Building record 14928/3 - Dorfold Hall, Clock Tower

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 1330149 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Clock tower with carriage house below, circa 1862. Red brick with slate roof. 2 storeys and tower, 1 bay. Pair of large six panel doors, on strap hinges, hung to stone blocks. The doors are surmounted by a lunette, with keystone, filled with six panels. At first floor level there is a 2-light, stone dressed, mullion window, with leaded glazing. Gable roof with stone kneelers supporting a blue tile gable coping. In the west elevation a small boarded door, in heavy frame, gives access to the tower. The tower has a weathered band at ridge level, double stone dressed louvred openings, to each face, and clock dials, in stone frames, with level sills off consoles and equilateral stone pediments with pyramid finials. There is a moulded terracotta corbel table to eaves, a steep roof of shaped slates and lead hips. The tower has a tall wooden finial with metal flag and weather-vane. Interior: First floor and stairs and ladders leading to the clock mechanism.

<2> Worlledge Associates, 2018, Dorfold Hall, Acton, Cheshire: Statement of Significance, R4293 (Client Report). SCH8675.

A Statement of Significance was produced in 2019 for Dorfold Hall and gardens in support of a proposal for its development as a wedding venue. The proposal is to re-develop the former service yard and stable area, including re-furbishing the existing coach house and a garden building in the walled gardens. The following information is taken from the report.

In 1849, Nesfield was commissioned to provide a report on Dorfold Hall. The report 'on the present state of the accompaniments to Dorfold Hall with propositions for improvement’, considered the first impressions of the house as far from satisfactory, with the present drive not terminating in front of the house, but the side. He considered that this, along with the dense summer foliage masking the body of the main house, would result in a visitor to the property being unsure of whether the road was a back approach. However, Nesfield's plans were not implemented until after 1861 due to family opposition to the scheme; they were eventually undertaken by Wilbraham Tollemache. The works undertaken included altering the pool in front of the house to provide for a straight access carriage drive, a gate lodge, elaborate entrance gates, a new entrance court with carriage sweep and a bronze statue of a mastiff and her pups, all enclosed with a low wall and gates, a coach house with clock tower, and a pleasure garden to the south with parterres. Trees were removed to open up views of the house, and to the south, to create a view to St. Mary's Church, Acton. It is suggested that the statute of the Mastiff and the entrance gates to the drive were bought from the Paris Exhibition of 1855. It has also been suggested that the ornamental gateway with lions was also installed as part of this work. Much of the Nesfield work survives, with the exception of the parterres to the south lawn, which were apparently removed during the Second World War. The parterre incorporated a swirling design of gravel, with box-edged compartments; the planting included Swedish juniper, roses, yuccas, dahlias and hollyhocks. A gothic font and columnar sundial also formed part of the design. A photograph of the probable Nesfield parterre garden was published in 1984 in 'Cheshire Life'.