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Haughton Hall is a
Ralph Brocklebank (1840-1921) built the house in about 1891. It was erected on the site of the previous Haughton Hall which was owned by the Garnett-Botfield family. He bought the whole estate from the Rev William Bishton Garnett-Botfield in 1889.
Ralph was a partner in the family shipping company The Brocklebank Line formally called T&J Brocklebank. He later became a Director of the London and North Western Railway Company. He was born in Liverpool in 1840. His father also named Ralph Brocklebank (1803-1892) was a very wealthy shipping magnate and when he died in 1892 Ralph inherited a large sum of money which undoubtedly assisted with the building of Haughton Hall.
He did not marry and consequently was able to spend his inherited fortune on his personal interests. He had a very large collection of valuable paintings which were kept in the hall. In 1904 he published a book called “Pictures and engravings at Haughton Hall, Tarporley in the possession of Ralph Brocklebank”.
He also invested his money into the Haughton Hall Estate. He was often commended for his assistance to his tenant farmers. One agricultural magazine commented.
''"Mr Ralph Brocklebank, Tarporley one of Cheshire’s best landowners who in re-establishing old homesteads and equipping them with up-to-date dairies has done much towards assisting his tenantry."''
When Ralph died in 1921 the 1500 acre estate was advertised for sale. The farms were split into separate lots and many of the tenant farmers bought their own farms. The cover of the sale catalogue is shown at this reference. The Dunn family bought the Haughton Hall lot.
John Robertson Dunn (1876-1940) was the owner of a large shipping company in Liverpool. His father was Charles George Dunn who foundered the company. In 1900 he married Minerva Handred (1866-1943) who was an American heiress. Her father John Wills Handren was a partner in the Brooklyn shipping firm called Hendren & Robins. When he died in 1892 Minerva who was his only child became his sole heir. The couple had no children so when John died in 1940 he left his property to his wife and when she died in 1943 she left her estate to two friends. The house was sold and by 1950 bought by the Dean family.
Geoffrey Carter Dean (1900-1987) was a wealthy landowner. His father Edward Dean owned Tiresford House in Tarporley and when he died in 1942 Geoffrey inherited this house. He was educated at Cambridge University and in his youth he was an officer in the Navy. In 1939 he married Gwendoline Joyce Pidduck (1936-1980) (called Joyce) the daughter of Thomas Stanley Pidduck of Corbrook Court Audlem. The couple lived at Tiresford House for many years after their marriage and then in 1950 bought Haughton Hall. They made extensive alterations to the Hall. The entrance bay has a plaque with their initials GCD and GJD and an heraldic symbol in the gable apex.
The couple had no children but both were very involved with the community. They frequently assisted local charities by holding open garden days at Haughton Hall. One newspaper noted:
''"He created one of the best rhododendron gardens in Cheshire. In the 1960 he established a water fowl centre which is well known, achieving great success with a flock of pink flamingos and breeding Stanley cranes"''.Cheshire Observer - Wednesday 11 March 1987, p. 9.
His wife Joyce was very active in the Women's Institute movement and in 1950 founded the Haughton Branch and became its long serving president. She was made a Justice of the Peace in 1961 and sat on the County Bench. She died in 1980 and Geoffrey died in 1987. As they had no children the house was left to a nephew.
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 ...
to the east of the village of Haughton, 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 rebuilt between 1891 and 1894 for the shipowner and art collector Ralph Brocklebank. The architect was J. F. Doyle, the design being influenced by the Old English picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...
style of Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
. The house was altered in about 1950, reducing it from three storeys to two, and replacing tile-hanging with roughcast
Roughcast or pebbledash is a coarse plaster surface used on outside walls that consists of lime and sometimes cement mixed with sand, small gravel and often pebbles or shells. The materials are mixed into a slurry and are then thrown at the wor ...
. It is constructed in red brick, some of which has been roughcast, and has red tiled roofs. The house has an L-shaped plan. The garden front is in two storeys and has five 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 ...
