Site Event/Activity record ECH7059 - Sheppenhall Hall Building Survey

Lesser Secular Monuments County: Cheshire Parish: Newhall No. 60 1) Name and situation of Monument: SHEPPENHALL HALL South-east of Aston village; east of main road. Map Ref: 614456 2) General appearance: a) No. of storeys. 2 b) Building materials. Timber frame c) Roofs. Tile 3) Historical development, description, sketch, plan, photograph and special features (if any): A date cut in a stone in the main chimney reads 1671. The house is built in the style of the earlier part of the century. The front was remodelled in the nineteenth century. The staircase was added in the early eighteenth century and the ends were slightly enlarged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Front elevation stuccoed. The front wall has been mostly rebuilt in brick; the centre part is eighteen inches thick for the full height; in the side wings the ground-floor walling is eighteen inches and the first floor nine inches. It is probable that the upper floor was jettied forward as the back of the side wings are, both to the wings and the centre part. The wall has been raised to make a central dormer appear as a second floor window. End elevations are of brick. The chimneys are structurally separate from the rest of the walling. At the southern end are two open recesses on the ground floor, and the upper part of the chimney has been rebuilt. At the northern end the easternmost part of the wall is of timber framing stuccoed. At the back the wings projected on the upper floor only, being jettied. The jetty of the northern wing is now masked by additions. The southern wing has exposed timber framing, close studded on the ground floor in two heights, and on the upper floor a little more widely spaced with the raking studs or braces in each panel. The Hall block shows studding where not masked. The chimney is of brick; the top part of it is rebuilt. In the old part is a stone inscribed: ĀC ¯C 1671 The stairs come under a half gable of brickwork laced with timber, a dummy verge running across the chimney completing the gable. The wing is largely masked. The top of the gable is rebuilt in brick. Interior. The layout of the ground-floor rooms is original but where the original staircase was is not clear. The original ground-floor partitions are repeated on the first and others have been inserted. Most of the rooms have cased ceiling beams, nineteenth century or modern fireplaces, and some re-used seventeenth century panelling, mostly as dadoes. The north wing shows original close studwork in the front wall on the inside. The partition across the wing is framed in big square panels. The back room of the wing has a boldly chamfered ceiling beam exposed, and an open fireplace across the corner, an eighteenth-century addition. From this room very small enclosed back stairs lead to the upper floor. The main staircase has close string with turned newels and balusters, of oak. The back room of the northern wing on the first floor has ovolo-moulded ceiling beam exposed. The room has been subdivided to make a bathroom. It is separated from the front room by an old framed partition as that below. The roof, pitch a little steeper than forty-five degrees, is carried on a principal rafters carrying one purlin each side over the Hall, two over the wings. Some of the trusses are nineteenth century king-post type. 4) Condition: fair. 5) No. of Ordnance Sheet (6-inch): 6) Visited by R.W. McDowell. Date: May 19, 1958. Drawings and photographs. Makes a reference to drawings at National Buildings Record [see Historic England Archive for measured drawings of elevations (MD59/00061) and ground floor and first floor plans (MD59/00062)].