Meols Hall

Meols Hall is a house largely dating from the 17th century, with significant alterations in the 18th and 19th centuries, and substantial additions constructed between 1960 and 1994. The 20th-century works were undertaken by Roger Fleetwood Hesketh, who acted as his own architect. The main fabric is red brick with stone and cast stone dressings, incorporating salvaged materials from Tulketh and Lathom Hall. The windows are timber sash windows, set beneath hipped Westmoreland slate roofs with lead ridges.

The west front, which serves as the main entrance, was reworked from an earlier facade. It features a central door with a cornice and architrave, a projecting central bay, and a parapet featuring three recessed roundels and low gables, topped with stone ball finials. To the right of the main block is a three-storey gabled bay with inset lozenges and a projecting two-storey wing from the 1960s in a late Georgian style. A single-storey library wing is situated to the left of the main frontage, with recessed bays. A stone plinth, quoins, and a cornice below the second-floor windows contribute to the external detailing, along with a central Gibbsian doorcase. A return elevation to the right is flanked by a blank rear wall of the library, featuring a central chimney stack and a treillage covered way. The original 17th-century section is visible to the left, characterised by arched brick hoodmoulds over the windows and framed lozenges. A two-storey link block with a Gibbsian doorcase connects it to a three-bay, two-storey kitchen elevation with blind window recesses.

Within the garden are two gazebos dating from 1960-64, modelled on the gazebo at Rossall, and featuring stone quoins, Gibbsian doorcases, a cornice, and a crenellated stone parapet with triple oculi.

The interior includes an entrance hall, flanked by a Yellow Drawing Room with exposed beams. The library incorporates a marble chimneypiece and a 19th-century bookcase from Bold Hall, along with a dentil cornice. The Garden Hall features a salvaged chequerboard stone floor and leads to a dining room with a marble chimneypiece. A staircase incorporates a balustrade from Harrock Hall. One bedroom is decorated with a panoramic mural painted by Richard Willis in 1968.

Roger Fleetwood Hesketh inherited the remains of the house in 1938 and adapted and extended it to display a portrait collection. He incorporated salvaged materials, notably from a demolished wing of Leoni's Lathom Hall, alongside his own understanding of classical detailing. Meols Hall is recognised for its successful blending of old and new, and is considered amongst the most convincing country houses built since the Second World War.