were moved to Southport.
The hall suffered from acts of vandalism and arson after it closed and its owners claimed it was beyond repair. Applications were made to demolish the building,[1] and other buildings including the landmark water tower. Despite having Listed building status Greaves Hall suffered arson attacks which led to its partial demolition in 2003 and 2005. The building was removed from the heritage at risk register in 2009 and demolished shortly afterwards, having become structurally unsafe. Demolition took two months due to the grand scale of the building.
Redrow homes have developed most of the site where the hospital wards once stood. The old the hospital school was converted into a new school for St Stephen's Primary. The former communal hall at the centre of hospital activities was converted into "Banks Leisure Centre" retaining the gymnasium, stage and function hall. The swimming pool was filled in and replaced by football/tennis/basketball courts. The nurses' houses are privately owned. The recreational ground and golf driving range are used for football and archery. In 2009 a development of houses was built next to the old nurses' homes. A small business park has been developed in ancillary buildings south of the water tower, which is known as 'Greaves Hall Industrial Estate'.The hospital water tower is derelict and its future is uncertain. The remains of the maintenance buildings were demolished in late 2010.
In late 2013 development began on the wasteland site behind 'The Close' for the construction of a care facility for the elderly called Sutton Grange which should be completed by Autumn 2014.
There have been proposals for the re-generation of the site. Part of the site has been designated for employment. More shops and businesses are needed in the village and Greaves Hall has been identified as a prime location.[3] This will also incorporate the "Greaves Hall Industrial Estate" into the employment plan. The playing field is designated as green space along with the wood and cannot be developed
The Scarisbricks remained at Greaves Hall until after the First World War when they moved to Scarisbrick Hall and sold the estate to a consortium of farmers from Banks. The mansion stood empty while the land was cultivated by the consortium. On 3 May 1932 the house was leased to Dorothy Glaister Greaves and became Sherbrook Private Girls' School. The ballroom was used as the school hall, with dormitories in the attic rooms, the library was re-stocked. The gardens were used for sports and leisure with tennis courts and hockey pitches. The house and grounds were used by the school until 1938 when it closed.
Greaves Hall Water Tower
There is just wasteland and rubble now where the hospital once stood, i would of liked to of seen it, I hope that they preserve the tower in all its glory as this is a rather nice water tower to look at.
Iv always wanted to have a look at the tower since I was a kid as I used to live not too far away but never got round to it, I used to be able to see it in the distance but when I walked up to it a saw a lovely architected building which was also bigger than what I thought it would be, its around 30 metres tall, I mentioned this place to mr x in the passing a few weeks and we went for a reccy and decided we will do it so a few night later we turn up with gear to assist topping it and get to work.
The lower window is now bricked up and the doors at the bottom are backfilled with rubble and large blocks of concrete so we agreed the way we would get in was to go through the second (middle) window so we got to work, I get up onto the first ledge and get watched for a while by some blokes in a white van, hes on the phone, maybe hes ringing the authorites… who knows?
Then theres 2 separate dogwalkers watching with curiosity, I carry on about my business…… get inside the window and sort the rope out for the rest to get up whilst getting bumped into, flown over and getting knocked by these cooing and pooing pigeons, ever so slightly distracting but tried not to disturb them too much, everyone's in so we climb the ladders up two more levels to the top of this gigantic pigeon bird cage! Everything is covered by pigeon poo and feathers, the floor is like a 1 inch thick crust of excrement. Once ontop it was really quiet and peacefull with nice views looking at the illuminations at blackpool. We wandered about abit and set about taking photos, chilled out for a while, after that we made our way down to the window and abseiled off, by this time it was dark, packed up our gear and found a pub for tea.
Next time.........daylight.
Since none of us are really good at taking good photos iv cobbled together some of everybody's.
Hope you enjoy them, we are still learning to take decent pics.
This was better to actually see as the colours kept changing
thanks for looking!
Stonemonkey.
