Landscape record 798/4 - Whatcroft Hall Park

<1> Higham N J, 1984-9, Professor Nick Higham's Aerial Photographs, NJH 3487/8-11 & 3488/9A (Aerial Photograph). SCH7659.

<2> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT424/2, 1838 & EDT 354/2 c.1840 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

Depict (and record) gardens and pleasure grounds to the north of the Hall, and gardens to the south.

<3> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol.III p.260-1 (Book). SCH1389.

Notes that the grounds have been recently enlarged and improved (1817).

<4> Greenwood, C. & Greenwood J., 1819, Map of the County Palatine of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH2115.

Depicts the park at Whatcroft Hall.

<5> Bryant, A., 1831, Map of the County Palatine of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH2114.

Depicts the park at Whatcroft Hall.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ6869, 1875-1876 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

<7> Cheshire Gardens Trust, 2011 onwards, Research and Recording Report, Whatcroft Hall (2017) p.2-7 (Report). SCH6655.

Whatcroft Hall is situated east of the River Dane on a steep bluff overlooking the valley. The grounds around the Hall are bounded by the Trent and Mersey Canal, which was forced to go round the grounds of the Hall. The Hall was enlarged and the grounds improved for the then occupant James and Sarah Topping in 1807. By 1824 Sarah Topping owned and occupied Whatcroft Hall, buildings, gardens and pleasure grounds. The gardens were described in the 1950s as chiefly lawns and hedges, with a walled garden whose walls are covered in fruit trees. The principal historic approach to the Hall appears to have been from Shipbrook via Manor Lane and Lodge Bridge over the Trent and Mersey Canal and through the parkland to the arrival space by the north entrance.

<8> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards R, 07/09/2017 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

The tithe map (2) and Ordnance Survey 1st edition map (6) depict a walled garden to the north-east of the hall. The walled garden has a distinctive, almost trapezoidal, shape. The later map (6) depicts a number of glasshouses and buildings located along the walls of the garden. The Cheshire Gardens Trust report (see 7) suggests that some of these walls may have been heated. To the south-east of the hall is an ornamental pond and island, a former moat, with a grotto and rockery. For further discussion of this feature see CHER 798/2.