Daresbury Hall is a former Georgian

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 ...

in the village of

Daresbury Daresbury is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority of Borough of Halton, Halton and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. At the 2001 United Kingdom census, 2001 census it had a population of 216, in ...

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 ...

, England. It was built in 1759 for George Heron. The house 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, an ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building 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 Irel ...

. The mansion was badly damaged by fire in 2016.

History

Built in 1759 for George Heron, the hall descended in the Heron family until 1850, when it became the property of Samuel Beckett Chadwick. By 1892 it had been acquired by

Sir Gilbert Greenall ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

, later Baron Daresbury. During the Second World War it was used as a military hospital and for some years from 1955 by a charity, now known as

Scope Scope or scopes may refer to: People with the surname * Jamie Scope (born 1986), English footballer * John T. Scopes (1900–1970), central figure in the Scopes Trial regarding the teaching of evolution Arts, media, and entertainment * Cinem ...

, as a residential home for handicapped people. It became semi-derelict after being bought by a millionaire who died before restoration could take place. In April 2015, a large cannabis farm containing six hundred plants with an estimated street value of £750,000 was discovered in an annex at the estate. In 2016 there were plans to partly demolish and convert the house but in June of that year the empty building was badly damaged by fire.

Description

The house is constructed in a Georgian style in brown brick with stone dressings, and has 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 rock. ...

roof. It has three storeys and seven

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 ...

with a stone

plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') 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 c ...

and stone bands between the storeys. Framing the middle three bays are rusticated

pilasters In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall ...

, and similar

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

at the corners. All the windows are

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s. Along the top of the house is a plain

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

, with a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

above the central three bays.

References

External links

* {{coord, 53.33798, -2.62575, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Cheshire Houses completed in 1759 Georgian architecture in Cheshire Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire

History

Description

See also

References

Further reading

External links