Astle Hall is a former

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

located near

Chelford Chelford is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England; it includes the hamlet of Astle. It lies six miles (10 km) west of Macclesfield and six miles south-east of Knutsford. The village forms part of the Tatton parliamentary constit ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

in the

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

of England. The hall has been demolished; its parkland and a lodge survive.Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde, Edward Hubbard,

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

(2011), ''Cheshire''. ''The Buildings of England'', p. 209 (Yale University Press) ()de Figueiredo P., Treuherz J. ''Cheshire Country Houses'', pp. 213–14 (Phillimore; 1988) ()

History

The hall was built in the middle of the 18th century by John Parker, Esq, on the site of old Milne House. Earwaker describes ''"a large, roomy house, situated in a well-wooded park, the beauties of which are considerably enhanced by a large sheet of water which borders it on one side"''. It was described by

George Ormerod George Ormerod (20 October 1785 – 9 October 1873) was an English antiquary and historian. Among his writings was a major county history of Cheshire, in North West England. Biography George Ormerod was born in Manchester and educated first ...

in his 1819 history of the county: "''Astle Hall, which has been much enlarged and improved by the present proprietor, is a handsome and spacious edifice situated amongst extensive and well-timbered grounds. At a short distance from the house is a large artificial piece of water, which assumes from its extent and variety of outline the appearance of a natural lake.''" John Dixon esq of

Gledhow Hall Gledhow Hall is an English country house in Gledhow, Leeds, West Yorkshire, rebuilt for Jeremiah Dixon in 1764, by the Yorkshire architect John Carr. It is a Grade II* listed building. History Gledhow Hall is built on former monastic land ...

and

Weeting Weeting is a village in Norfolk, England. The population can be found in the civil parish of Weeting-with-Broomhill. The village's name means 'wet place'. Weeting St Mary Church Its church, St. Mary, stands close to the ruins of Weeting ...

married Lydia, daughter of John Parker, in 1784 and passed to his grandson, Colonel Sir George Dixon (1842–1924), created 1st Baronet in 1919. He was succeeded by the Dixon Baronets of Astle, still extant. The hall originally had a symmetrical Neo-classical design, which is recorded in artworks and photographs. By 1988, this had been reduced to a painted brick wing of three storeys with

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s, which the architectural writer
Peter de Figueiredo
an
Julian Treuherz
speculate might have represented the former hall's service wing, based on its lack of resemblance to pictures. It was left derelict and was demolished towards the end of the 20th century.

Lodge

The lodge to the hall still stands. It dates from the late 18th to early 19th century, and is in

cottage orné dates back to a movement of "rustic" stylised cottages of the late 18th and early 19th centuries during the Romantic movement, when some sought to discover a more natural way of living as opposed to the formality of the preceding Baroque and Neo ...

style. It is described as "picturesque" by

and coauthors and as "pretty" by de Figueiredo and Treuherz;

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

describes it as a "well preserved example of a Picturesque Lodge". It is constructed in brick with a stone-slate roof. It has two storeys, and an entrance front of three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

. The central bay projects forward, and contains a four-light window with interlacing

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

. The lateral bays contain two-light windows with Y-tracery. In front of the house is a

verandah A veranda (also spelled verandah in Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front an ...

supported by tree trunks, and containing a gabled

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

. The building is listed at grade II*.

Park

The hall's park still survives; it is flat and features a

woodland garden A woodland garden is a garden or section of a garden that includes large trees and is laid out so as to appear as more or less natural woodland, though it is often actually an artificial creation. Typically it includes plantings of flowering shrub ...

, and the remnants of

formal garden A formal garden is a garden with a clear structure, geometric shapes and in most cases a symmetrical layout. Its origin goes back to the gardens which are located in the desert areas of Western Asia and are protected by walls. The style of a form ...

s and a

kitchen garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

.Astle Hall Gardens
Parks & Gardens UK (accessed 24 May 2022) There is a lake with a grade-II-listed semicircular weir or dam dating from around 1874. The lake and the kitchen garden date from between 1769 and 1799. The landscaper was John Webb.Astle Hall
DiCamillo (accessed 24 May 2022)

References

External links

Undated photograph of the hall
{{coord, 53.2613, -2.2818, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Cheshire Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire Grade II listed buildings in Cheshire

History

Lodge

Park

See also

References

External links