Building record 1713/1 - Bickley Hall Farmhouse

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 55552 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Bickley Hall Farmhouse and attached wing of farm buildings. The northern gable was rebuilt in the mid twentieth century and incorporates an oak tie beam on which is painted in nineteenth century Gothic lettering "In this house died Robert Cholmondeley, Earl of Leinster, October 2 1650". A little of the oak small-framing survives, but the hall was mostly rebuilt in brick with a gray slate roof in the early Nineteenth century. The hall comprises a long, narrow western wing of 2 storeys with steep-pitched roof, with an L-shaped eastern wing. The two wings form an L shape, with the western wing attaching to the southern end of the eastern wing. A Seventeenth century wing of farm buildings is attached to the western wing of farmhouse.

<2> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 300/3 c.1842 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

Recorded on the accompanying award as Bickley Wood Farm and others. Only one building is depicted. A small group of three buildings is located c.70-80m to the north (see CHER 1713/2)

<3> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol.II p.647 (Book). SCH1389.

“Bickley Hall was a handsome old structure, in a fine situation, and was taken down a few years ago, being ruinous with age. The rooms were low, but large; on one of the gables was the date 1641, and over the hall fire-place 1608. The upper end of this apartment was raised, as in college halls; and here, so late as the year 1789, was standing, probably the identical table of solid oak, at which the earl of Leinster and his friends dined in the middle of the preceding century. Before the demolition of the building, the room was shewn in which the body of this loyal earl was laid, during the twelve-month which elapsed between his decease in 1659, and his burial in 1660.”