Markland Lodge
Huyton

(~ 1850 - present)
   

  Markland Lodge was built in Victorian times as part of the "Huyton Park" villa estate development to the east of the village of Huyton.  The rail link to Liverpool and Manchester had recently been completed (1830 - the first real passenger line in the world), and Huyton was beginning to expand as a Victorian commuter village.

In 1873, there was a grandiose scheme for building a huge villa estate to the east of Huyton, but Victoria Road and Huyton Church Road were the only roads actually built. The style of the area is typical of Victorian villa estates; large houses and gardens set back from the road.  The houses were built in a variety of styles typical of the period, and Markland Lodge was brick built in Flemish bond with, perhaps surprisingly, no bay windows and a rather shallow roof.

The list of owners or occupants of the house is shown below.  Details are from Kelly's and Gore's Directories for the period, and also from H M Land Registry. When dates seemed to conflict, Land Registry dates have been used.  There are links to other pages of information about the owners and the area - see the details below.

1853 Land owned by Thomas Molyneaux Seel, who owned most of the land around what is now Seel Road in Huyton
1854 Land transferred to Thomas Lings with permission to build

1860-
1870?

House built perhaps between 1860-1870.  The completion date is not clear, but there is more infomation about this on the link to the builder Thomas Lings

1873

The house may have been rented (?) to Mr William L Lawson (jeweller), and called 'Glendevon House'? - the records are unclear
1875 Mr George Lloyd (at this time, the house was called 'Markland Villa').  This is the first definite owner, though he lived in the house before the purchase date (he may have rented for a time before buying).
1879 Sir Joseph Bithel Leach.  He seems to have kept the name 'Markland Villa' for a while, then changed it to 'Markland Lodge'.  The Leach family were resident for 45 years, and there are a number of 'Leach' memorials in Huyton cemetary.
1917 Miss Florence Leach (upon the death of her father in 1917).  Florence stayed there probably with her sister Emily until 1924, when they moved to 'Park House' 11 Grosvenor Park Road, Chester.  This is currently (2003) a dentist's surgery at the end of Grosvenor Park Road near the centre of Chester
1924 Mrs Clara Ray.  Possibly related to Mr William Ray (of Ray and Miles Carpet Factors, London Rd and Dale St) who lived at 'Huyton Hey' - the house which is now (2003) a pathway at the end of Huyton Church Road.  Mrs Clara Ray died in 1927 aged 65.  Her grave can be seen in Huyton cemetary.
1928 Mrs Elizabeth Hannah Margaret Glover
1935 Mr Stanley Wilson Winstanley (Sybil Mary Winstanley)
1962 Mrs Sybil Mary Winstanley (upon the death of her husband?)
1963 Mr Kenneth William Rimmer
1968 Mr Anthony Michael Frank (Ann Rosemary Frank)
1972 Mr Richard Arthur Douglas Noble (Elizabeth Rachel Noble)
1977 Dr Edward Boyes (Valerie Boyes)

For those interested, the house contains a Mark 1 Gas Aga, and I have published on this site an electronic method of controlling the gas Aga.