Walmoor Hill is a large house in an elevated position overlooking the
River Dee on the west side of Dee Banks,
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
,
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 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 authors of the ''
Buildings of England'' series describe it as a "house of considerable size and panache".
History
The house was built by the Chester architect
John Douglas for his own use. It was built in the 1890s and, although bearing the date 1896, its service wing was never completed. Because of its large size and prominent position it was popularly known as "Douglas' Castle" or "Douglas' Folly". Douglas lived in the house from about 1901 until his death in 1911. Following this, his son Sholto continued to live in there but had left it by 1918. It became a girls' school, Walmoor College. A 1935 publication shows it as Hampton House School, Walmoor Hill, a boarding and day school for boys under the headmastership of a D.P. Saunders-Griffiths, M.A. (Oxon.). It was later the headquarters of the Cheshire Fire Brigade. Its use by the fire service ended in 1997.
Architecture
The house is built in 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) ...
with a grey-green
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 is
Elizabethan
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
in style and has a T-shaped plan. The main wing is elaborate and overlooks the river to the west; the unfinished servants' wing is simpler and looks to the north. The entrance faces the east. The entrance porch has two storeys with an arched entrance and an
oriel window
An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...
above it.
[ The room above the porch was used by Douglas as an oratory or chapel. To the left is a squat three-storey tower and between the two is an octagonal ]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 ...
led stair-turret. To the right of the entrance porch the house continues for two bays leading to the servants' wing at right angles. These are in two storeys with mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
ed windows.[
The west front has a massive appearance with a three-storey bay to the north. This has mullioned and transomed ]canted
Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to:
Language
* Cant (language), a secret language
* Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers
* Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers
* Shelta or the Cant, a lan ...
windows, a crenellated 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 ...
and a pyramidal roof. To its right is an octagonal four-storey crenellated tower. To the south of this the house continues for three bays in two storeys and at the south is a three-storey bay, again with mullioned and transomed canted windows, but with a plain parapet.[ The ]monogram
A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series o ...
s "JD" and "STD" (for Sholto Theodore Douglas) appear on the building. On the staircase is a stained glass window commemorating Captain Richard Douglas who died in the Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...
.
See also
* Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire West and Chester
*List of houses and associated buildings by John Douglas
John Douglas (1830–1911) was an English architect based in Chester, Cheshire. His designs included new churches, alterations to and restoration of existing churches, church furnishings, new houses and alterations to existing houses, and a v ...
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
{{refend
Houses completed in 1896
Country houses in Cheshire
John Douglas buildings
Grade II* listed buildings in Chester
Grade II* listed houses
Buildings and structures in Chester