Wrexham Road Farm, Eccleston
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Wrexham Road Farm was a farmhouse and farm buildings lying to the east of Wrexham Road, Eccleston,
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
, 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, ...
as a designated Grade II
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
, and it is now located within
Chester Business Park Chester Business Park is located to the south of the city of Chester, Cheshire, England, and is sited to the east of Wrexham Road (A483) and to the north of the Chester southerly bypass ( A55). The park opened in 1988 and occupies an area of . A ...
.


History

The farm was built between 1877 and 1884 as a
model farm A demonstration farm, experimental 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 ...
. It was designed by the
Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...
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.Allen G ...
, shippons, stables, carthouses, piggeries and a
dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot (Scots Language, Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house Domestic pigeon, pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or b ...
. 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 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, ci ...
. 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 sup ...
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 which 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 terminat ...
s with ball
finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...
s. 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 Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...
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 Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
. The authors of the ''
Buildings of England The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pub ...
'' express the opinion that this is "one of the most agreeable of all Douglas' model farms".


See also

* Listed buildings in Eccleston, Cheshire *
List of non-ecclesiastical and non-residential works by John Douglas John Douglas (English architect), 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 alterati ...


References

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