Astle Hall is a 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 town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

house located near

Chelford Chelford is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England, near to the junction of the A537 and A535 roads six miles (10 km) west of Macclesfield and six miles south-east of Knutsford, and is part of the Tatton constituency. The civil pa ...

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 county t ...

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 sepa ...

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

Edward Hubbard Edward Horton Hubbard (2 July 1937 – 31 May 1989) was an English architectural historian who worked with Nikolaus Pevsner in compiling volumes of the ''Buildings of England''. He also wrote the definitive biography of John Douglas, and played ...

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'' (1 ...

(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 dated from the late 18th or early 19th century, and was probably constructed or rebuilt for Thomas Parker (died 1840). 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." By 1850 it was occupied by John Dixon, and passed to his son, Colonel Sir George Dixon (1842–1924), who was made a baronet in 1919. 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 writers Peter de Figueiredo and 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 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 ...

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 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

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, circular bay with a narr ...

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

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

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

verandah A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''veran ...

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 pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

. 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 forma ...

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