Rocksavage or Rock Savage was an

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...

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 ...

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, which served as the primary seat of the Savage family. The house lies in ruins, at in Clifton (now a district of

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and Runcorn Docks, cargo port in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England. Runcorn is on the south bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. It is upstream from the port of Live ...

). Built in the 1560s for Sir John Savage, Rocksavage was one of the great Elizabethan houses of the county, a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house; in 1674, it was the second largest house in Cheshire. James I visited in 1617. The house was abandoned after it passed into the Cholmondeley family early in the 18th century, and by 1782 only ruins remained. Rocksavage comprised a sandstone quadrangle around a central courtyard, with paired octagonal towers flanking the main entrance. Only fragments of its garden and orchard walls are still standing; they are listed as Grade II.

History

The Savage family were important

landowners from the late 1370s, when the family acquired lands at Clifton by the marriage of John Savage (d. 1386) to Margaret Danyers.Thornton, Tim. "Savage family (per. c.1369–1528)" in: ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford University Press; 2004, 2007)
(accessed 19 February 2009) Sir John Savage (d. 1597) built a new house at Clifton, which came to be known as Rock Savage, on a hillside overlooking the

River Weaver The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1721 and the work, which included ...

. Started in around 1565, the sandstone house was completed in 1568de Figueiredo, Peter & Treuherz, Julian (1988). ''Cheshire Country Houses'', p. 268 (Chichester: Phillimore) () Pevsner, Nikolaus & Hubbard, Edward (1971). ''The Buildings of England: Cheshire'', p. 180 (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books) ()Beck, Joan (1969). ''Tudor Cheshire'' (''A History of Cheshire'', Vol. 7; series editor: J.J. Bagley), pp. 29–30 (Chester: Cheshire Community Council) and was one of the great

prodigy houses of Cheshire.Starkey, Bert. Rocksavage Hall. Runcorn and District Historical Society
(accessed 19 February 2009) Hearth-tax assessments of 1674 show that it was the second largest house in the county, its fifty hearths being surpassed only by Cholmondeley House. An early 17th-century description praised the mansion's "magnificent fabric".Dore, R.N. (1966). ''The Civil Wars in Cheshire'' (''A History of Cheshire'', Vol. 8; series editor: J.J. Bagley), pp. 1–2 (Chester: Cheshire Community Council) The medieval family seat of Clifton Hall stood nearby, and was retained as farm and service buildings.Some notes on the history of Clifton (Rocksavage) near Runcorn, in Cheshire. Runcorn and District Historical Society
(accessed 19 February 2009)Hodson, J. Howard (1978). ''Cheshire, 1660–1780: Restoration to Industrial Revolution'' (''A History of Cheshire'', Vol. 9; series editor: J.J. Bagley), p. 77 (Chester: Cheshire Community Council) () John Savage's son, also named John (1554–1615) was the

Seneschal The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...

of Halton Castle, and also served at various times as a Member of Parliament for

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

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 ...

and

High Sheriff of Cheshire This is a list of Sheriffs (and after 1 April 1974, High Sheriffs) of Cheshire. The High Sheriff, Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the The Crown, Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law officer, law enforcement officer in th ...

. James I dined at Rocksavage with his retinue on 21 August 1617 on his way to Vale Royal Abbey and

. John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers (1603–1654), declared for the

royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

side during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

; Rocksavage was ransacked by parliamentarian forces, and the roof and part of the walls were destroyed. The first Duke of Monmouth stayed at Rocksavage on 13 September 1682 as a guest of Thomas Savage, 3rd Earl Rivers, while touring Cheshire to assess support for a faction opposed to Charles II. The estate passed by marriage to James Barry, Earl of Barrymore in the early 18th century.Hodson, p. 79 Further buildings were constructed higher up the hill by Lord Barrymore, possibly by the architect Henry Sephton. Now known as Clifton Hall, these might have been intended as a replacement for Rocksavage or as service buildings for the main mansion. A few years after these buildings were erected, Rocksavage was abandoned after the 4th earl's daughter and heiress, Lady Penelope Barry, married into the Cholmondeley family and the principal seat of the combined estate became Cholmondeley House; Robinson, John Martin (1991). ''A Guide to the Country Houses of the North-West'', p. 60 (London: Constable) () the empty house soon decayed and was already in ruins by 1782. The Marquesses of Cholmondeley use the

courtesy title A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title). In some context ...

''Earl of Rocksavage'', one of their subsidiary titles, for heirs apparent to the marquessate.

Description

The design of the

mansion was a quadrangle of four bays in the local red sandstone, built around a central courtyard, and was symmetrical but not classical. The main entrance was a gateway flanked by octagonal towers with domed tops and bridged by a

crenellated 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 ...

wall.de Figueiredo & Treuherz, p. 45 The towers are prominent in an engraving of the ruins, after Peter de Wint, which dates from around 1818 and appears in George Ormerod's ''The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester''.

Brereton Hall Brereton Hall is an Elizabethan era, Elizabethan prodigy house north of Brereton Green, next to St Oswald's Church, Brereton, St Oswald's Church in the Civil parishes in England, civil parish of Brereton, Cheshire, Brereton, Cheshire, England. It ...

, built some twenty years later by Sir John Savage's ward and son-in-law Sir William Brereton, was modelled on Rocksavage and copied its paired octagonal towers. Unlike Brereton Hall, the string courses of the Rocksavage towers extended around the adjoining walls. The last major remnant of the house fell in around 1980. Only the orchard gateposts and fragments of garden and orchard walls now remain near the Weaver Viaduct over the M56 in

; they are designated by

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 ...

as Grade II- listed. The 18th-century Clifton Hall was originally a U-shaped brick building with prominent stone

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s. One arm of the has been demolished and the remnants are now surrounded by farm buildings.

Legacy

The house gave its name to a riverside area downstream of Clifton, now within the

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * W ...

area of

. In this area are Rocksavage Power Station and Rocksavage Works, a chemical plant built by ICI and now owned by Ineos, which in its heyday employed 6,000.

References

External links

''Burke's Peerage & Baronetage''
{{coord, 53.3153, -2.7135, display=title Houses completed in 1568 Former country houses in England Grade II listed buildings in Cheshire Country houses in Cheshire Ruins in Cheshire Buildings and structures in Runcorn Savage family

History

Description

Legacy

See also

References

External links