Neston Town Trail
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No 4 Further up the High Street, on the right, is the Town Hall (pictured). The Local Board proposed to build a Town
Hall to commemorate Queen Victoria’s jubilee in 1887, and a private company was formed to pay for it. The architect was David Walker of Liverpool. The first function to be held there, in 1889, was a ball for the Neston Rifle Volunteers.
Inside the council chamber of the Town Hall, are kept the original rules of the Neston Female Friendly Society, founded in 1814 and the last surviving society of its kind.
Every year on ‘Ladies Day’, the first Thursday in June, there is a procession to commemorate the Society.
No 5 Further up the High Street, on the left, is an ancient sandstone barn, itself built on the solid rock. The barn dates from the 1600s, and is a reminder of the days when farm buildings were usually found in the middle of villages or even towns.
In the 1920s this barn served as a garage for a taxi service of Model T Fords. The barn is now owned by The Brewers Arms next door, one of the oldest inns in Neston.
No 6 The Methodist Church, at the junction of Park Street and Liverpool Road, was built in 1908 by the architect J H Lambert. It replaced a corrugated iron chapel, which had been provided by a local tug-owner as a non-denominational Mission Hall.
His nephew Matthew Webb, who was the first man to swim the English Channel, spoke at the Mission Hall in 1877 in favour of temperance.
Park Street, to the left of the Methodist Church, has a number of 18th century houses. On the left, numbers 9-17 are over 200 years old, and there is a date table of 1769 on number 11.
Continue up Park Street and on the left is a large green area with trees, and flowerbeds. The Borough Council landscaped this over what was once part of a small sandstone quarry from which many of the stone walls and sandstone houses were built.
