Hotel's links with great seafaring days
The history of Nunsmere Hall

Built around 1900 for Sir Aubrey Brocklebank and his wife Grace, Nunsmere Hall's past is entwined with England's maritime history and some of the great ships of the 20th century.

Sir Aubrey was chairman of the famous Brocklebank Shipping Line whose origins may be traced back to Cumberland in the 1700s. From here, Sir Aubrey's ancestors sailed the seven seas and in 1770 they established a shipbuilding yard in New England. The American War of Independence brought that particular venture to an abrupt halt but still the Brocklebanks prospered and in 1820 they opened offices in the bustling port of Liverpool.

Soon the fleet began expanding to ply the world, from Calcutta and Bombay to Shangai and Lima.
Conversion to steam brought a new era and in 1911 Sir Aubrey became chairman of the Brocklebank Line which later played a vital role in maintaining the nation's food supplies during the First World War. Altogether, the conflict cost the Brocklebanks sixty per cent of its fleet.

By the time of the Great War, the company had already tentatively linked with Cunard, although it was a further 25 years before the merger was formally ratified to bring about the Cunard-Brocklebank Line.

Sir Aubrey became an influential director of Cunard in the 1920s and was charged with drawing specifications and designs for a magnificent new liner to restore Cunard's fortunes in the North Atlantic.

Here, at Nunsmere Hall, Sir Aubrey mused over the plans of 7,000 experiments and no less than sixteen different models which were built and floated in a tank simulator under his direction.
It was eventually decided to build a vast ship of approximately 1,000 ft. overall length, with a beam of 119 ft. and a gross tonnage of 81,000.

Sadly, Sir Aubrey was never to see his work come to fruition. He died in 1929 and five years later, on September 26, 1934, from the shipyards of Cammel Lairds, the Queen Mary was launched.

The specifications were just as Sir Aubrey and his team had planned!
Lady Brocklebank and her second son John remained at Nunsmere Hall until the Second World War when the building became a temporary hospital for the duration of hostilities. It then survived a chequered history and was eventually converted into a hotel in the mid-1980s.

John Brocklebank, who had grown up at Nunsmere, inherited the family title in 1953 upon the death of his elder brother and some years later reluctantly accepted the chairmanship of Cunard. In 1963, and through his prompting, a new Cunard "Queen" was on the drawing board. This was to become the QE2.

Today, Nunsmere Hall remains a part of that idyllic setting which so entranced Sir Aubrey Brocklebank and persuaded him to purchase the land from the Rt Hon. Lord Delamere, of Vale Royal. Restored and sympathetically extended, Nunsmere Hall epitomises the splendour and gracious living of those far-off times.


BACK TO ARCHIVES INDEX