Holford 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 ...

west of the village of

Plumley Plumley is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England, with a population of 643 at the 2011 census. There are two public houses, The Golden Pheasant and The Smoker. Plumley railway station is on the Mid-Cheshire Line and has regular ser ...

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 consists of a fragment of a much larger

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

house, built in 1601 for

Mary Cholmondeley Mary Cholmondeley (usually pronounced /ˈtʃʌmli/, 8 June 1859 – 15 July 1925) was an English novelist. Her bestseller, '' Red Pottage'', satirised religious hypocrisy and the narrowness of country life. It was adapted as a silent film in 19 ...

on a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

ed site. Part of the building was demolished in the 1880s. The house is timber-framed with rendered

infill In urban planning, infill, or in-fill, is the rededication of land in an urban environment, usually open-space, to new construction. Infill also applies, within an urban polity, to construction on any undeveloped land that is not on the urban mar ...

. It has a stone-slate roof. The entrance front has two

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 ...

with

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s and Ionic

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s. The architectural historian

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

describes this front as being "highly decorated". The house 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 ...

. The stone bridge leading to the house across the moat is listed at Grade II, and the moated site on which the house stands is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. Holford Hall was purchased privately in 1988 and the hall and its estate has been renovated. In 2014 the working horse barn was transformed into a special events venue, and the Holford Mill was reconnected. Today the Holford Estate's formal gardens, event barn and mill operate as a wedding venue.

References

Country houses in Cheshire Houses completed in 1601 Timber framed buildings in Cheshire Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire Grade II* listed houses Scheduled monuments in Cheshire 1601 establishments in England {{UK-listed-building-stub

See also

References