Does the woman with the kennels and horses still live next door? I remember her saying that the horse figured out how to operate the gate latch to escape.
I find the Saddle story/legend quite interesting about the beheading that apparently took place there a few hundred years ago. If you go in the Saddle they have a few interesting local pics with narratives between the bar and the function room, if you've not seen them already.
Hi Neil, I hadn't heard that story about the Saddle Club!! I don't know about a beheading but there are certainly a few legless specimens to be seen leaving there on a Friday night !! LOL
And YES the lovely lady with the horse does still live next door!!
In the large hall there is a trap door below which is a set of very worn stone steps which lead down to 4 vaulted cellars. Apparently there was a secret passagway that ran from the cellars & across to Storeton. In one of the cellar rooms there is a plinth shaped out of the sandstone & it is historically known as the Monks Bed. We have heard small snippets of the house's history but given it's age there must be lots more. We just can't seem to find anything.
I'm an archaeologist who used to live on the same road as the Hall. Prenton is quite an interesting area, as it is one of only a handful of Wirral mill sites mentioned in Domesday (another being at Bromborough). The mill site is known, and it's likely that the Hockenhull family owned the lands it was situated on. Prenton was also home to forested area in Domesday. This is not necessarily a forest as you would think now, but was an area of land that was not allowed to be fenced or restricted to allow game such as deer and boar to roam.
The estate was owned by Walter de Vernon at Domesday, who was one of William I's chums. Always wanted to undertake a geophysical survey at Prenton Farm Hall. I suspect that there will be evidence of a much earlier building within the grounds.
Thank you all for replies & information therein. Angie I will certainly try & get some pictures of the cellars & post them.We would love to find pictures & plans of what the original house used to iook like & also the plans for this present building as it is obvious that the layout was far diffrent than it is today & of course at one time it was all one house with next door Prenton Hall. Unfortunately we're new to this & wouldn't know where to look. We went to Birkenhead Library & asked there but they said they had nothing