Jodrell Hall is a

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 ...

near

Jodrell Bank Jodrell Bank Observatory ( ) in Cheshire, England hosts a number of radio telescopes as part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. The observatory was established in 1945 by Bernard Lovell, a radio astron ...

in the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

Twemlow Twemlow is a civil parish, containing the village of Twemlow Green in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2011 Official UK Census, the population of the entire civil parish was ...

, in the county of

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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Requisitioned during World War II, the building later became an educational establishment, now known as

Terra Nova School Terra Nova School is a prep school in Cheshire, England for children from two and a half to thirteen years of age. It began as a school for boys in 1897, and today educates boys and girls. Children aged two and a half to seven attend the pre-pr ...

. It 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

Built in 1779 as a country house in the Georgian style, in 1885 the

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

architect John Douglas added a south

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...

and a

porch A porch (; , ) is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance to a building. A porch is placed in front of the façade of a building it commands, and forms a low front. Alternatively, it may be a vestibule (architecture), vestibule (a s ...

to the

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

for the Egerton Leigh

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

(''also'' of West Hall, High Legh). Jodrell Hall became a preparatory school since 1955.

Architecture

The

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

is built in

red brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

with sandstone dressings and a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof A roof (: roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of tempera ...

. Its plan consists of a five-

bay 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 ...

central block, and north and south three-bay wings. The central block and the north wing have three storeys; the south block has two storeys and an attic. The middle three bays of the central block project slightly forwards and are surmounted by a

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

with an oculus in its tympanum. The south wing has shaped gables over the middle bay and on the gable end.

Owners and residents

The present Hall was built in 1779 by Egerton Leigh (1752-1833) and his wife Elizabeth Jodrell (1753-1807). The estate had been owned by the Jodrell family since the early 16th Century and Elizabeth had inherited the property on the death of her grandfather Francis Jodrell (1669-1757). She brought it to the Leigh family when she married Egerton Leigh in 1778. Before the Hall was built there existed another residence which was demolished by the recently married couple. This was described by a descendent of the Leigh family in 1910. He said that the old Jodrell house stood at the top end of the kitchen garden of the present Hall. He also said that some of it still remains namely portions of the stables and farm building and an old dovecote. The present Hall remained in the ownership of the Leigh family for the next two and a half centuries until 1924. This was over four generations and the owners for all four were called Egerton as was the custom in many English families at this time. The next owner after the originators of the house was this couple's son Egerton Leigh (1779-1865). He married in 1809 Wilhelmina Sarah Stratton (1785-1849) daughter of George Stratton of Tewpark. When he died in 1865 his eldest son Lieutenant-Colonel Egerton Leigh became the owner. Captain Egerton Leigh and his wife Lady Elizabeth

Captain Egerton Leigh and his wife Lady Elizabeth

Lieutenant-Colonel Egerton Leigh (1815-1876) was a Member of Parliament. In 1842 he married Lydia Rachel Wright (1813-1892). The 1871 Census records the couple at the Hall with a butler, a footman, a page boy and nine other house servants. When he died in 1876 his eldest son Captain Egerton Leigh became the owner of the property. Captain Egerton Leigh (1843-1928) was the last member of the Leigh family to own the Hall. In 1874 he married Lady Elizabeth Hedges White (1847-1880) eldest daughter of the Earl of Bantry and sister to

Olivia Charlotte Guinness, Baroness Ardilaun Olivia Charlotte Guinness, Baroness Ardilaun (27 August 1850 – 13 December 1925), best known as Lady Ardilaun was, after the British monarch, the richest woman of her time in Britain and Ireland. A daughter of the Earl of Bantry, she was con ...

, the richest woman in England. The couple had two children. Elizabeth died in 1880 and Egerton remarried in 1889. His new bride was Violet Cecil Mary Tippinge (1865-1941) and they had two more children. They sold the Hall in 1924 to Sir Edwin Stockton. Sir Edwin Stockton (1873-1939) was a wealthy industrialist. He married twice. His first wife died in 1922 and in 1923 he married Alice Marion Cox (1877-1943) who was also a widow. Shortly after their marriage they bought Jodrell Hall. Sir Edwin was very enthusiastic about cricket and on several occasions he invited the visiting Australian cricket team including

Don Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. His cricketing successes have been claimed by Shane ...

to stay at Jodrell Hall during their visit. He and his brother were important in running Sale in Cheshire Cricket Club as well as in other cricket clubs in Lancashire. In a short silent movie made in 1928 at a cricket match at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

he and his wife Lady Stockton can be seen from about the middle of the film. The movie can be seen at this reference.British Path
Online reference
/ref> Sir Edwin died in 1939. Terra Nova School moved to the Hall soon after this.

References

{{ReflistLady Marion Stockton married to Sir Edwin Stockton lived in Rodrell Hall in the 1930s. Anne Smith remembers visiting her Aunt Marion several times, and remembers the house very well, and describes the house as very Downton Abbey.

External links

Terra Nova School website
*''

Burke's Landed Gentry ''Burke's Landed Gentry'' (originally titled ''Burke's Commoners'') is a reference work listing families in Great Britain and Ireland who have owned rural estates of some size. The work has been in existence from the first half of the 19th cen ...

'' (''qv. LEIGH of West Hall, Jodrell Hall & Kermincham Hall'') Grade II listed buildings in Cheshire Grade II listed houses Houses completed in 1779 Houses completed in 1885 Houses in Cheshire Georgian architecture in Cheshire John Douglas buildings

History

Architecture

Owners and residents

See also

References

External links