Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request Houghton Hall, Upton

Just going through old stuff from mum. Found a 21st birthday party invitation from approx. 1965, to attend Houghton Hall, Upton .

Does anyone know where Houghton Hall was/is ,please.

Granny,

Salacre lane, Upton, Wirral.

1984 phonebook

Cheers Bert, thank you very much.

Ah, so that's why Houghton Road on the Woody is so named!

Was Houghton Hall were that field is, half way up Salacre Lane on the left, behind that grand looking wall?

Granny's enquiry rekindled some memories, I'm not so sure that Houghton Hall is or was as grand as it sounds, back in the early 60s, the scouts used to meet in Salacre Lane in what was no more than a hut, next to or near to what was once the Royal British Legion. Looking at google maps, the scout hut is still there, probably the same as in the 1984 telephone book. Whether the scout hut is on the grounds of what was once something more elaborate, I don't know.

1960 ish map,

the red cross is where the scout hut was/is.

So that bit marked as "Salacres", which is now bordered by Salacre Lane, Salacre Crescent / Slingsby Drive (I think), what was there do you think?

The remaining wall still looks pretty grand, but the trees on the field do seem quite mature though, so I presume whatever was there was demolished a long time ago?

It was a big house, link to Uptoncx site
http://www.upton-wirral.co.uk/upt68.php

Ah, great stuff - that explains Slingsby Drive too then!

What a shame many of the grand old houses are no more.

As we went as a family, I can remember it seemed similar to a church hall, wooden floors and trestle tables. Not grand in any way but it seemed to be quite a large hall. My main memory was the amount of Royal Navy lads who were there, the place seemed to be swarming in them. Shame I was too young to enjoy, didn't even get a sideways glance!

There's a bit on the history of the scout hut near the bottom of this - Scouting in Upton. The original hut was one of those built in Arrowe Park for Baden-Powell's Scout Jamboree in 1929. Presumably the hall Granny's mum went to would be the concrete structure mentioned as being built in 1952.

The Houghton connection could come from the Houghton family who were local landowners - the Cheshire Tithe map shows several parcels of land in the Upton area being owned in the mid-19th century by one William Houghton, who it would appear lived in a house on the corner of Salacre Lane and Ford Road, shown as the smallest yellow area in the centre of the map here - Cheshire Tithe Map

Edited to add - the Tithe Map link doesn't seem to work, it should have a full stop on the end of the address but for some reason it's ignoring it - if you follow the link then add the full stop to the address it should work

Here's the 1912 O.S. map showing Salacres. Interesting name; must have something to do with salt or maybe salt marsh?

Thanks Cobby. It is certain to have been the concrete block structure that is written about in the link and the phone number/address Bert posted. They lived in Ford Road, so it was a stones throw from there.

It's good to see the maps, always interesting and Chris from what I can make out , the word 'salacre' came across with those Vikings of ours,(which I understand means Willow Field or Willow Marsh.)

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...jgy#v=onepage&q=salacres&f=false

Thanks, Granny; I might well have deduced that, but failed. Aspirin is the trade name (Bayer) for a salt of salicylic acid, derived from the willow tree and the French for a willow is saule.