Ashmount Farm /Greave Dunning

The 1784 Estate Plan of Greasby shows a un-named building standing on the site of Ashmount Farm.  The 1849 Tithe Map shows the farm and lists it as House, Buildings, Yard and Garden owned and occupied by Edward Bythell. 

The 1871 census notes that the Farm had a farmhouse and a cottage.  The farmhouse was occupied by Jane Wareing (Head of the house) and Margaret McGuiness (Servant).  The cottage held David Edge (Head of the house and farm bailiff), his wife Margaret and their four children.

The farmhouse was at the western end of the row of farm buildings.  The cottage was attached to the farmhouse's rear wall and now forms the area around the door leading to the pub garden.  The cottage is built of sandstone to about 2.2 metres height while the farmhouse wall is brick, suggesting that they were not built at the same time.  The 1849 tithe map does not show a rear extension, but one appears on the 1874 25" OS map and all subsequent maps.

A painting by E.Beattie, dated 1878, shows Ashmount Farm, the farmhouse having a thatch roof and the outbuildings having slate roofs.

A marriage certificate dated 1907 shows Henry Smith of Ashmount Cottage marrying Clotilda Frances Conroy.  Henry was a farm labourer.

In October or November 1924, William Robert Griffith and his wife Hilda leased the Farm from Sir Thomas Royden.  This was a typical time of year for such a change of hands - harvest was over and the tasks to prepare for the following year had not yet begun.  Their son, Thomas Robert Griffith ("Bob"), was born in December 1924 at Malvern House Nursing Home, Greasby.

In August 1932 an auction of Royden's properties, the Frankby Hall Estate, was held at the Woodside Hotel, Birkenhead.  It is believed that Sir Thomas had married and moved away to live on his wife's estate.  Hilda Griffith bought Ashmount Farm for £1,000 and the conveyance was completed in December 1932.  The auction document does not list the cottage so it might have become incorporated with the farmhouse which is described as having "four bedrooms, a bathroom, hall, two sitting rooms, kitchen, scullery".

The Farm kept cows and had a large milk round which included properties in Upton.  The round was sold to Pitcher in Upton and milk was sold wholesale to them.  The date of the selling of the round is not known and might have been before the 1932 auction and might have been to raise money or because of fear of a new owner taking occupation of the Farm.

In 1933 or 1934 Ashmount Farm re-started their milk retail business but did not deliver to Upton.  Stan Williams was employed as roundsman.

The building used as the dairy had moved during the existence of the Farm but by 1929 it had reached its final position as a separate building at the eastern end of the land.

Planning permission was received in 1948 to use the land and buildings as a builders' yard.  Permission was received in 1949 to alter the garage to form a fish & chips take-away.

One abiding memory of local people is of the geese which gathered at the gate squawking and spitting at passers-by.

A planning application to turn the premises into shops and residential development was refused in November 1963.

Around this time the premises at the eastern end of the row of buildings (now the restaurant kitchen) became Kennedy's chandlers shop.

At an auction held in the 12th Man in 1977, Staniford (Rock Ferry) Ltd. [Don and Doug Staniford] bought the Farm premises, without the Dairy, for £24,000.  The Dairy remained the property of the Griffith family. 

Hilda Griffith died in October 1977 aged 83.

There is a suggestion that timbers from the demolition of St. Barnabas Church in Rock Ferry were used in the renovation of the buildings.  

Names suggested for the pub included ‘The Lord Dunning’, ‘The Earl of Grave’, ‘The Greave’s Manor’ and ‘The Nigel de Burci’.  The owner preferred ‘The Greave Dunning’.

The premises opened as the Greave Dunning public house on 14th December 1981.  For more information about the name see this page.  It had five bars and the bar manager was Mike Harte.

The Dairy was still in business in 1985.  The date of its closure is not known.  The building is now in independent ownership.

In December 1989 Staniford Ltd. sold the Greave Dunning to Bass Charrington Ltd.

The pub was refurbished in 1990 but retained three separate rooms, each quite distinctive.  Each room had originally been a separate farm building i.e. farmhouse, shippon and granary or equipment store.  It was sold to Ember Inns and again refurbished circa 2001.  The dividing wall between the two main rooms was removed to create an open aspect.  At some date(s) one or more extensions have been built on the northern (car park) face to provide extra lounge space.