Bolesworth Castle 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 ...

south of the village of

Tattenhall Tattenhall is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Tattenhall and District, south-east of Chester, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. In the 2001 census, t ...

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 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 ...

History

Bolesworth Castle was built for George Walmesley, a

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

businessman, to a design by William Cole in 1829, on the site of an older house dating from 1750. In 1856 it was bought by Robert Barbour, a Scottish businessman who founded a

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

business in

. It has remained in the Barbour family since. In 1920–23 the castle was partly remodelled by

Clough Williams-Ellis Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...

Architecture

The house 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 ...

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) ...

and is

castellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

. It is mainly in two storeys with wide

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 ...

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 ...

in the centre and on the right, and a wide round bay on the left. At the centre, and recessed, is a three-story tower with

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

s. Around the house and in the grounds are a number of structures which are listed Grade II. These are the wall and steps of the upper and middle terraces, the wall of the lower terrace, a temple with a statue of Diana, the park gates, gate piers and wing walls on the north drive, gate piers on the drive from Chowley Lodge, an open shelter, a bridge over the fishpool, and a boat house.

Recent history and present day

The house and estate of were inherited in 1989 by Anthony Barbour, making him one of the largest landowners in

. He developed the estate as a centre for small businesses, restoring redundant buildings and modernising its 16 farms, thereby supporting some 800 jobs. Barbour also replanted the garden with over 350 varieties of trees. In 1998 he was awarded the Bledisloe gold medal by the

Royal Agricultural Society of England The Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) promotes the scientific development of English agriculture. It was established in 1838 with the motto "Practice with Science" and received its Royal Charter from Queen Victoria in 1840. RASE is bas ...

for the work he did on the estate. Barbour died in 2007. Since then the estate has been cared for by his wife, Diana, and by his daughter, Nina, who is the director of the estate. Nina also organises the annual Bolesworth International show jumping event in the grounds.

References

External links

Bolesworth EstateBolesworth International
{{Authority control Country houses in Cheshire Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire Houses completed in 1829 Buildings and structures completed in 1923 Castles in Cheshire Grade II* listed houses

History

Architecture

Recent history and present day

See also

References

External links