Building record 5813 - The Old Barn (nr Dene House) off Northwich Road

<1> Vale Royal Borough Council, 2006, Vale Royal Borough Council's List of Locally Important Buildings (Report). SCH5487.

<2> Vale Royal Borough Council, 1977-79, The Vale Royal Borough Council Historic Buildings Survey Index Card, GBU/HB 62 (Paper Archive). SCH5481.

CRITERION E: BUILDINGS INCLUDED IN THE VALE ROYAL BOROUGH COUNCIL HISTORIC BUILDINGS SURVEY 1977 - 79

Barn converted into house: Terracotta stringing along top of ground floor windows between this and the eaves are raised diamonds of brick. End door built in arch of barn gable decorated with raised stepped brick pattern, plaster in between.

<3> Peter de Figueiredo (Independent Consultant), 2013, The Coach House, Great Budworth, Cheshire: Heritage Statement, R4572 (Client Report). SCH9171.

Dene House was built in 1868-69 as a dower house by Roland Egerton-Warburton of Arley Hall. It occupies a rural setting half a mile north west of Great Budworth. Dene House and its grounds were sold by the Arley Estate many years ago, and have been subdivided. The Old Barn and the former coach house, situated to the north of Dene House and originally forming part of the dower house complex, have now been converted to residential use.

In the 19th century, the village of Great Budworth formed part of the Arley Estate, and from the late 1860s, Roland Egerton-Warburton, the head of the family, set about a campaign to restore and enhance the village and its setting in a picturesque manner. His works included the rebuilding of Arley Hall and many estate buildings, and also the construction of a dower house just north of Great Budworth known as Dene House. Dene House was built in 1868-69, and extended in 1879. The architect was Edmund Kirby, a notable Liverpool architect who trained with EWN Pugin and John Douglas. He developed an individual style of architecture, based on Gothic Revival principles, with a feel for vernacular forms and materials. The Coach House fronts Dene House across a wide forecourt, and was built around the same date as the extensions. The Tithe map of 1841 reproduced below shows the land in agricultural use, before the construction of Dene House. The OS map of 1875 show Dene House, without any outbuildings, and the 1910 map shows it with the ancillary buildings (coach house and barn and other outbuildings) and walled garden.