Poole Hall

Poole Hall is a Regency mansion at Poole, near Nantwich in Cheshire, England. It dates from 1812 to 1817 and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. Nikolaus Pevsner considered the interior to be "exceptionally fine".[1] The hall is a private residence and is not open to the public.

Poole Hall (about 1850)

History

The manor of White-Poole was held by the Elcock or Elcocke family from around 1600.[2] An earlier house on the site of the present hall was in existence in 1622.[3] The manor passed into the Massey family early in the 19th century, on the marriage of the heiress Elizabeth Elcocke to the Reverend William Massey, rector of Ditchingham in Norfolk.[4] The present hall was built in 1812–17 for their second son, also William Massey, possibly to the design of Lewis Wyatt.[4][5][6]

The Massey family retained ownership of the hall until around 1900.[5] Towards the end of the 19th century it was rented out; tenants included the cricketer A. N. Hornby,[7] as well as his father, William Henry Hornby, MP for Blackburn.[8] Sir William Holland, MP, was living in the hall in 1904.[5]

After several changes of ownership, the hall was purchased in 1988 by Tony Hill, a property developer, who undertook restoration work on the house and also enlarged the estate from 27 acres (110,000 m2) to 168 acres (0.68 km2).[5][6] An avid collector, Hill used the house and its outbuildings to display his extensive collection of antiques, collectibles and cars.[9][10] Antiques expert Paul Hayes described the collection as including "dozens of teas-maids, lamp stands, mannequins, toy robots, an old pinball machine and ... a stag's head".[9] The car collection included Keith Richards' Bentley, nicknamed "Blue Lena".[10] Hill sold the estate in 2007.

Description

Exterior

The house is located at the end of Cinder Lane at SJ6455755137. The two-storey building is in red brick with sandstone trimming under a slate roof. It has three bays to the front and six bays to the south side; a five-bay service wing on the north side is set back with a lower roof. The front face has a semicircular porch with four unfluted Ionic columns.[1][5][11] The entrance door is flanked by pilasters and has a fluted frieze. The south side features a prominent canted bay window. The corner finials to the parapet are carved in the form of pineapples.[11]

Interior

Nikolaus Pevsner described the hall's Regency interiors as "exceptionally fine".[1][12] The four-bay drawing room has a shallow tunnel-vaulted ceiling, panelled in rectangles and octagons and decorated with foliage scrolls, and a frieze with gilt palmettes. At the west side of the room, a screen of two unfluted columns and two Corinthian pilasters supports a decorative beam.[1][6][11] The marble Grecian chimneypiece incorporates two female figures.[1][10] Pevsner described the ceiling as "elegant",[1] and Marcus Binney compares the room with Robert Adam's library at Kenwood House, Hampstead Heath.[6]

The dining room has a shallow alcove at the north side, flanked by pilasters, with a shell-shaped ceiling and a scrollwork frieze. The plasterwork features vines and leaves, and the white marble chimneypiece is decorated with wreaths and torches.[1][11] The main staircase is cantilevered and follows all four walls of the stair hall; it has limestone steps, a balustrade with cast-iron scrollwork and a mahogany handrail.[1][10][11] The sitting room and study contain oak panelling.[10][11] A window contains stained glass panels dating from the mid-16th and 17th centuries, which possibly originated in the earlier house.[5][10][13] The hall's service areas are well preserved, and contain old cooking ranges, meat hooks and a foothole ladder to the attics.[6][10]

Outbuildings and park

The gardens and park were designed by landscape gardener John Webb of Lichfield in 1815–19.[14] The grounds contain a walled garden, yew hedge and an L-shaped ornamental pond, possibly the remains of a moat to the earlier building.[5][6][10][15] The Crewe and Nantwich Circular Walk passes through the estate.[16]

The outbuildings include a coach house, stables and former forge, as well as various cottages and barns.[6][10] To the north of the hall stands a two-storey, timber-framed barn, dating from the late 17th century, which is listed at grade II. The barn rests on a sandstone plinth and features small framing with a brick infill.[5][17]

See also

References
  1. Pevsner & Hubbard, p. 289
  2. Latham, p. 22
  3. Churchill P. The sky's the limit. Country Life (8 June 2006) (accessed 7 April 2010)
  4. Burke J. A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. III, p. 49 (1836) (accessed 7 April 2010)
  5. Latham, p. 120
  6. Binney M. Cheshire fat cat pad. Times (15 June 2007) (accessed 5 April 2010)
  7. Cheshire Federation of Women's Institutes, pp. 185–6
  8. Latham, pp. 105–6
  9. BBC: Inside Out – North West (18 September 2006) (accessed 7 April 2010)
  10. Lennox M. Original English country charm; Marsya Lennox finds a "magical" Georgian house, unspoilt by gimmicky restoration, and with a £2 million package price tag. Birmingham Post (30 October 1999) (accessed 7 April 2010)
  11. Historic England, "Poole Hall (1136492)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 11 September 2013
  12. Pevsner & Hubbard, p. 29
  13. Nantwich: Poole Hall, Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA) of Great Britain, retrieved 2 January 2011
  14. Noted in George Ormerod, History of Cheshire; noted in Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840 (3rd edn, 1995) s.v. "Webb, John"
  15. Parks & Gardens UK: Poole Hall, Poole, Nantwich, Cheshire, England (accessed 7 April 2010)
  16. Cheshire East Council & Cheshire West and Chester Council: Interactive Mapping: Walking the Trackways (accessed 7 April 2010)
  17. Historic England, "Timber framed barn north of Poole Hall (1138547)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 11 September 2013

Sources
  • Cheshire Federation of Women's Institutes. The Cheshire Village Book (Countryside Books & CFWI; 1990) (ISBN 1 85306 075 5)
  • Latham FA, ed. Acton (The Local History Group; 1995) (ISBN 0 9522284 1 6)
  • Pevsner N, Hubbard E. The Buildings of England: Cheshire (Penguin Books; 1971) (ISBN 0 14 071042 6)

53.0923°N 2.5308°W / 53.0923; -2.5308

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