What an interesting place; the open spaces, wonderful tended verges and borders and interestingly designed houses. We were impressed. The whole place reminded me of the set for the Prisoner series, which was filmed at Portmerion, which we have yet to visit. Various extra, unnecessary but lovely architectural features have been added to the end terrace houses, hardly any of which mirror another.
William Hesketh Lever, 1st Baron Leverhulme, had a factory producing soap in Warrington; he was unable to expand on that site and settled on some marshy land which became Port Sunlight, named after the brand name of his soap. Construction of the new factory was started in 1887 and first production began in 1888.
He took an active interest in the planning of the village to house his workers, which used the services of no fewer than 30 architects. Between 1899 and 1914, 800 houses had been completed for a total population of 3500. He also built a church, school, cottage hospital, a concert hall and an open air swimming pool.
The Lady Lever Art Gallery was opened in 1922 in memory of his wife, and houses some wonderful paintings together with parts of the extensive personal collection of Lord Lever. We spent over two hours inside and thought that it was well worth the visit.
Christ Church was built of Cheshire sandstone quarried at nearby Helsby, from 1902 to 1904 by Lord Lever in memory of his parents. It is one of the largest churches in the area and has seating for 1000 people: today it had been decorated for a wedding and we were unable to look inside.
The Museum we found a bit disappointing; not much of interest apart from the 20 minute film history of the beginnings of the company; however it did not spoil the overall visit which we found very enjoyable.
