Rhymes With Rhythm
A short car ride though the beautiful Blackpool suburb of Lytham St Anne’s – turn of the 20th century villas between sand dunes – leads from the best hotel in northwest England (obviously Boulevard) to the grandest country house in the region. A few months previously Peter Sheppard and Keith Day had hosted lunch on a rainy afternoon in the library of Wolterton Hall in Norfolk just before they sold up. In contrast, a visit to Lytham Hall is on a sunny morning. What’s the connection? The two buildings were crowned joint winners of the Historic Houses Restoration Award 2022. It is thanks to the combined drive of General Manager Peter Anthony and Deputy Manager Paul Lomax over the last eight years that the revival of Lytham Hall has been such a laudable success.
The main block, wings, most of the outbuildings and the parkland have all been restored beyond any former glory. Rooms are now brimming with chattels from taxidermy to hosiery, dressed to the nines or at least the 1890s. Intense colours ensure there’s never a dull moment: lemon coloured walls; an emerald hued ceiling; lime panels and peach coving; burgundy flock wallpaper. In contrast, Lytham Hall has a no nonsense Palladian exterior that is unmistakeably by the able hand of Yorkshireman John Carr. Everything is just so about it from sound proportions to sturdy detailing. Exuberance is saved for the interior decoration. Fellow Yorkshireman Francis Johnson would take on the mantle of serious neoclassical architecture two centuries later.
Francis even worked on Everingham Park, a John Carr house outside York. This contemporaneous seven bay three storey house is a smaller plainer version of Lytham Hall. David Neave and John Martin Robinson state in Francis Johnson Architect: A Classical Statement (2001), “Francis’s treatment of Everingham was typical of his scholarly approach to old buildings. He fully researched the history of the house and its place in Carr’s oeuvre before preparing his designs; studying the original drawings as well as the building itself. The Duke of Norfolk wished to reduce the house to its manageable 18th century core, and commissioned Francis to carry out the work. Francis found that the structure of Carr’s building, with its oak joinery, had withstood mid 20th century neglect better than the 19th century wings with their pine joinery; this reinforced the decision to demolish the later parts. The 19th century blocking course was removed and replaced with a half round cast iron gutter and cornice copied from that at Carr’s Lytham Hall in Lancashire.”
Brian Wragg gives the best lowdown on Lytham Hall in John Carr of York (2000), “Thomas Clifton inherited Clifton, which his family had bought in 1606, aged 10, in 1737. 20 years later, although he had no obvious Yorkshire connections, he called in Carr to rebuild the house, which lies on flat pasturelands a mile from the estuary of the River Ribble. Most of the building accounts, bills, plans and drawings have disappeared, but a labourers’ account book first mentions building work in 1757 and in 1750 mentions ‘Doorcasing and stroothing of grand staircases etc’. The 1757 to 1764 account book of the steward, Raymond Watt, shows that the house was complete in 1764, when on 17 March, Carr was paid £189 and 14 shillings, the balance of his account … Fitting up of the house continued well into the 1760s … Care and money were lavished on the elevations, with an attached Ionic portico on the east elevation. The main rooms are on the ground floor, and the Main Entrance Hall, with a handsome Rococo ceiling, has a heavy Kentian fireplace. The imperial staircase, one of Carr’s finest creations, is particularly grand and may have been inspired by that by Paine at Doncaster Mansion House of 1745 to 1747. The Dining Room shows the influence of Adam and must have been completed later. The house is now offices.”
In familiar country house fashion, portions of the preceding 17th century house were remodelled as ancillary wings around a courtyard. All that is hidden behind the lawn view of the entrance front. Nine bays rising three storeys are set in bright red brick in Flemish bond framed by a grid of stone and yellow painted stucco quoins and Ionic columns and string courses and cornicing. The proportions are so pleasing to behold. A pediment surmounting the three bay columned breakfront is just the right height. A hipped roof follows the slopes of the pediment. The main block is five bays deep. The three bay east facing Entrance Hall leads through to the Staircase Hall which links with the smaller North Entrance Hall (a double cube). Four reception rooms fill the rest of the ground floor. Four principal bedroom suites and Violet Clifton’s mid 20th century rooms occupy the first floor with secondary bedrooms on the second floor.
