Site Event/Activity record ECH6424 - Great Moreton Hall - Research and Recording

Research and recording at Great Moreton Hall. Report records the Development of the Grounds based on historic maps and images from the early 19th century when the 17th century timber framed house was situated near the fishpond and through t he 19th century when the origininal house was first altered and then demolished and the present Great Moreton Hall, a 19th century stone built mansion in the castellated gothic Stlye. At this time the pleasure garden and extended landscape park were laid out. Sale of the house in the early 20th century saw the Moreton estate split into multiple lots for auction. Site was visited in 2018 and a description of the gardens recorded. Summary Great Moreton Hall, a new-build of the early Victorian era, is Cheshire’s only complete and extant work by the architect Edward Blore. Blore designed, and oversaw the construction of, not only the mansion, but the whole ensemble of service wing, stables, ice house and the walls of the pleasure- and kitchen gardens, all in a ‘castellated Gothic’ style. Although most of the large park is now in separate ownership and agricultural use, Blore’s buildings have survived, their exteriors intact. Principal remaining features: Most of the extant buildings have been recorded by Historic England - with one exception: the boundary walls of the pleasure grounds. These garden walls were almost certainly designed by Blore in the 1840s; they are in the same ‘medieval castle’-style and of the same Mow Cop stone as the mansion and stables. A detailed description of the garden in 1865 is given in a contemporary horticultural journal.Transcript made by the Cheshire Gardens Trust .