Loyola Hall, Ranihill

The building depicted in the postcard below still stands, in fact you can even buy it if you have a spare £1.25 million.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/controversial-historic-mansion-could-yours-11930684

However, as it is no longer used as a religious retreat, it fits in with the remit of the blog.
There is also another reason why I've decided to blog about this and that's because it was very familiar to me throughout my childhood and teenage years.  I imagine those of you from my home town reading this blog  will have their own memories of Loyola Hall, from a certain history teacher's inability to pronounce it to trying to sneak in at lunchtimes and being chased out by the gardener.
The building and site were closed to visitors and a large wall hid most of it from view, which made it all the more fascinating for me. I remember being very little and being unable to see anything at all over the wall except when I was on the bus and I could just make out the main hall and beautiful looking grounds. The fascination never abated and even at 18 I would try to sneak a peak over the wall to get a better view. When I eventually got to enter the place, in my early 20s and looking for a missing cat (he turned up safe and sound), it was something of an anti climax.
The Grade II listed building was built in 1824 and known as Rainhill House, later becoming Rainhill Hall after extension work in 1869.  It was owned along with most of the land in Rainhill at the time, by the Bretherton-Stapleton family. The devoutly Catholic family, who also founded the nearby St Bartholomew's Church, sold the building and grounds to the Jesuits in 1923. It was used mostly as a spiritual retreat with upwards of 2000 visitors yearly.
It was also used to house the North Korean Football Team shortly before their quarter final match in the 1966 World Cup. One can only wonder what the atheistic North Koreans made of the religious imagery, probably not a lot as they lost their match 5-2.
The building underwent many renovations in its history but the postcard seems to predate those and probably dates from around 1960.
Loyola Hall closed as a retreat in 2014 due to a lack of Jesuit priests to run the place.
Its not sure what the future will hold for the building and grounds. The are many rumours locally about the planned future of the place. I'm not going to comment on them as there are plenty of other places for people to have their say, but I will update the blog when we know for certain.

Update 2018

The hall is going to be a hotel and wedding venue.

http://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/16256427.Loyola_Hall_plans_for_hotel_and_wedding_venue_approved/

Rainhill Village

After the warning in my previous post, I've decided to show something today which was not destroyed by disaster, war or terrorism but simple human error.

I doubt many of you will have heard of Rainhill. If you have I can almost guarantee you are either a) a resident or ex resident of the town, b) a train buff, c ) a Ripperologist/Victorian murder aficionada d) a Mel C fan.
I'm in  group a though I do lurk on Casebook from time to time.

I was brought up in Rainhill and lived there until I was 18 and the above image is one of my enduring memories of the town. Those of you in group b will know that Rainhill was the site of the Locomotive Trials in 1829 where Stephenson's Rocket was declared the winner and Britain was changed forever.

In 1979 there was an exhibition celebrating 150 years since the trials took place and the above mural was erected in a prominent place in the village (now occupied by the Co-Op Supermarket). I used to see it everyday when I went I to playschool and reception class and I loved it. It had pride of place in the town until 1981 when it was dismantled. Sadly it was stored away whilst wet and rotted away to nothing. Ironically the Rocket itself can still be seen in the Science Museum.