Turner Memorial Home
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Thanks to Marky for taking and sending this picture

August 2005 In 1863 the 'Dingle Head' mansion of the Rev. J. Yates on the Dingle Estate was purchased by Mr .Charles Turner M.P. After his death, his widow built  the Turner Memorial Home for Incurables, as a memorial to her husband and their only son, Charles William, who also predeceased her. This Gothic extravaganza is made of red sandstone - the natural rock of this area.  It was designed with a frontage looking over the Mersey and gentle slopes to for wheelchair access. The home and lodge are now Grade II listed buildings. 5e

 From Liverpool Records Office :-
Cotton dealer, Charles Turner (1803-1875) had came to Liverpool as a young man, and served Liverpool as a J.P., M.P. and chairman of numerous, notable companies and boards. His Liverpool home was Dingle Head, off Dingle Lane. Charles Turner died in 1875

In April 1882 Mrs Anne Turner gave £40,000, with an endowment, to establish the 'Home for Incurables' on the Dingle Head Estate, to be named in memory of her late husband and son. The Home opened in 1884. It had been designed by the architect Alfred Waterhouse R.A. (1803-1905) in a style variously described as Tudor and Renaissance Gothic. Robert Griffiths in 'The History of ...Toxteth', 1907, p. 67, described it as a "princely monument ... an ideal home of rest, nestling peacefully in the seclusion of shady bowers....remarkable for its chaste picturesqueness....the material used, red sandstone....". The Home had its own chapel, with high timber roof, aisles and perpendicular east window. In the entrance hall was a white marble statue by (Sir W) Hamo Thornycroft (1830-1925) "representing with life-like fidelity", Charles Turner and his son studying a plan of the building looking out towards the Mersey and beyond.

Charles Turner's widow, Anne, died at Eastbourne in August, 1902 (see Liverpool Courier, 11th August 1902).

The original aims of the Turner Home were to provide accommodation and residential care for chronically sick men and boys. In its early days there was some criticism of the Home because admission was confined to male "...incurables belonging to the Church of England and able to pay seven shillings per week". Because of these restrictions "...half-a-dozen lonely and miserable inmates have a magnificent building all to themselves" (see 'Mrs Charles Turner's "Folly"' in 'Liverpool Review', 22nd August 1885, pages 10 and 11). Such exclusive rules were relaxed and the home was opened to all chronically sick or disabled men "irrespective of race or religion".

Many changes have taken place in the organisation, running and administration of the Home and these are described in the following: 'The Turner Home, a Brochure', 1984, Liverpool Record Office Local Studies Collection reference H362.61 TUR and 'Turner Memorial Home, news cuttings to date.

Some architectural details of the Home are given in, Liverpool Heritage Bureau, 'Buildings of Liverpool', 1978, page 169, and N. Pevsner, 'The Buildings of England: South Lancashire', 1969, page 247.

LINK to Turner Home's own history page

Records and History courtesy of Liverpool Record Office, Liverpool Libraries. Visit Liverpool Libraries online catalogues at http://archive.liverpool.gov.uk