Shape Director, Barry Wilson, had a really interesting visit to one of our development sites with Torus and HMS, where Shape Consulting Engineers are providing full civil and structural design services for the new build residential apartments, along with the renovation and refurbishment of the existing historic public house & hotel building, which dates back over 300 years and has unfortunately remained closed for some time.
The existing building has so much amazing history. It was first built as a humble farm house in 1718 and was later extended in 1752 to the building you see today. It has been used as a toll tower when the road it addresses was the main route from Liverpool to Lancaster and later became the public house and hotel you see today.
It is said to have once been used as a Gaol (makeshift jail), used by Oliver Cromwell’s troops during the English Civil War and it’s believed Cromwell himself stayed in the hotel on numerous occasions.
Barry Wilson said ‘Its great to see these older building with such history being brought back to life and given a new purpose, providing much needed homes in the area’.
