Poem of the Month

The Manor House, Hale, near Liverpool

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In early twilight I can hear
A faintly ticking clock,
While near and far and far and near
Is Liverpool baroque.

And when the movement meets the hour
To tell it, stroke by stroke
“Rococo,” says the pendulum,
“Baroque, baroque, baroak,”

Encrusted vases crowd the hall,
Dark paintings grace the stairs
And from the wild wind’s harp withal
Sound soft Lancastrian airs.

On a bend sable three garbs or-
The’achievements hold my gaze;
Though fierce without the tempests roar
The banner scarcely sways.

O’er Mersey mud and Mersey flood,
Rust-red above the holly
How trimly rides the brick facade,
As flimsy as a folly.

The Manor House, the Green, the Church-
From Runcorn to West Kirby
You will not find howe’er you search
So sweet a rus in urbe.

The poem for August & September 2026 was chosen by Stephen Stringer, Trustee and Social Media Editor of The Betjeman Society.

The Manor House is variously described by Candida Lycett Green and Mark Girouard respectively as ‘a beautiful eighteen-century manor house at Hale’, and ‘a house of modest size in a rural island on the edge of Liverpool, to which some eighteen-century owner had applied a rather grand facade, sticking up above it, like a screen’.

 This Grade II* listed building was originally built as a vicarage in the middle of the 17^th century by an unknown ‘architect’. Early in the 18^th century it was refaced and partly rebuilt by the then incumbent Rev William Langford, whose arms appear in a scrolled pediment above the front door.  Built in brown brick with red sandstone dressings across the top of the facade is a cornice and balustraded parapet. The entrance hall is panelled with fluted pilasters and the main staircase having twisted balusters.

This is a modest house compared to the baroque masterpiece, Castle Howard, the subject of another of Betjeman’s poems specifically about country houses. So why did he write a poem dedicated to this ‘modest’ house?  The answer lies in its then owner, Peter Fleetwood-Hesketh, a dear friend of Betjeman and the poem is a celebration of his home. JB often stayed there and together they toured the Liverpool and Manchester area.

Peter Fleetwood-Hesketh was one of JBs oldest friends and is best known for his elaborate 40 inch folding illustrations of “The Street of Taste or the March of English Art Down the Ages” (1490-1933) included in Ghastly Good Taste published in 1933. Another of his notable works is Murray’s Lancashire Architectural Guide finally published in 1955.  Peter was a founder member of the Victorian Society, and was the secretary of the Society in the early years.  He was also closely involved with the Georgian Group, and the Thirties Society (now the Twentieth Century Society).  Like Betjeman he had a lifelong passion for conservation and preserving historic buildings.

The poem, published in ‘A Nip in the Air’ in 1974, went through several revisions with JB writing to Peter in August 1973 “I am “currently” as everyone says now, composing a poem about the Manor House at Hale.  You have the first two verses and I haven’t.  Could you let me have them as they may lead me on to a third and fourth verse? I keep thinking of the sandstone and green holly and the level fylde and the huge skies.” In October 1973 Peter wrote to JB “Thank you for the most beautiful verses, which I have received….The poem is a great treasure. May I lend it to the vicar for the Parish Magazine?” Then in June 1974 Peter writes to JB saying “I am perfectly delighted with the complete poem, just received, a work of great beauty.”

The first line of the forth verse ‘On a bend sable three garbs or-‘ refers to the Hesketh coat of arms, and the a ‘rus in urbe’ in the last line captures what Candida describes as the rural peace and tranquillity of the house ‘stranded among gigantic industrial conurbations on the edge of Liverpool’.