;IE HUNDRED - Old Wirral.com

TRANMERE
talented architect, Rickman, whose book on
"Gothic Architecture" is so justly admired and
eagerly sought after, speaks enthusiastically about
the Priory, and the mouldings at the entrance of
the refectory were adopted by him as a study.
It is greatly to be hoped that what remains to us
of this most interesting record of a bygone age
will be carefully preserved, and that the Corporation
of Birkenhead may, by the removal of some
of the ugly modern stables which creep upon it,
improve its situation, for " architecture," John
Ruskin says, " is the work of nations."
Passing out of Birkenhead, on the New Chester
Road, where now electric tramways busily run
upon its well-trafficked surface, we come in a
little over a mile to Tranmere, where it is wise to
hurry on, for the place has small interest to the
sightseer, rows of poor shops and houses now
occupying the site where once stood an interesting
old hall, long since taken down by a speculative
builder. All trace of this hall would have passed
away had not Mr. Joseph Mayer rescued it from
oblivion by having it drawn and engraved, at the
same time printing an interesting description of
it in the "Transactions of the Lancashire and
Cheshire Historic Society" for 1851. Rewrites:
" The Hall is situated on the brow of the hill,
overlooking, like a mother, the picturesque village
which surrounds it, and commanding a grand view
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