Buglawton 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 ...

, later a school, to the northeast of

Buglawton Buglawton is a suburb of Congleton, in the Cheshire East borough of Cheshire, lying to the north-east of the town centre. It was formerly a separate parish, but was absorbed into the borough of Congleton in 1936 and has been administered as part ...

, a suburb of

Congleton Congleton is a market town and civil parish in Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is on the River Dane, south of Manchester and north of Stoke on Trent. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 28,497 and the built-up area ha ...

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 ...

, England.

Architecture

The building dates from the 16th century, with later additions and alterations. In the 19th century its exterior was

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

ed and

castellated A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals t ...

. Later in the century a billiard room and a service wing were added. The house is constructed in brick on a stone

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

, with a

half-timbered Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

core. Pevsner describes it as a "modest C16 house

hich Ij () is a village in Golabar Rural District of the Central District in Ijrud County, Zanjan province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...

was absorbed into an early C18 one, which was brought up to date in the late C18 with castellations, a fine fanlight, and fashionable Roman cement". Manchester Corporation replaced a "good

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

timber roof" in the stable block with a steel roof. The hall, together with outbuildings to the east, is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History of the house

In 1811 Mr Pearson, a silk manufacturer, was living at Buglawton Hall. In 1883 the owner of the house was Fanny Pearson, a widow, who died that year. One of Fanny Pearson's daughters, Julia Pearson, married Charles William Doherty, who was the son of the Chief League of Justice of Ireland, John Doherty, who was a relation to the UK's shortest serving prime minister George Canning. Together they had children, including their daughter Madelaine Doherty, who was believed to be the last owner of Buglawton Hall.

School

In 1947 there was discussion about the local authority buying the building for use as a grammar school. In 1950 it was purchased by Manchester City Council. The school was opened in 1954 as a school for maladjusted children. The school was residential and had the capacity to take 41 children. In 2000

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

found the school, which was by then termed a

Special Special or specials may refer to: Policing * Specials, Ulster Special Constabulary, the Northern Ireland police force * Specials, Special Constable, an auxiliary, volunteer, or temporary; police worker or police officer * Special police forces ...

school for children with Emotional and behaviour disorder, to be Effective. In 2006 Ofsted found the school to be Good, though noted that the boarding accommodation was in a poor condition. In 2008 Ofsted judged the school to be Inadequate and requiring Special Measures. They listed, amongst other issues, that there was no headteacher in post and therefore management and oversight were poor; behaviour management was inconsistent; children did not make enough progress to make up for previous poor attainment; there were safety issues; and there was no recording of disciplinary sanctions taken against children or of occasions when children were restrained. As a result of this, in 2009 the executive principal was sacked. In 2011 Ofsted judged the school to be Satisfactory and it came out of Special Measures. In 2013 Ofsted again judged the school as Inadequate and requiring Special Measures. There were serious concerns about leadership, governance, behaviour management and children's safety, and teaching required improvement. In addition, "serious allegations of a child protection nature were being investigated by the appropriate authorities". In 2014 Ofsted judged the school as Good and no longer requiring Special Measures. In 2017 the local authority decided to close the school; it had 14 pupils at this point and some of the buildings were disused or not fit for purpose. In 2018 the school was closed.

Current use

In September 2023 it was reported that the residential block of Buglawton Hall School has been leased to Nestlings Care.

References

External links

Work has now completed on the £6.5 million rebuilding and refurbishment of the Grade II Listed Buglawton Hall in Cheshire - images

{{Coord, 53.17709, -2.17308, display=title, region:GB_scale:2000 Houses completed in the 16th century Houses completed in the 18th century Georgian architecture in Cheshire Country houses in Cheshire Grade II listed buildings in Cheshire Grade II listed educational buildings Educational institutions established in 1954 1954 establishments in England Defunct schools in the Borough of Cheshire East Educational institutions disestablished in 2018 Defunct special schools in England