Building record 14214/1 - The Pole, Antrobus

<1> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England (Web Site). SCH6528.

House, circa 1840, stucco with grey slate roof. 2 storeys plus attic. 3 bays; symmetrical. Plain plinth; rusticated quoins; eaves cornice and parapet. Canted 1-storey porch - with pair of 6-panel doors surmounted by looped radial-bar fanlight in rusticated round archway, 8-pane sash in each oblique face and panelled parapet - projects beyond 2-storey blank-sided square bay window to each side with paired 12-pane sashes to each main storey. 12-pane sash with moulded cornice above porch. Window openings have painted architraves. 3 symmetrically-placed chimneys. 1-storey wing left has square bay window and 1 outer window, detailed as main block. Pedimented left gable-end to main block contains Diocletian window to attic. Interior not inspected, but inner glazed door, sidelights with glazing-bars forming patterns of intersecting arcs, ornate radial-bar fanlight, panelled round archway and dogleg stair with winders, stick balusters, mahogany rail and curtail are visible.

<2> Peter de Figueiredo (Independent Consultant), 2013, The Pole, Antrobus, Cheshire: Heritage Statement, R4144 (Client Report). SCH8432.

Heritage assessment produced in 2013 for The Pole in advance of proposed development on site including rebuilding of a previously demolished service wing and replacement of the existing garage. The Pole was erected by the Eaton family who owned the estate from the early seventeenth century. It is a two-storey house with attics and a basement, and can be dated by documentary evidence and stylistic analysis to circa 1790. The main block originally had a flat south front, but in the late nineteenth century two projecting wings and canted entrance porch were added. The exterior was entirely rendered and the chimney stacks also date to this period. The single storey wing (originally a billiard room) attached to the west side of the main block is also contemporary with the late nineteenth century additions. During the post World War II period the service wing was demolished and partly replaced by a garage, the rear façade of the house re-faced and the stables and coach house sold off and converted into a separate residence.

<3> Mel Morris Conservation, 2021, The Pole, Pole Lane, Antrobus, CW9 6NN: Historic Building Record, R4548 (Client Report). SCH9129.

In 2021, a Building Record was produced for The Pole which presents an analysis of its historic development using evidence such as map regression, photography and analysis of building fabric and plan form.

The current house replaced an earlier house erected by the Eaton family who had owned the estate from at least the early seventeenth century, attested by the record of William Eaton of Pole, a yeoman, who witnessed a deed to enfranchise copyholds of the Lordship of Over Whitley in 1615. The 'Old Pole' is depicted to the north of 'The Pole' on the 1841 Tithe Map (1846). Greenwood’s map of 1819 is the earliest to show 'The Pole' in its present location.The origin of the name 'Pole' is unclear. The standard definition is that of a pole (perhaps a maypole).

According to Ormerod, John Eaton, son of Theophilus, sold the estate to George Eaton some time before 1678. The family’s fortunes were substantially enhanced following the death in 1672/73 of Robert Webster of Over Whitley. Webster was described as a gentleman with landed property, an inventory valued at £1,400 and cash on loan to various debtors. The main beneficiary was Robert Eaton, owner of the Pole, who married Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Blinston of Frodsham in 1701. Several children followed, including a son George, born in 1709.

Robert died soon after George’s birth, and the boy was brought up at the Pole by his mother and older sisters. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1727 and was described as gentleman of the Pole in 1731 when he settled his estate. He never married and lived a bachelor existence, sharing the house with his mother until her death in 1745/46. His personal account book covering the period March 1743 to July 1753 provides a fascinating record of the way of life of a member of the Cheshire minor gentry. When George Eaton came of age, he became owner of an estate worth about £400 per annum. His estate comprised the Pole, together with farms and land in Appleton and Hatton, approximately 450 acres in all. His account book, which records his income and money spent, relating to all aspects of his life, suggests a careful, conscientious and sometimes generous landlord and farmer; a man with a full social life, but modest ambitions.

George Eaton died on 28 October 1780. His cousin and nominated heir, George Potter of Leigh in Lancashire, pre-deceased him when Potter’s son, also George, was still a minor. He was thus unable to fulfil Eaton’s request that his heirs should live at the Pole. The now widowed and childless brother-in-law, Richard Selby was therefore nominated as a temporary measure, living at the Pole until his death in 1788, when young George Potter inherited. George duly took the name Eaton and the arms, but he was still a minor, and a Miss Potter – presumably an aunt – appears as owner and occupier in the land tax returns. George Eaton’s account book for the new house (the ‘new’ Pole) was inscribed; “Began building July 5th 1796 Slept in the House August 25th 1798” (D 6953). As recorded on the Tithe map, it consisted of a main frontage block with a wing, connected to a large stable court to the rear.

The family occupied the house throughout most of the 19th century, though land was sold for settlements. In 1872, Rev. George Eaton MA JP owned little more than 290 acres, with an annual income of about £700. It is probable that he was responsible for extending and altering the house in the late 19th century. When The Pole was first built at the end of the 18th century, it was built at the centre of a small park, although it was not described as such in any known documentary records. However, a major adjustment of the land tax in 1790 suggests that works were being undertaken to create the new parkland estate. The park is best illustrated on the first edition OS map of 1877, which shows a roughly oval boundary, at the heart of which lies the main dwelling. This boundary was lined in an almost continuous boundary of trees, densely planted along the hedgerow boundary, defining the outer perimeter of the ‘estate’. This regular rhythmn of trees along field boundaries is typical of a late enclosure landscape. The majority of this land lies in separate ownership today, and is farmed by neighbouring landowners.

An intermediate boundary is shown on the 1877 25-inch OS map to the immediate south-east of the house, quite close to the edge of the drive, roughly symmetrical in front of the house, bending and fluctuating, revealing a certain informality and perhaps this was by this time a stock-proof iron fence, which enabled a visual connection with the wider landscape to the south. Between 1877 and 1898 the garden to the east of the house was enlarged. By 1910 this boundary fence had been altered and moved even further south, extending the garden into the southern field and the 1910 OS map illustrates that the boundary to the south-east side of the garden was embellished with shrubs and trees, creating a more private, inward-looking space. By 1910 the access drive had also been altered and re-aligned further away from the house and the northern perimeter of the original ‘park’ had been removed and the field amalgamated into the larger field to the north.

During the post WWII period, the rear service wing of the house was demolished, and partly replaced by a garage, and the stables and coach-house were sold off. The stable court and its ancillary buildings were converted into separate dwellings from 1974 and these are recorded on the OS maps as The Pole Mews, Pole Court and Handan Court. The area occupied by the walled kitchen garden was in the outright ownership of The Pole Mews by 1979. In 2016 and 2017 the rear wing was rebuilt and a Boiler House was built.

The Pole was complete by 1798. It was a formal, classical building in Flemish bond brickwork. The main block originally had a flat south front, but was extended circa 1860 with two-storey bays to the front (south) elevation and a canted entrance porch. In the early years of the 20th century an Edwardian Billiard Room wing was added to the west. The 1898 OS map (25-inch) does not illustrate the Billiard Room and it first appears on the 1910 OS map. The east elevation looks out over the side garden. It has three sash windows per floor and a partly-blocked Diocletian window to the attic.