About The Project
The research project was instigated in 2014 following the purchase of “Outwood”, a Grade II listed building, by St. Anselm’s College Edmund Rice Trust in 2011, prompted by connections with the Dome of Home, New Brighton, where a similar project was being undertaken.
- Providing opportunities for young people to engage in and share heritage awareness.
- Bringing local youth and heritage and the community into a harmonious relationship, stimulating awareness of, and fresh attitudes to, heritage and history.
- Preparing documented records – printed and DVDs - of the origins and history of Outwood and the Claughton neighbourhood, along with subsequent events, discovered through historical and heritage research.
- Sharing these experiences with the local wider community through a programme of inter-active and inter-personal social and cultural events.
- Digitisation of documents and photographs and the creation of a dedicated website making information widely available to all.
All that was known from the sale brochure was that the Christian Brothers had bought Outwood, a Grade II listed building, from the Heap family in 1931. “Outwood House was built in approximately 1860 and is understood to have been the family home of the Heap family, famous grain merchants based in Merseyside.” (Edward Symmons, December 2011).
A grant of £2,500 had been obtained from the Community Development Foundation. An Application was made to Heritage Lottery Fund in order to expand the perimeters of the exercise. Under their Young Roots programme, a grant of £18,000 was approved, with Wirral History and Heritage Association as our Heritage Partners. The Edmund Rice Trust would provide the balance of the overall cost of £25,530.
Little was it realised that we were embarking on a story with a profound and broad tapestry; one which had an extensive background of affluent and influential families extending throughout the world.
Our first task was to research the Heap family. It was soon discovered the family name was quite famous with many records available. There are descendants in Australia who have provided access to a very large family pedigree going back to Robert de Hep 1170. Contact was made with relations in North Wales and the students and leaders have visited them. The family members were able to provide much detailed information about their ancestors. They very kindly loaned us a copy of the private family history, “Records of the Family of Heape”, one of only five, which had been researched by family members and printed in 1904.
Contrary to what we originally understood, it has been ascertained that Outwood was built for Halsall Segar and his wife, Catherine, who laid the foundation stone in 1862.
The Segars are also from a long-established heritage with much family history being readily available. We have made contact with a number of Segar descendants from whom we have obtained various family tree lineages. These track ancestry deriving from King William the Conqueror, and King John Plantagenet. The families have kindly supplied plentiful family records including The Story of My life by Catherine Segar.
Students and Staff have been delighted to welcome descendants of both the Segar and Heap families on their recent visits to Outwood.
And all of the above before we even touch the more recent history resulting from sale of Outwood in 1931 by Joseph Heap. The further narration tells of a whole new story-line: The Christian Brothers and the College; Saint Anselm and Blessed Edmund Rice; 15 Head Teachers, hundreds of staff and thousands of students; and a multitude of activities and outcomes.
Within the limited time and facilities available, Society members have unearthed a mountain of information, a plethora of data.
It would surely take a team of dedicated historians a number of years to present in a compendium the consolidated story of all the users and usages of Outwood House.