Building record 1230/3/2 - Boat House and 'Roaring Bridge' at Tabley House

<1> Smiths Gore, 2004, Report on The Boat House Tabley Hall, Tabley Inferior, Cheshire (Client Report). SCH8582.

Little remains of the original boat house construction apart from the brick walls and these have disintegrated at the original eaves level. The roof is completely missing. The main construction of the boat house comprises of brick walls with a buttressed construction to each comer, which have stone cross decorations. There are two brick arched openings on the west elevation; now been bricked up. There are two independent brick piers adjacent to the east wall, which may have been part of the supports for the roof construction or walkways. There are brick culverts which pass underneath the bridge. The bridge extends approximately 13 metres to the north and south of the Boat House. There were originally iron railings set into the stone coping of the bridge.

<2> Webb S, 2012, 'A Noble Specimen of Architecture'; A History of Tabley Old Hall (Article in Journal). SCH8518.

When the stone bridge to Tabley Old Hall was removed, the salvage was used to build a new boat house.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Land Line and Master Map Vector Maps, 18/10/2018 (Maps and Plans). SCH4491.

<4> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 58567 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

A late eighteenth century boat house in the Gothic style. The rear of the boat house abuts a weir bridge and access is via the bridge.

<5> English Heritage, 2001, Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest, GD1636 (Report). SCH2822.

On the south side of the bridge is a square brick boathouse (listed grade II) of the late C18. roofless in 1997. Resembling a blockhouse and with false quatrefoil stone arrow loops, each corner forms a slightly projecting tower-like buttress.

<6> Fearn Heritage & Archaeology, 2022, Roaring Bridge, Tabley Mere: Archaeological Watching Brief Report, R4562 (Client Report). SCH9165.

A watching brief and photographic survey was undertaken in 2022 at the 'Roaring Bridge' to monitor structural works on the north side the bridge. The bridge is constructed of red brick and comprises three arches. There have been numerous interventions; all arches have been bricked up to impost level and brick buttresses have been added to the piers. The bridge is no longer in use as a track and is fenced off to the east and west; as a result the track across the bridge has grassed over.

The paving and north face of the bridge were hand cleaned to reveal details of the stonework. The upper part of the bridge (the level of the arches and short wall) is dark red blue header bricks with hard dark grey mortar. To the east and west of the arches the uppermost course is half-bricks on edge. The brick courses form a short wall along the edge of the brick which is topped with dark grey sandstone coping stones. Running along the inside (on the track) side of the wall is iron estate fencing; it does not appear to be original. The brickwork is original but is in poor condition. Subsidence is clearly visible in the undulating brick course to the east and west of the arches.

The east arch has been infilled with dark blue bricks and hard grey mortar in English Garden Wall bond. This has been topped with two courses of substantial pale grey yellow sandstone blocks to impost level; the blue brickwork runs under the arch structure. The plinth to the left (east) is of the same brick construction and clearly part of the same repair phase.

The central arch has been filled to impost level with three courses of large grey ashlar sandstone blocks with no bonding material. The lower, larger blocks show clear toolmarks in various styles, perhaps suggesting different masons – whereas the upper course has been finished smoothly. The top course of sandstone runs under the central brick arch and is underpinned by the later brickwork plinth.

The west arch has been infilled with the same brickwork as the east arch but is topped by a single dark grey sandstone slab. The later repair brickwork runs under the arch brickwork. The plinth to the right (west) is of the same brick construction and clearly part of the same repair phase.

The two plinths on either side of the central arch are of dark red modern engineering brick with hard yellow mortar – this appears to represent the latest repair work. Unlike the two outer plinths, they have two course triangular stone bases which match the lower sandstone courses of the central arch fill. All the plinths have matching triangular stone copings which suggests that originally there were four matching plinths. On the outside of each outer plinth is a dry-stone retaining wall, to same height as the arch impost, which prevents material from washing down in front of the bridge. The walls butt the plinths but may be earlier (ie dismantled and rebuilt to allow the plinth repair).

In front of the bridge (north) is a paved area that would have absorbed the impact of the water as it ran through the arches and over the 1.60m drop. The paving runs from the dry-stone walls at each end of the bridge and extends 1.75m out from the face of the bridge. The paving stones are between 0.40 and 0.50m wide and up to 1.20m long. They are in a random pattern although larger stones tend to be laid ‘stretcher’ (parallel to the bridge) towards the ends of the bridge and narrower stones laid ‘header’ near the centre. Smaller stones tend to be at the far edge, away from the bridge. Several stones are broken and the random pattern may be the result of years of repair. Some stones are connected by iron ties with a lead coating; these appear to be later repairs as they occasionally connect broken or cracked paving slabs.

Three phases of construction are identified within the main bridge construction. The earliest (original) phase consists of the upper brickwork, brick arches, sandstone blocks within the central arch, and stone plinth caps, stone central plinth bases and paving. The second phase consists of the blue brick infill in the outer arches and two outer plinths. The latest phase consists of the brickwork of the two central plinths.