ROCK VILLA WELLINGTON ROAD
In 1837 William Rowson sold off one of his portions of land, amounting to 2,120 Square yards and ejected to the Cliff estate, to Peter Greenall, Brewer of St Helens. It is not clear whether Rowson or Greenall built this house on the land, but right from the start it was known as Rock Villa, and it is of course still standing today and still possessing the same name. Peter Greenall,
Who used the house as a summer residence, was a man of considerable importance. In his own area. He was the grandson of Thomas Greenall, who founded Greenall Whitley’s St Helens brewery in 1762
It goes on to say quiet a lot about The brewery and Peter Greenall so will skip that those bits
Following Peter Greenalls death (18th September, 1845) “Rock Villa was occupied by a variety of tenants, during the next thirty years, including a cotton broker, a cotton spinner a merchant and Ship owner, and even a clerk to the borough magistraits,, but 1875 marked the arrival of the Peers Family in the person of James Peers, also a cotton broker, who was the forunner of what was to turn out to be a forty year connection with the house. He was the father of George Hunter Peers.The founder in 1878; of what is now the Peers club in St Georges Road, a justice of the peace, and a man who persuaded the Wallasey Local Board to purchase Cental Park after Harold littledales death in 1889. He also went down in history as the man who demolished the mill on the breck, replacing it with a residence; well know for nearly eighty years as “Millthwait”
And as the father of Hugh Peers, Local historian of note. The reign of the Peers family at Rock Villa came to an end shortly after the finish of World war 1 .The next occupant being Mr. C.R. Marples a well known Liverpool cotton broker,who spent some years there,to be followed by Pat athern,a well known Wallasey commission – agent and the wallasey sea cadets, who used the house as their headquarters for a while.In 1959 “Rock Villa was purchased by Mr. Norman Kingham, the Architect, including the caves under the dwelling formed out of soft stone of the red and yellow noses., Access to these cave which still exist, at one time was from the shore, before the promenade was built but today is by way of steps inside a manhole within the garden of “Rock Villa” The house itself originally had Gothic features but owing to past neglect and was damage.All of these have been lost and replaced with more modern styles which has altered its character.
Note the book this came from was printed I think in the 60’
