At the gates of Liverpool, on the banks of the Mersey, Speke Hall is one of the finest timber-framed manor houses of Tudor England: a house of black wood and white plaster, built around a courtyard, whose every façade speaks at once of a taste for new comfort and of the secrecy of a forbidden faith. Few places hold the two faces of the age so close together — the pleasure of display and the fear of the searcher at the door.
A timber house around a courtyard
The present house was raised for the Norris family between 1530 and 1598, in successive campaigns. Sir William Norris began the work with the Great Hall in 1530, followed by the Great (Oak) Parlour wing in 1531; the south wing was altered and enlarged between 1540 and 1570, the west wing added around 1546-1547, and it was Edward Norris who completed the whole with the north range in 1598. The oak frame rests on a base of red sandstone, the gaps filled with wattle and daub; the house is laid out around a paved courtyard where two ancient yews, "Adam" and "Eve," stand — first recorded in 1712 and reckoned to be more than five centuries old. The four ranges thus close around the courtyard, forming one of the most complete surviving timber-framed manor houses in England, each wing added by a different generation yet all held to a single idea; one enters across a stone bridge spanning the former moat, now dry. Look at the exposed framing: the blackened timbers trace lozenges, cross-braces and quatrefoils on the white plaster, a decorative exuberance typical of the North-West and carried here to a high pitch. The panelled Great Hall, the Great Parlour with its stucco ceiling and the Oak Drawing Room make up an interior of rare warmth. Across the great hall's chimneypiece runs a carved frieze showing three generations of Norris — a way of setting the lineage into the very timber of the house, so that the family looks down upon every meal and every guest.
A faith hidden in the walls
The Norrises remained Catholic after the Reformation, at a time when the Roman Mass was a crime and "recusant" families risked fines, prison, or worse. Look, hidden in the thickness of the walls and chimneys, for the "priest holes" — the hiding places into which a priest could be spirited away during a search — and for an observation hole set into a bedroom chimney, which allowed one to watch for approaching visitors and warn the priest in time. Above the entrance, the "eavesdrop," a small open channel under the eaves, let one listen, before opening, to those waiting at the door. The whole house is contrived to see — and to hear — who is coming, so that devotion and vigilance were built into the same walls. Look for: the courtyard with its two yews, the Great Hall and its Norris frieze, the priest holes, and the Elizabethan plasterwork and panelling.
Did you know?
Above the front door, a narrow channel set under the eaves — the "eavesdrop" — allowed a hidden occupant to hear the conversations of visitors left outside. The English word eavesdropping, "to listen in," comes from this device: at Speke Hall, spying on one's own visitors was a precaution built into the architecture.
Markers
Speke Hall stands at Liverpool (Merseyside), on the banks of the Mersey, within reach of the estuary. The house remained with the Norrises until 1736, passed by marriage to the Beauclerks, and was then bought by Richard Watt in 1795; it has been in the care of the National Trust since 1943.
Quiz
- What were Speke Hall's "priest holes" for?
- Hiding a Catholic priest during searches
- Storing wine
- Keeping weapons
- Which common English word comes from the entrance "eavesdrop"?
- eavesdropping (listening in)
- housekeeping-gossiping
- Who began building the Great Hall in 1530?
- Sir William Norris
- Oliver Cromwell
- King James I