Lever Castle by munki-boy
Lever Castle
Lever Park was officially opened to the public on the 10th October, 1911, but construction of Lever Castle at Coblowe on the eastern side of the Lower Rivington Reservoir overlooking Cross’ Creek wasn’t begun until 1912. Only a small number of stonemasons and labourers worked on the site, and the build, slow in progress, was abandoned in 1925 after Lord Leverhulme’s death. Lever Castle appears to have been conceived as a ruin of the imagination, a soft-focus Gothic set-piece on the edge of the estate that heavily romanticised it’s version of Liverpool Castle which had lain since 1599 in utter ruin and “grate defacement” by the banks of the River Mersey until it’s final demolition in 1726.
It’s apparent from walking around Lever Castle that Leverhulme’s vision is a scaled-down replica with its tight, virtually impregnable corridors on the north side, though architecturally it is reasonably accurate to the researched plans drawn up by the 19th century local historian Edward Cox.
The main staircase of Lever Castle was a usuable spiral staircase until its collapse in the early 1980’s
Lever Castle Great Tower Wall Passage
If the prison tower lower passage is a secret passage, the great tower passage is an even greater secret.
The passages of Lever Castle seem to be scaled down as the rest of the structure and are as a result quite narrow. It would be extremely difficult to handle a bow in such a confined space.
The Great Tower passage is now unreachable since the collapse of the stairs to the upper portion of the great tower. The passage is stable and very well preserved, with dressed stone walls and stone flagged floor and roof.
The passage can be seen to follow the curve of the tower with an arrow slit looking towards the Prison Tower.
Danger Unsafe Building Do Not Climb the Walls. Lever Castle is in a ruinous state and has been declared unsafe by the authorities. The masonry of the walls could be unstable. People have lost their lives attempting to climb onto the castle walls. Most of the castle can be seen in relative safety, on ground level. You have been warned!
Created: 27 November 2016 Edited: 29 November 2023
Lever Castle
Lever Castle LiDAR Map
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
Local History around Lever Castle
There are some historic monuments around including:
Round cairn on Winter HillGidlow Hall moated site, Aspull, 560m NNE of Pennington HallRound cairn 280m west of Old Harpers FarmBretters Farm moated site and two fishpondsPike Stones chambered long cairnThe Moat House moated site 600m WNW of St David's ChurchMabs Cross on Standishgate, 20m west of Mabs Cross School buildingHaigh Sough mine drainage portal, 310m west of Park HouseMoated site at Arley Hall, Haigh near WiganRound cairn on Noon HillHeadless Cross, GrimefordRound Loaf bowl barrow on Anglezarke Moor.
