Wrexham Road Farm was a farmhouse and farm buildings lying to the east of Wrexham Road, Eccleston, Cheshire, 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, a ...

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 ...

, and it is now located within Chester Business Park.

History

The farm was built between 1877 and 1884 as a

model farm A demonstration farm, or model farm, is a farm which is used primarily to research or demonstrate various agricultural techniques, with any economic gains being an added bonus. Demonstration farms are often owned and operated by educational instit ...

. It was designed by the Chester architect John Douglas for the 1st Duke of Westminster on his Eaton Hall estate. The farmhouse is dated 1880. Douglas had carried out work on the Duke's other farms but this was his first complete farmstead, with the house and the buildings being designed together as a whole. The farm buildings include a

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Alle ...

, shippons, stables, carthouses, piggeries and a

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

. The buildings are no longer used as a farm and have been converted into offices as part of the Chester Business Park.

Architecture

The farmhouse is built in brick with stone dressings and has two storeys plus attics. The entrance front faces south and has three bays. The central bay projects forwards and includes a doorway with a single-light window on each side. The other bays, on the ground floor, and all bays in the upper storey, have five-light

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. All three bays are surmounted by

Dutch gable A Dutch gable or Flemish gable is a gable whose sides have a shape made up of one or more curves and has a pediment at the top. The gable may be an entirely decorative projection above a flat section of roof line, or may be the termination of a ...

s with ball finials. The gables in the lateral bays each contain a small two-light window; the central bay has an oval window. The west face of the farmhouse also has two Dutch gables and stone mullioned windows. The other two faces are plain. A covered passage links the house to the farm buildings. Together with the farmhouse, the farm buildings form a quadrangle. The buildings are in one and two storeys, built in brick, and have steep roofs. The entrance arch has a half-timbered upper storey. In the northeast corner of the farmyard is a dovecote surmounted by a spire. In 1888 Douglas submitted his design for this building and for Saighton Lane Farm at the Royal Academy. The authors of the ''

Buildings of England The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were publish ...

'' express the opinion that this is "one of the most agreeable of all Douglas' model farms".

References

Citations Sources * * {{Refend Grade II listed buildings in Cheshire Eccleston, Wrexham Road Farm Houses completed in 1880

History

Architecture

See also

References