Site Event/Activity record ECH6731 - Heritage Impact Assessment: The Restoration and Conversion of Existing Barns at Birtles Farm, Hocker Lane, Over Alderley

A heritage assessment and photographic record was produced in July 2019 for the 'Old House' (farmhouse) and barns at Birtles Farm, Hocker Lane, Over Alderley, as part of a proposal for the restoration and conversion of the barns to living accommodation. The 'Old House' at Birtles Farm is a Grade II Listed building, built in the seventeenth century as a farmhouse and altered in the nineteenth century. Following the construction of a new farmhouse in 1909, the Old House has been, and is still used as, an agricultural store. The brick built barns, to the east of the Old House, date from the later nineteenth/twentieth century. The farmhouse and associated barns were originally part of the Stanley estate; the Stanley family held the titles Lord Stanley of Alderley and subsequently Baron Stanley of Alderley. The seat of the Stanley family was Alderley Old Hall but, in 1779, this was destroyed by fire, causing the family to build the newer house at Alderley Park. The Old Hall was also rebuilt with many 19th and 20th century additions. In 1938, the whole estate was sold, comprising 77 farms and 168 houses, making it the largest estate sale in Cheshire. It is presumed that Birtles Farm was sold off at this time along with surrounding farms. The development proposals for the barns include the demolition of an existing wooden shed and lean-to structures, which are later additions, also the construction of a glass walled link to fill the void between the two barns where livestock were once housed. (1)