Utkinton Hall is a
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 southeast of the village of
Utkinton
200px, Map of civil parish of Utkinton within the former borough of Vale Royal
Utkinton is a village and former civil parish, now in the parishes of Utkinton and Cotebrook and Tarporley, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester an ...
,
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 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 I
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 ...
.
History
The hall originated as a large
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
for the Done family, who were the hereditary wardens of
Delamere Forest
Delamere Forest is a large wood in the village of Delamere in Cheshire, England. The woodland, which is managed by Forestry England, covers an area of making it the largest area of woodland in the county. It contains a mixture of deciduous and ...
, and is now a farmhouse. It has a
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
core but most of it dates from the early 17th century. It was partly refaced around 1700 and again in the early 18th century for Sir John Crewe. The hall is built in
ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
red
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
. Part of the hall has an orange brick façade with red sandstone dressings. It has a Welsh
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 and brick chimneys.
A barn, walls and gatepiers surrounding the hall are listed at Grade II.
James I visited the hall while hunting at Delamere Forest in 1617.
Armorial
A roll of arms (or armorial) is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms.
The oldest extant armorials date to the mid-13th centur ...
stained glass that was formerly in the hall is now held in the
Burrell Collection
The Burrell Collection is a museum in Glasgow, Scotland, managed by Glasgow Museums. It houses the art collection of Sir William Burrell and Constance, Lady Burrell. The museum reopened on 29 March 2022 with free entry, having been closed for r ...
,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
.
File:Barn at Utkinton Hall.jpg, Barn to east
File:Garden walls and gatepiers, Utkinton Hall.jpg, East garden walls and gatepiers
File:Walls and gatepiers, Utkinton Hall.jpg, Roadside wall and gatepiers
File:North terrace walls, Utkinton Hall.jpg, Terrace walls
See also
*
Listed buildings in Utkinton
Utkinton is a former civil parish, now in the parishes of Utkinton and Cotebrook and Tarporley, in Cheshire West and Chester, England. It is entirely rural, and contains the villages of Utkinton and Cotebrook. The A49 road runs through it in a ...
*
References
Further reading
*{{Citation , last = de Figueiredo , first = Peter , last2 = Treuherz , first2 = Julian , year = 1988 , title = Cheshire Country Houses , publication-place = Chichester , publisher = Phillimore , page
278, isbn = 0-85033-655-4 , url = https://archive.org/details/cheshirecountryh0000defi/page/278
Grade I listed buildings in Cheshire
Country houses in Cheshire
Grade I listed houses