Building record 2856 - Ashfield Hall Farm

<1> Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council, 2007, Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council Local List of Historic Buildings, LL7 (Index). SCH5437.

Ashfield Hall Farm, Stables, Cottage and Walled Garden
Architect: Joseph Hayes Lyon Esq for John Winder Lyon Winder Esq of Vaynor Park Montgomeryshire
Date: 1821

Description
The Hall: An Italianate structure with Ionic portice built of Ashlar stone. Only the ground floor storey with some fine carved door surrounds survive. Condition: Partly demolished. Current Use: In use as storage.

Stable Block: 2 storey coach house, stable and grooms quarters above. Slated pitched roof with hipped gables and red ridge tiles. 2 curved four centre arched openings for coaches (now infilled). Walls grey render in brick. Stair to grooms quarters at rear. Style reminiscent of Thomas Telford’s canal architecture at Northgate Locks, Chester. Condition: Poor.

Cottage: Formerly two cottages, now modernised into one dwelling. Hipped slate roof over 2 storey brick. Deep rendered cornice under eaves. Condition: Good, although altered. Current Use: In use as dwelling.

Walled Garden: Wall of original Georgian walled garden remains, approx 4 metres high, red Cheshire brick. Condition: Fair to good. Current use: Now given over to domestic garden with fowl run.

<2> Chester Archaeology, 1993, Ashfield Hall Farm, Archaeological Audit., R2041 (Client Report). SCH4150.

In 1993 an archaeological desk-based study of Ashfield Hall and its estate was undertaken. The following information comes from the resulting report.

The documentary references for a residence at Ashfield come mostly from 19th century county historians. The earliest reference to the estate is from 1317, when Rodger de Pull purchased Ashfield Manor from the Dutton family. In 1810 it belonged to his descendant, Sir Henry Poole. In 1845 the Ashfield estate is recorded as the property of John Winder Lyon Winder of Vaynor Park in Montgomeryshire, following the death of his brother Joseph Hayes Lyon. It was described as 'one of the finest modern mansions in this part of the country, with extensive grounds and well planted with flourishing trees'. There is an unauthenticated statement as to Ashfield being a Tudor and Georgian family seat, though owners at this time were based at Poole Hall, Hooton.

Although there is a reference indicating the estate had origins in at least the 14th century, this is difficult to substantiate, as there are no remains on site or other documentary references to suggest that there was a Hall at Ashfield before the late 18th century. Burdett's Map of Cheshire (1777) does not record a hall here, which was his normal practice where they existed. Also the standing remains of the hall appear to be no earlier than the late 18th century. Additionally, the evidence of field names, early maps and documentary sources indicates that Ashfield was an area of unenclosed heathland on the northern edge of Great Neston and that enclosure took place relatively late.

The Hall exists (1993) in ruinous condition, converted into farm buildings before World War II. The severely truncated remains of the 18th century core of the Hall were incorporated into a large, buttressed barn, its top storey removed, the arched windows blocked, and buttresses built from the original brick added. The bricks date to the late 18th/early 19th century. North-west of buttressed barn are smaller farm buildings, these are largely 20th century, although some architectural features have been retained from the Hall. Two late 18th century houses also survive although considerably modified. One is still occupied as the farm house. The remains of a potential Orangery survive as a single wall of the enclosed garden.

There are a large number of marl pits on the estate, mainly post medieval, but some to the south-west of the hall could be medieval.

<3> Various, Written Communication to the HER, Place GW, 22/08/1994 (Written Communication). SCH3756.

Correspondance discussing other documentary sources mentioning Ashfield. The first dates to 1569 and was created in the context of an examination of the boundaries of Leighton: 'The bounds begin at Raby yate and Dogleshurst, and so from dolestone to dolestone right upon the north side of Ashefield adjoining upon Leighton ground, then to Helgreve and so after the great double ditch of Neston park down to the sea.'

The second document is an estate map of Ashfield dated 1796 in the Hayes Lyon papers. These papers also contain other references to land at Ashfield which indicate that the Poole family did not still own the estate in 1810, and that it appears to have been for sale in 1796; Joseph Lyon bought three Ashfields in that year and appears to have bought the estate piecemeal. The papers also mention the existance of an Ashfield House in 1809, and that a house was being built (rebuilt?) at Ashfield in 1818.

The Directory of Cheshire records that Cecil Beausire was living at Ashfield Hall in 1934 but that it was unoccupied in 1939.