Shaw Hill is an 18th-century country house in

Whittle-le-Woods Whittle-le-Woods (commonly shortened to Whittle) is a village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 5,434. Whittle-le-Woods lies on the A6, about three m ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, England, standing in 192 acres of parkland some 3 miles north of Chorley. The estate is now the Shaw Hill Hotel, Golf Club and Country Club. The house is a three-storey building of ashlar with hipped slate roofs concealed by a parapet, and it incorporates elements of a smaller, earlier house. Three structures from the estate are separately 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 designated Grade II

listed buildings 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 lodge, the gate piers, and the house itself.

History

The Crosse family of East Lancashire first acquired property in the Chorley area around 1400 and built a house on the Whittle-le-Woods site in the 1700s. Richard Crosse Legh was the

High Sheriff of Lancashire The High Sheriff of Lancashire is an ancient officer, now largely ceremonial, granted to Lancashire, a county in North West England. High Shrievalties are the oldest secular titles under the Crown, in England and Wales. The High Sheriff of Lanc ...

for 1807 and a deputy-lieutenant of Lancashire. He bequeathed Shaw Hill to his daughter Anna Mary Crosse, who in 1828 married Thomas Bright Ikin, who then adopted the Crosse name as his surname. He commissioned Charles Reed of

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

to rebuild the existing house during the 1830s and asked

William Sawrey Gilpin William Sawrey Gilpin (4 October 1762 – 4 April 1843) was an English artist and drawing master, and in later life a landscape designer. Biography Gilpin was born at Scaleby Castle, Cumbria on 4 October 1762, the son of the animal painter Sa ...

to landscape the estate. Thomas Bright Crosse was appointed

for 1837 and was briefly MP for

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington t ...

in 1841 (before his election was declared void). After his death ownership of the property passed to his son Thomas Richard Crosse, Hon. Colonel of the 3rd and 4th Battalions, North Lancashire Regiment, who died in 1897. He had married Mary, the eldest daughter of the 4th Earl of Castle Stewart and had two daughters; Kathleen Mary and Ella Beatrice. Kathleen Mary never married and Ella Beatrice married John Ormerod Scarlet Thursby. The estate is now operated as a country house hotel and golf club. The house is owned and run by the Stokes family and offers 30 bedrooms, a restaurant and an indoor swimming pool. The golf club was founded in 1923 and now maintains an 18-hole course.

References

{{Borough of Chorley buildings Country houses in Lancashire Grade II listed buildings in Lancashire Buildings and structures in the Borough of Chorley

History

See also

References