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Titanic Survivor’s Port Sunlight Home Restored

Posted by Recclesia on 28th March 2011.

Port Sunlight on the Wirral Peninsula is the charming planned village created by the Lever Brothers in 1888 for the workers in their giant soap factory. The village was named after their best selling soap brand, Sunlight and Lever personally helped to plan the village with the help of thirty different architects. Between 1899 and 1914, 800 houses with a population of 3,500 were built, together with allotments and public buildings including the Lady Lever Art Gallery, a cottage hospital, schools, a concert hall, open air swimming pool, church, and a temperance hotel.

One of the village residents in 1912 was one Elisabeth Leather. The Encyclopedia Titanica states that Mrs Elizabeth Leather, 41, was born in Liverpool. When she signed on to the Titanic on 6 April 1912 she gave her address as 28 Park Road, Port Sunlight, Liverpool. Her last ship had been the Olympic and as a stewardess she received monthly wages of £3 10s. At the time of the collision she was asleep in her berth and was not awakened by the impact, instead she awoke some three quarters of an hour later. She found as she made her way to see to her passengers that they had already abandoned their quarters, so she proceeded on up to B deck. She was rescued in lifeboat sixteen.

The house in which she lived still stands today, but following a survey revealing significant problems with the oak timber-framing, lime rendered infill panels, brickwork repointing and leaded light windows, Recclesia was awarded the contract to carry out the restoration work and the specialist redecoration of this historically fascinating example of planned village architecture. The work was carried out using traditional materials and all of the time-honoured techniques used would have been recognisable to the craftsmen who had originally built the house in the early 1900s.

Completed Repairs

Today, the village is a major tourist attraction looked after by the Port Sunlight Village Trust, for whom Recclesia has carried out a number of contracts over the last few years. The extraordinary story behind the building is one of the reasons why so many people visit the village.

Recclesia Ltd specialises in the conservation and restoration of churches, listed buildings and ancient monuments. Acting as principal contractor, our team has over forty years of experience in specialist works to some of the UK's most outstanding buildings.

To find out more about Recclesia click here