; there is a single-storey five-bay wing to the east, and a three-storey three-bay service wing to the north. In the garden front are three bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room.
Types
Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or r ...
s, a Venetian window
A Venetian window (also known as a Serlian window) is a large tripartite window which is a key element in Palladian architecture. Although Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) did not invent it, the window features largely in the work of the Italian a ...
and a door. Above the door is a sundial
A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...
. 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 ...
.
Residents
Ralph Brocklebank (1840-1921) built the house in about 1891. It was erected on the site of the previous Haughton Hall which was owned by the Garnett-Botfield family. He bought the whole estate from the Rev William Bishton Garnett-Botfield in 1889.
Ralph was a partner in the family shipping company The Brocklebank Line formally called T&J Brocklebank. He later became a Director of the London and North Western Railway Company. He was born in Liverpool in 1840. His father also named Ralph Brocklebank (1803-1892) was a very wealthy shipping magnate and when he died in 1892 Ralph inherited a large sum of money which undoubtedly assisted with the building of Haughton Hall.
He did not marry and consequently was able to spend his inherited fortune on his personal interests. He had a very large collection of valuable paintings which were kept in the hall. In 1904 he published a book called “Pictures and engravings at Haughton Hall, Tarporley in the possession of Ralph Brocklebank”.
He also invested his money into the Haughton Hall Estate. He was often commended for his assistance to his tenant farmers. One agricultural magazine commented.
''"Mr Ralph Brocklebank, Tarporley one of Cheshire’s best landowners who in re-establishing old homesteads and equipping them with up-to-date dairies has done much towards assisting his tenantry."''
When Ralph died in 1921 the 1500 acre estate was advertised for sale. The farms were split into separate lots and many of the tenant farmers bought their own farms. The cover of the sale catalogue is shown at this reference. The Dunn family bought the Haughton Hall lot.
John Robertson Dunn (1876-1940) was the owner of a large shipping company in Liverpool. His father was Charles George Dunn who foundered the company. In 1900 he married Minerva Handred (1866-1943) who was an American heiress. Her father John Wills Handren was a partner in the Brooklyn shipping firm called Hendren & Robins. When he died in 1892 Minerva who was his only child became his sole heir. The couple had no children so when John died in 1940 he left his property to his wife and when she died in 1943 she left her estate to two friends. The house was sold and by 1950 bought by the Dean family.
The Dean family
Geoffrey Carter Dean (1900-1987) was a wealthy landowner. His father Edward Dean owned Tiresford House in Tarporley and when he died in 1942 Geoffrey inherited this house. He was educated at Cambridge University and in his youth he was an officer in the Navy. In 1939 he married Gwendoline Joyce Pidduck (1936-1980) (called Joyce) the daughter of Thomas Stanley Pidduck of Corbrook Court Audlem. The couple lived at Tiresford House for many years after their marriage and then in 1950 bought Haughton Hall. They made extensive alterations to the Hall. The entrance bay has a plaque with their initials GCD and GJD and an heraldic symbol in the gable apex.
The couple had no children but both were very involved with the community. They frequently assisted local charities by holding open garden days at Haughton Hall. One newspaper noted:
''"He created one of the best rhododendron gardens in Cheshire. In the 1960 he established a water fowl centre which is well known, achieving great success with a flock of pink flamingos and breeding Stanley cranes"''.Cheshire Observer - Wednesday 11 March 1987, p. 9.
His wife Joyce was very active in the Women's Institute movement and in 1950 founded the Haughton Branch and became its long serving president. She was made a Justice of the Peace in 1961 and sat on the County Bench. She died in 1980 and Geoffrey died in 1987. As they had no children the house was left to a nephew.
See also
*Listed buildings in Haughton, Cheshire
Haughton, Cheshire, Haughton is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cheshire East, England. It contains ten buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings, all of which are at Grade&n ...
References
{{coord, 53.10334, -2.61719, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Cheshire Houses completed in 1894 Grade II listed buildings in Cheshire Grade II listed houses