Good looks don’t come cheap. “It takes in excess of £1 million a year to run Lytham Hall,” Peter explains. “Once we’ve finished the expensive restoration projects, we should really just be maintaining the place but maintenance alone costs a fortune. For example, the building has a very intricate expensive alarm system – it’s got museum status in its own right.” Paul adds, “We do have a vast stable block that could potentially be used as holiday lets in the future. It’s going to cost a fortune to restore that area because it’s a large building and in quite a state. It would make a lovely kind of retail space for local crafts as well. We utilise every corner of what we have because you have to when our costs are so high.”
Peter says, “We just strive to get bigger and better each year and to give the best visitor experience. We now have around 250,000 visitors a year. When we came on board that figure was around 20,000. I always call it mould to gold: we have gone from a mouldy old mansion to something now that is glowing and twinkling like a beacon. Our new larger shop has been a great success. We hold massive events in the grounds such as the Lytham Proms attracting a few thousand people. There’s never a quiet month because we’re open all year round whereas a lot of stately homes close for the winter and reopen at Easter. The start of our year is the snowdrop season which is very popular; that then gently rolls into Easter and before you know it the open air theatre is happening followed by Halloween and Christmas activities.”
“After weeks of hard work our Billiard Room is finally finished and we are over the moon with the results!” exclaims Paul. “This room had to be taken off our tour for a couple of years ago as the roof lantern was being problematic. Thankfully the roof work was completed last autumn and the large timber lantern was repaired and made watertight.” Local company Finelines then started work on the huge task of redecoration. A mauve and green National Trust endorsed Little Greene colourway replaces a toxic gâteau of beige paint layers. Brass Art Nouveau hanging lamps are quite an improvement on the removed strip lighting. Billiard rooms were the must have extension of the late 19th century. Think Mourne Park and Ballywalter Park, both in County Down. The Billiard Room at Lytham Hall is a late Victorian interior embellished with Edwardian stained glass windows. William Morris’ 1901 seaweed pattern was selected for the curtain fabric: historically and geographically appropriate.
A sign in one of the dressing rooms states: “Lady Eleanor Cecily Lowther Clifton’s beautiful dress was reproduced from the stipple engraving of Lady Eleanor (John Henry Robinson 1845, National Portrait Gallery) by one our talented house volunteers, Judith Davitt. The dress is made of silk taffeta and features a typical V shape at the waist. As we don’t know the original colour of the dress we used some beautiful fabric from a pair of donated curtains. The dress was first displayed Christmas 2024 at Mr Fezziwig’s Party, part of our Dickens of a Christmas display. Lady Eleanor (1822 to 1894) was married to Colonel John Talbot Clifton (1819 to 1882). She was the sister of the 3rd Earl of Lonsdale of Lowther Castle in Cumbria.”
Peter concludes, “Lytham Hall means the absolute world to us: we live and breathe it. We’ve lived in Lytham since 1997 so the Fylde is definitely home and Lytham Hall itself has become such a massive part of our lives. It’s so rewarding – no two days are the same. You never know what’s going to happen when you walk through that door and that’s really exciting. It’s not just a place to work – it’s a vocation. The people who we’ve met along the way and worked with including staff and volunteers have been brilliant.”
The last Squire, Henry Talbot de Vere Clifton (Violet’s son), gave up ownership of Lytham Hall in 1965 to the creditors Guardian Royal Insurance who used it as a headquarters. In 1998 a local charity Lytham Town Trust bought the house and its remaining 32 hectares of parkland, and two years later passed everything over to the Heritage Trust for the Northwest. Since 2017 Peter Anthony and Paul Lomax along with Trustee Stephen Williams have developed a sustainable operation maximising every useable area. Fylde Borough’s only Grade I Listed Building is in safe – and enthusiastic – hands.
