The oak frame, typical of the period, rests on a base of red sandstone surrounded by a now dry moat.

The main beams of the house are stiffened with smaller timbers and filled with wattle and daub.

During the turmoil of the Reformation the Norrises were Roman Catholics[4] so the house incorporated a priest hole and a special observation hole built into a chimney in a bedroom to allow the occupant to see the approach to the house to warn the priest that people were coming.

There is also an eavesdrop (a small open hole under the eaves of the house) which allowed a servant to listen in on the conversations of people awaiting admission at the original front door.

She died in 1921, leaving the house and estate in trust for 21 years, during which time it was looked after by the staff under the supervision of Thomas Whatmore, who had been butler to Miss Watt.

The house was administered by Liverpool City Corporation from 1946 until 1974 when it passed to Merseyside County Council who carried out a seven-year programme of major structural repairs and restoration which was completed in 1983.

[10] An engraving of a painting of the great hall by Thomas Allom was published in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835, with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.