Mawdesley Hall is a country manor in Hall Lane, Mawdesley,

Chorley Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth came pr ...

, Lancashire, England. It consists of a central hall with two cross-wings. The central hall was built in the 17th century, its lower storey being timber-framed and its upper floor plastered and painted to resemble timber-framing. The cross-wings were added in the late 18th or early 19th century. The west wing is in sandstone, and the east wing is in brick with stone dressings. The hall is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. Associated with the hall are two Grade II listed buildings. Leading up to the garden of the hall is a flight of stone steps that are dated 1653. To the northwest of the hall is a timber-framed former cattle house that was built in the late 16th or early 17th century.

Location

Mawdesley Hall stands at the north end of the village of Mawdesley in an elevated position about or above the road. It is built on an outcrop of sandstone about from the road.

History

The original part of the hall was built in the 17th century and was the home of the Mawdesley family. Inside the hall the dates 1625 and 1655 are inscribed. Towards the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th century wings were added to each end of the original hall. Later a lean-to building was added to the rear of the hall.

Architecture

The building is in two storeys, and has an H-shaped plan, consisting of a two-

bay 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 (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

central hall, with two two-bay cross-wings. The roof is covered in stone-coloured tiles, and is

hipped In vertebrate anatomy, hip (or "coxa"Latin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) in medical terminology) refers to either an anatomical region or a joint. The hip region ...

over the fronts of the wings. Each part of the house is built in different materials. The central hall measures about across. Its lower storey is timber-framed with plaster panels on a stone plinth. The upper floor is jettied and is plastered, and is painted to give the appearance of timber-framing. Towards the right end of the lower storey is a doorway and to the left of this is a long mullioned and transomed window. In the upper floor are three

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a cas ...

s that were inserted later. The left (west) wing projects forward by , it is in red sandstone with yellow stone dressings, and has

chamfer A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...

ed quoins. The windows have

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can ...

s with keystones, and sills on

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

s. The right (east) wing projects forward by , it is in brick with stone quoins, and contains square-headed windows.

Appreciation

Mawdesley Hall was designated as a Grade I listed building on 22 October 1952. Grade I is the highest of the three grades of listing, and is applied to buildings that are "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important".

Associated structures

Entrance steps

Leading up from the road to the garden of the hall is a flight of eight sandstone steps that are dated 1653. They are protected on the outside by a sloping parapet with roll- moulded coping. The steps incorporate an enclosed viewing platform on an open-topped turret with loopholes on its sides. They were designed as a Grade II listed building on 22 October 1952. Grade II is the lowest of the grades of listing, and is applied to buildings that are "nationally important and of special interest".

Former cattle house

To the northwest of the hall is a former cattle house, which was later used as a store. It dates from the 16th or early 17th century, and is timber-framed on a high sandstone plinth, with a roof of stone-coloured tiles. It has four bays, with an outshut at the rear of the third bay. The panels are plastered and painted white. On each side there are four doorways. The cattle house wa also designated as a Grade II listed building on 22 October 1952.