A PRESTIGIOUS Wirral school is throwing open the door to its 155-year history this weekend.

Mostyn House School, in Parkgate, is open to visitors who, for the first time, will be able to explore part of the school building that was once a bustling hotel.

In fact, the independent day-school takes its name from the seaside Mostyn Arms hotel that was turned into the school back in 1855.

The story begins in the 1750s when Parkgate was a busy port specialising in passenger traffic with Ireland.

The original coaching inn, The George Inn had room for 24 horses and attracted tourists flocking to the popular bathing resort.

In 1812, the then landlord Daniel Briscoe died and his wife Esther began her reign as landlady.

She completely refurbished the inn, before renaming it the Mostyn Arms Hotel in 1819.

It offered elegant rooms and several parlous and took its name from Sir Thomas Mostyn, who owned vast swathes of Parkgate.

But, as the port came to an end in 1815, and the sea-bathing era drew to a close in the 1840s, hotel trade slowed.

When Mrs Briscoe died in 1855, the hotel was put up for auction but there we no takers until Tarvin schoolmaster Edward Price leased the building as a school.

His great-great-great niece, who now runs the family school, said the oldest part of the school building still revealed clues about its hospitality history.

Headmistress Suzi Grenfell said: “We’ve opened the school as part of the heritage days for a number of years, but we’ve never opened the part that was once the old hotel.

“Parts of the original hotel building are still visible inside and out. In the 1930s, the Parkgate front started to look a bit shabby so two new extensions were added on to the front which completely changed its character.”