Building record 11478/1 - Eighteenth Century House, Hoole Hall, Chester

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

National Heritage List Entry for Hoole Hall: Large house: c.1760 for Rev.John Baldwin with extension and some alterations for the Hamilton family. Flemish bond plum brick with stone dressings, Welsh slate roof, hipped around a well. 7 ridge chimneys. Square in plan with added servants wing. 2-storey, symmetrical, 5-bay west front. Stone plinth, rusticated quoins, band at 1st floor, moulded cornice and blocking course. Central 3 bays on a rusticated plinth are under a triangular pediment, containing an heraldic cartouche. Sashes without glazing bars in stone architraves, and a central projecting Tuscan porch carrying a balustrade and containing a 6-panelled door with a triangular pediment. Similar windows in other bays. Canted 2-storey bay window on south front, and two 2-storey segmental bays with plain columns on the north front. Interior: not inspected but recent photographs show good plasterwork in the well over oak staircase, consisting of a modillion cornice over a semi-circular arcade with panelled coving above with scrolled fronds in the field. Further cornice above. Some other rooms retain simple Georgian decoration, and one with Romanesque detailing.

National Heritage List Entry for the conservatory at Hoole Hall: Conservatory and grotto: mid C19 for Hamilton family. Cast-iron and glass, hipped roof with raised centre and spikelets on the ridge. Front has 9-bay arcade of semi-circular headed arches, the central 3 projecting under a curved roof. Interior: not inspected but recent photographs show a screen wall to the right of the entrance containing 3 stone round-headed arches, glazed with iron tracery and having central pair of half-glazed doors. These lead into a stone grotto of lava. Also inside in one corner is a tall, quadrant-shaped iron birdcage.

National Heritage List Entry for the ha ha wall and railings of the western terrace at Hoole Hall: Ha-ha wall and railings: mid C19 for Hamilton family. Rock-faced and ashlar buff sandstone. It forms a retaining wall on north, west and south side of terrace. Battered rock-faced wall, terminates in squat square corner piers with capstones and remains of plaster urns. The wall has an ashlar coping with battered stone piers with triangular tops carrying 2 horizontal iron rails supported by 3 intermediate iron posts. Listed for group value only.

<2> Peter de Figueiredo (Independent Consultant), 2013, Hoole Hall (Doubletree by Hilton Hotel), Chester: Heritage Statement, R4149 (Client Report). SCH8444.

A heritage statement and building survey was undertaken in 2013 for Hoole Hall, Chester, CH2 3PD, prior to proposed development. The following is a brief summary of information contained within the report.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Hoole or Holes family served as lords of the manor of Hoole. They were probably resident on the estate, although by the late fourteenth century they are recorded as having a mansion near Chester Castle. By the 1450s the manor had passed to the Bunbury family of Stanney, however it was burned down by parliamentary troops during the Siege of Chester in 1645. In 1757, the greater part of the estate was sold by Sir William Bunbury to the Rev. John Baldwin who built the present hall circa 1760. It was enlarged in the nineteenth century and the estate sold and sub-divided in 1913. The hall was requisitioned in 1940 for Western Command then, following the War, it was used as offices for the GPO telephone service. It was converted into a hotel in the 1980s and now also incorporates a spa and business centre. The hall is Grade II listed, as is the attached conservatory dating from the mid nineteenth century. The ha ha, walls and railings of the west terrace are also Grade II listed. It is set within approximately five hectares of landscaped grounds and parkland dating from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The earliest representation of the Hoole estate is the Tithe Map dating to circa 1839. This shows the 1760 hall before any additions were made. Two freestanding outbuildings are arranged around a courtyard to the rear. The estate included an area of trees to the north-west with a large pond at the centre. The land to the east, west and south of the hall was in agricultural use. The OS first edition map of 1875 shows the hall had been extended on the east side and service wings added to the side and rear. The wooded landscape was unchanged, although the pond apparently filled. The land to the west of the hall had been planted with copses and single trees to form parkland. A walled kitched garden is visible to the east of the hall, with ranges of glasshouses and potting sheds. Also a farm building had been erected south of the earlier outbuildings.

The 1913 catalogue produced for the sale of the 130 acre estate gives detail on its condition at that time. The conservatory had been added to the south gable of the house, a coach house and stables had been built to the south-east of the service wing, replacing the earlier outbuilding, and the farm complex enlarged to incorporate a second courtyard with access to the fields. A tree-lined carriage drive had been created leading from Hare Lane, with a lodge built at the entrance to the estate. Also added was a western entrance with the ha ha. The sale particulars list the following rooms within the hall:- entrance hall, dining room, morning room, separate boudoir, study, billiard room, conservatory and fernery, six main bedrooms, six secondary bedrooms and a large meeting room. The service wing contained a servants' hall, housekeeper's room, kitchen, pantries, dairy, cellars, brewhouse and bakehouse. The farm buildings comprised a cowhouse, carthorse stable, piggeries, barn, cart shed, paint shop, fowl houses and cattle hovel.

The heritage siginificance of Hoole Hall is summarised as follows:- An eighteenth century estate established by Rev. John Baldwin, with a surviving manor house. Site of a balloon flight in 1785 made by the pioneer balloonist, Thomas Baldwin, son of John. Fine Palladian style house of circa 1760 built of brick with stone dressings, extended and altered in the mid/late nineteenth century in a sympathetic manner. Good interiors with plasterwork, joinery and principal staircase dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Elaborate nineteenth century cast iron and glass conservatory. Brick ha ha and railings defining western terrace overlooking former parkland. Walled garden with north, west and south walls of brick with buttresses. Landscape setting with woodland, specimen trees and driveways surviving.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 2013, Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, Hoole Hall. Chester. Archaeological Evaluation Trial Trenching Report, R3811 (Client Report). SCH7887.

Following on from the production of the heritage statement (source 2), a programme of archaeological evaluation trenching was undertaken in 2013 at Hoole Hall. Eleven trenches were excavated targeting an area of archaeological potential which included a scheduled Roman camp (MCH1706), located circa 200m immediately to the south of the hotel grounds. Post medieval features identified include a surface and walls, which potentially relate to outbuildings associated with the 18th and 19th century development of Hoole Hall.

<4> L - P Archaeology, 2017, DoubleTree Hotel, Hoole Hall: Archaeological Mitigation Report, R4026 (Client Report). SCH8254.

Between June 2016 and May 2017, further archaeological evaluation work was undertaken at Hoole Hall, comprising a watching brief, strip, map and record and excavation. Different levels of truncation were revealed across the site, predominantly associated with previous development works for the hotel including ground levelling, service installation and extensions. Walls relating to an outbuilding and a boundary wall were recorded within the limits of the watching brief and the excavation. Both features are depicted on the 1899 OS map, but not on that dating to 1871, indicating a late nineteenth century construction date which was confirmed by the artefactual evidence recovered.