Radbroke Hall is a white French chateau-style former

country house 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 Townhouse (Great Britain), town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the cit ...

Peover Superior Peover Superior is a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is described by the Office for National Statistics as a village surrounded by inhabited countryside. The civil paris ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's coun ...

, England. It takes its name from the Red Brook stream that runs through the grounds.

History

Radbroke Hall was built between 1914 and 1917 for Manchester businessman Claude Hardy and his wife Olga. The architect was

Percy Worthington Sir Percy Scott Worthington (31 January 1864 – 15 July 1939) was an English architect. He was born in Crumpsall, Manchester, the eldest son of the architect Thomas Worthington. He was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, and Corpus Christi C ...

. Originally from

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

, Claude Hardy had a successful textile manufacturing business in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. Unfortunately, Claude's death in 1916 left his widow to oversee the completion of the building work alone. The hall is built of

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a buildi ...

which was brought by train to a local railway station from Weymouth. Main features of the hall include a white marble staircase, a music room, and an oval dining room. Around the hall were some twenty acres of grounds including attractive rose gardens and areas given over to a large variety of

Rhododendrons ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nativ ...

. The main hall driveway is flanked by large old beech trees. The house and parts of the gardens are 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, a ...

as designated Grade II

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ire ...

The Nuclear Power Group

With Radbroke Hall being left mainly unoccupied during the 1920s and 1930s, it was sold by the Hardy Family in 1956 to the Nuclear Power Group who built offices and a testing tower on the grounds.

Barclays Technology Centre

The site was purchased by

Barclays Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

from The Nuclear Power Group in 1972. Approximately 1,400 staff were relocated from London to the new site. Today the site is home to the Barclays Technology Centre and mainly focuses on supporting the bank's IT infrastructure.

References

External links

Virtual tour
{{Coord, 53.27105, -2.34961, display=title, type:landmark_region:GB Country houses in Cheshire Buildings and structures completed in 1917 Grade II listed buildings in Cheshire Grade II listed houses

History

The Nuclear Power Group

Barclays Technology Centre

See also

References

External links