Listed Building: BACKFORD HALL (1115554)

SJ 37SE BACKFORD C.P. CHURCH LANE (WEST SIDE) 3/7 Backford Hall GV II House, now Cheshire County Council Highways and Transportation offices. 1863 by John Cunningham for E.H.Clegg in exuberant Elizabethan Jacobean and Bohemian Rococco styles. On site of 1565 hall. Red brick with diaper work, stone plinth, quoins and dressings, graded slate roofs. In 2 blocks joined by corridor. Hall wing has 2 storeys, attics and cellars. 3 main bays of 7 windows, symmetrically arranged. Central porch with window set back at each side projects from central bay which itself is set forward. Sash windows in shouldered stone surrounds at ground level have Rococco type heads over shell motif and stone apron. Central bay 1st floor windows below shaped gables, alternating with smaller rounded gablets. Jacobean style stone porch has rounded outer arch on tapered pilasters with strap work decoration. Simpler inner arch leading to double doors at left and right. Balcony with pierced stone parapet over porch and adjacent bays which have similarly decorated pilasters at angles. Tall brick stacks at gable and at sides of central bay have multiple stone decorated flues. Moulded stone first floor bands. Crest over windows in side bays. Left hand block, probably service wing, is similar but plainer. 2 storeys, 6 sash windows. One window slightly projecting bay with shaped gable at each side. Multiple flues on stack at gable ends and on ridge. Ground floor obscured by one storey brick wall with stone quoins and coping. One door has surround of alternating quoins. Stone pier at left end has moulded cornice and ball finial. Two wings are joined by 2 storey 2 window corridor. Interior. Hall wing has heavy mouldings. Ground floor doorcases have broken pediments and panelled doors. Open string stair C17th style. Heavily moulded interior to glazed canopy over stair well. Pilasters and piers in hall have strap work decoration. Elaborately moulded and panelled ceilings, friezes and architrave adjoining ground floor rooms, and containing sliding panelled doors. Pevsner & Hubbard; Obit. J Cunningham in The Builder Oct.18th, (1873) p.821. Listing NGR: SJ3982471880