II. THE DOVE-HOUSE AT MEOLS HALL.

To the south-east of Meols Hall, Churchtown, at a distance of about 30 yards, are the remains of a brick dove-house, or columbarium,1 apparently of seventeenth,

possibly late sixteenth century date, which are deserving of a more detailed description than has yet been given them.

Until 1923, when Meols Hall was restored, the dovehouse stood isolated in the midst of a pasture, but it is now included in the extended garden on that side of the house.

The dove-house has long been in a state of ruin but some years ago Major C. H. Fleetwood-Hesketh, the present owner, had it temporarily strengthened with iron ties and effected certain repairs, and later on, when the end gable appeared to be in danger of collapse, took further steps, by means of timber shoring, to keep it from falling.

The dove-house is rectangular in plan, and before the destruction of its northern2 end measured externally 30 ft. long from north to south, by 18 ft. in width. It is built of 2 in. red bricks, with outer walls 2 ft. thick. It comprised two compartments each measuring internally 14 ft. by 12 ft., divided by a brick wall pierced in the middle by a round-headed opening; the entrance was in all probability at the north end. Only the south compartment remains in its entirety, the walls of the other being almost wholly destroyed, but sufficient brickwork remains above ground to show its extent. The building has long been roofless, but the south and middle gables (above the cross wall) still stand their full height.

Whether the existing remains are those of the dovehouse mentioned in the inquisition taken at Preston on

1 Known also as dove-cote, and pigeon-house.

2 Meols Hall and the dove-house have their main axes running N.N.E. to S.S.W., and their longer sides facing E.S. E. and W.N.W. For the sake of brevity and clearness the longer sides are here described as facing east and west, and the shorter north and south.

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September 10, 1604, after the death of Barnaby Kitchen, it is impossible to say. In general appearance the structure appears to be rather late, and brickwork in this part of Lancashire does not appear to have been common till well into the seventeenth century. Still, it is possible that the existing structure, and indeed the older part of the Hall, may belong to the latter years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and be the work of Barnaby Kitchen himself. I should, however, be inclined to put them to rather later date, though not necessarily as late as the end of the seventeenth century.2

The Meols Hall dove-house is the only one in Lancashire mentioned by Mr. A. O. Cooke in his Book of Dove-cotes, published in 1920, though several others still exist in the county.3 Describing a tour through England in search of dove-cotes Mr. Cooke says:

A pause must be made in Lancashire to notice a dove-cote at North Meols, Churchtown, near Southport. It is of interest to us being one of those oblong buildings containing two compartments, a specimen of which we have already noticed in Northamptonshire and which we shall find common in Scotland. Of the Meols dovecote one compartment is in ruins and the roof of the whole building has fallen. The compartment still standing has an internal measurement of 14 feet by 12 and contains nearly 400 L-shaped nest holes. Its age is not definitely known.

Mr. Cooke's book is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to touch lightly on the general subject of dove-cotes, or dove-houses, in Great Britain. He mentions only 184 examples in England, 47 in Scotland and 11 in Wales (242

1 Farrer, Hist. of N. Meols, 44. Barnaby Kitchen died July 7, 1603, at North Meols. He had married Ann Aughton,one of the co-heirs of her brother John Aughton (who died childless in 1550) and thus became lord of one moiety of the manor of North Meols. His daughter Alice married Hugh Hesketh, from whom the Heskeths of North Meols descend.

2 See Farrer, op. cit., who assigns the erection of the hall to this period. The original position of the stone dated 1695, for long in a blocked window in the great barn, and recently placed on the east front of the Hall, is not known.

3 E.g., at Formby Hall, Kenyon Peel Hall, and Mains Hall; the two former, square with pointed roofs, the last-named octagonal and now roofless. All are of brick,

in all) whereas 167 have been recorded in Worcestershire and Herefordshire alone.1 But his book is one of much interest and well fulfils its purpose of drawing attention to a little-worked subject. A complete list of all the remaining dove-houses in Lancashire and Cheshire, with notes on those destroyed within living memory, would well repay the making.

The accompanying plan and illustrations2 render a lengthy description of the North Meols dove-house unnecessary, but a few words must be said. The walls of the south compartment stand their full height of 13 feet above the ground and the gables 8 feet higher, making the total height of the latter 21 ft. The south gable is a good deal out of the perpendicular and is only kept from falling inwards by the timber shoring. It could, however, easily be rebuilt with the old bricks without detracting materially from the antiquarian value of the fabric. In the gable is a small square-headed opening, below which a partial reconstruction of the brickwork has resulted in the destruction of some of the nesting-holes. In the accompanying plan the walls are shown solid for the sake of clearness, the nesting-holes being omitted, but the method of construction of these is indicated separately to a larger scale. The openings to the nests are 6 ins. high by 51 ins. in width and they reach 15 ins. into the substance of the wall, enlarging right or left into a cavity3 10 ins. in width by 9 ins. high.

The existing compartment contained 394 nesting-holes, but the other would have rather less-say about 350owing to the space taken up by the doorway. The whole building may therefore be assumed to have provided for

1 By the Hon. Mrs. Berkeley and Mr. H. Watkins. Northamptonshire and Cumberland too have been more or less systematically worked, but, except in these counties, little has been done in recording English pigeon-houses. 2 From photographs taken in 1924.

3 Half of the L-shaped holes turn to the right and half to the left on each side.

over 700 pigeons-a fair average, the capacity of pigeonhouses in other parts of the country varying considerably. The number of nesting-holes in the existing compartment is made up as follows: twelve rows of nine holes in each of the side (east and west) walls; twelve rows of eleven holes in the end (south) wall;1 four rows of three holes on each side of the opening in the middle wall, and two rows of eleven nests above the opening.2

Except in the cross wall, where the rows are some distance apart, the nests are close together, occupying practically the whole of the wall space and starting only 10 ins. from the ground. Each row has an alightingledge of brick on end, projecting 21 ins. and stopping six or eight ins. from the end walls.4

The right to erect and maintain dove-houses was strictly limited in the middle ages, and the Normans, who are believed to have introduced them into England, restricted them to the lords of manors. This privilege is generally said to have been abolished during the rign of Elizabeth, though no authentic evidence of this appears to be forthcoming. However that may be, there was a great addition to the number of dove-houses in England in the seventeenth century, and Samuel Hartlib, writing in 1651, states that there were then no less than 26,000.5 Whether the existing structure at North Meols takes the place of a still older one is a matter of surmise, but in all probability the lord of the manor would have a pigeonhouse attached to the dwelling which stood on or close to

1 Below the gable ten nesting holes have been destroyed by the reconstruction of the brick-work already referred to-probably about fifty years ago. The actual number of nests is therefore 384.

2 108 nests in each of the side walls, 132 in the end wall and 46 in the middle wall.

3 In the cross wall the height of the bottom row from the ground in the south compartment is 24ins.

4 In the cross wall the ledges stop 16ins. from the end. In some dove-cotes there are ledges only to every second or third row.

5 Legacy of Husbandry, 1651; 3rd. ed., 1655.