‘Haunted’ mansion left to deteriorate but could come ‘back to life’

A once grand Liverpool mansion that has fallen into disrepair could be given an unconventional new lease of life.

Woolton Hall was once a sight to behold. The grand mansion on Speke Road in Woolton was built in 1704 and sold to wealthy politician Richard Molyneux, 1st Viscount Molyneux.

The classic building underwent an extensive renovation 68 years later by the influential architect Robert Adam. In its first two centuries of use, it was home to the rich and powerful, including the Earl of Sefton and the shipowner Frederick Richards Leyland.

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However, it then had a number of uses in the 20th century, including as a private school and an army hospital. It was saved from demolition in the 1980s and became Grade I listed.

There were plans for it to become a nursing home, but they never materialized and the hall was left to fall into disrepair. The building was hit by a huge fire in 2019 and was added to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register as a Category A site two years later.

In recent years, it has become a hot spot for burglaries, vandalism and , including a main hall with a marble floor, a room with tapestries and an ornate staircase.

Click below to see inside Woolton Hall as it looked when an urban explorer looked around in May 2022.

There is a new chapter on the horizon for the building. A Liverpool entrepreneur wants to use the hall as a paranormal tourist attraction called ‘My Haunted Mansion’ – and eventually as a hotel for ghost hunters.

Harry Achilleos, 48, from Mossley Hill, is the founder of the ‘My Haunted’ project, which he runs with colleagues Brett Jones and Danny Moss. The company has set up a ‘haunted’ hotel in The Old King’s Head in Chester and also runs a ‘haunted’ mansion in Pennsylvania.

After working in the food and drink business, Harry decided to change careers and set up the project, giving people the chance to look for something ghostly in historic buildings.

Having found success in Chester and the States, he wanted to bring his business to Liverpool and identified Woolton Hall as a site. His family handled events at the mansion, so he always had an interest in the building – and its supposed paranormal history.

Harry told the ECHO: “Our family had a fish and chip shop in Woolton and we used to deliver food to Woolton Hall at the time for the people who lived there at the time. The owner would get food when they had parties.

“I used to talk to people about the hauntings of Woolton Hall so I was keen to go back and have a look at the place.

“It closed around 2005. Urban explorers were breaking in all the time, breaking windows to get in to record content, kids coming in to set fires, they completely destroyed the place.

“It was in a difficult situation when I took over a few months ago. The agreement with the owners is that I secure the place, put up the cameras to stop any further vandals and any further damage.

“My team and I cleaned everything up, so there is no debris. It is not in perfect condition, the windows are all boards.

“I’ve done two or three investigations there and the place is crazy from stories of monks walking through the cellar – they’ve been seen, apparently a pregnant woman fell down the stairs and haunts the place, there’s a lot of sinister stories. .

“We’re trying to bring the place back to life without making any structural changes. I secured it six weeks ago. I am dealing with planning officers and hope to open this year – in time for Halloween.”

The “My Haunted” experience sees guests enter the building where they are assigned tasks by staff. Everything is recorded, allowing Harry and his team to determine if there is any paranormal activity.

He explained: “When these urban explorers enter Woolton Hall, they all claim it’s one of the most haunted places they’ve ever been. So, we were there twice, we heard disembodied footsteps walking right in front of us. , while we just started recording.

“I cleaned the place and I heard a knock on the doors when no one is there, I heard voices. That’s without the cameras fully covering the entire experience.

“I’m pretty sure we’re going to catch some really amazing stuff. We’re there to determine if it’s legitimately haunted and find an explanation either way. That’s what we do.

“People will arrive around 8:30 p.m. We have to consider the place completely safe for people to stay.

“There is no electricity in place at the moment, no water. If the council thinks it’s ok then people can stay the night and we can be a hotel. If not, it would be over by 2 or 3 in the morning. “

Harry added: “We have cameras around every corner to capture everything. We set up experiments for guests to do, we sit in the control room monitoring everything.

“They’ll have a walkie-talkie on them and they’ll get in touch with us to say, ‘okay, I just heard a voice,’ so we can replay that moment from any angle in the building and determine if they could. either outside the noise population, they are imagining things or actually paranormal.

“But we spend 90% of our time debunking situations and giving them a rational explanation. That 10% is when you get liquid gold when you might see poltergeist activity or hear a voice phenomenon.

“You’ll have the golden moments when you see an apparition or a disembodied figure pass by. We’ve caught this four times in the hotel (Chester) and once in the mansion (USA) so far, so that’s who we are. hoping it will come true.

“But we also want to bring back such an iconic building and restore it to its former glory. We want to use it and not let these vandals get in”.

The ECHO took a look at the history and future of Woolton Hall as is part of our Behind the Doors series, which takes a closer look inside some of the region’s much-loved buildings.

Iif you have a story you’d like to tell about a freak or historic building or pass one on your daily commute, we’d love to hear from you. prental email: [email protected].

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