while the old sloping pastures, free from wood that might obstruct the view, surround the village.

THE HALL.

Storeton Hall was the seat of the ancient family of the Sylvesters, who held the office of Foresters of the Royal Forest of Wirral under the Earls of Chester, and from their office most likely derived their family name; and it seems to explain the choice of Storeton as their seat. From the Sylvesters the hall passed by marriage, first to the Storetons, then to the Bamvilles, and finally to the Stanleys. If not specially strong as a military position, it is one of wide command of both land and sea coast; and from this central position the great web of ancient trackways gave easy access in every direction to all parts of the hundred. It is also most probable that these ways were established chiefly in mediæval times, as the hundred was not afforested until about the year

II20 A.D.

When, in September, 1282, Sir William Stanley, of Stonelegh, co. Stafford, married at Astbury Church, Cheshire, Joan, eldest of the three daughters and co-heirs of Sir John Bamville, he became, in her right, owner of one-third of Storeton and Master Forester of Wirral, which, with the remaining two-thirds of Storeton, subsequently acquired, continued in his descendants until the year 1848, when Sir William Stanley-Massey-Stanley, Bart., sold the property to Mr. Brocklebank, of Liverpool. The title to the tenure of their lands was the horn of the foresters, which in 1816 was at Hooton, and is probably now in the possession of the heirs of the late Sir John Massey Stanley, Bart., who died childless in 1893. Fourth in descent from William and Joan was Sir William de Stanley, who married

Margery, only daughter and heir of William de Hoton (Hooton), and died before 6 Henry VI (1427-8). Another Sir William de Stanley, great grandson of the latter couple, born about 1440, built a mansion house at Hooton, in 3 and 4 Henry VII (1487-89), after which event it is conjectured that Storeton ceased to be the principal seat of the family. Judging from the remains of the hall, its style indicates that it was probably rebuilt about the year 1360, and enough remains of it to show that it was a strong and stately building, well adapted for its uses.

The structure nearly faces the cardinal points, and has consisted of a central hall on the west side, with north and south wings slightly projecting westward, but lengthened out towards the east, so as to form three sides of a courtyard. Whether a fourth side existed towards the east, with a gatehouse, is uncertain. This side forms the rickyard of the present farm, and the site being rock, there are no remaining foundations, nor any excavations for them. The house would form a complete mansion of a well-known local type without such eastern side.

Of the great hall only the eastern wall remains, as high as the heads of the two great square-headed windows that lighted it. They are now walled-up. The hall was 44 feet in length, and 22 feet in breadth, measured, as in medieval fashion, to the centre of the walls. The walls are admirably built, of well cut and well chosen Storeton stone, and are four feet in thickness. At the south end of the hall the great entrance door remains; it has a pointed arch with hood, and is chamfered. deep rear arch is a segmental circular one. outer face is now covered by the range of stabling built to the east of it, probably in the seventeenth

The

Its

century, with the ancient stones of the western wall of the hall.

The two tall windows of the hall in the eastern wall, although built up, show, in the more modern openings that have been made through them, sufficient of the ancient mullions and transoms within the stable, and enough of their splays on the west side, to restore them with some accuracy. Between them stood a buttress, now cut down level with the wall, that was formerly external. At the lower end of the hall there is no trace of a minstrel gallery or screen, which latter may have been framed as a roof principal, with oak pillars reaching to the floor. The central buttress suggests that there was a central hearth, with a louvre over it in the roof, and carried by a principal which this buttress would support.

At the southern end of the hall the jamb and spring of a rear arch, at right angles to the east wall, shew the line of the north end of the hall, with the doorway leading to the kitchen and butteries in the south wing, this being the only remnant of the wing, but a very useful one by which to determine its character. A little further south, on the lengthened line of barns that have been added in the seventeenth century, is a well, cut in the rock, and still containing water, which may mark the southern limit of the wing, as it is in the place where the kitchen court should stand.

At the north end of the hall a shattered arched doorway, now the stable entrance, led into a staircase tower, projecting eastwards. This, like the buttress, is hewn level with the wall, but there are indications of where the steps have been hewn off, and where the entrance to the upper rooms of the north wing had formerly been. It seems likely also that the tower formed a porch of entrance to the dais and staircase from the east.