Croxteth Hall

Croxteth Hall is one of those fine old mansions with which the British countryside is famously dotted. This one happens to be rather close to a metropolis, the great city of Liverpool, whose Council is the current proprietor. Like many municipally owned properties, it looks tired in places, starved of the cash it needs by a local authority’s other pressing demands, which make louder claims on the Rate payers’ contributions.

Although some parts are said to be Tudor, most of it is Georgian (above) with a Victorian rear (below). It was orginally the seat of the Earls of Sefton, a powerful South Lancashire family who were once custodians of Liverpool Castle. The last earl died in 1972, childless, and both his siblings having died in the First World War. A search was made for an heir, but, alas, one could not be found, and the last Countess took her leave of the hall -and this world- in 1980. The estate therefore went to the Liverpool Corporation and the denizens of that great city. In one respect, the want of an heir made every Liverpudlian an owner of the mansion; that which had once been off-limits to the peasants and working class was now administered by their elected representatives.

The apostle Paul not infrequently describes the Christian as an heir: one who is due to inherit a legacy. For example, in Romans 8:16-18 (New King James Version), we read:

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Croxteth Hall was a large estate for which no heir could be found; Christ’s riches and glory are a far grander, vaster estate which will be inherited by all who desire it, if they call on His name and receive His gracious adoption, by faith.