Building record 14972 - Penn, Alderley Edge

<1> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England, 1138870 (Web Site). SCH6528.

House: dated 1912 by Percy Worthington for Walter Milne of Kendal Milne stores. Roughcast brick with hipped Cotswold slate bell-cast roofs and 3 brick chimneys. Neo-Georgian style. L-shaped in plan. 2-storey symmetrical 7-bay west front of west range. Flush 12-pane sashes in simple moulded architraves. Central semi-circular headed doorcase with fanlight with radial glazing bars and swags above a half glazed door flanked by half pillars. Plaster plaque with date and patron's initials above. 3 hipped gabled dormers. In front is flagged terrace with stone terrace walls and central flight of steps. West end of north range has projecting weatherboarded summerhouse on a stone plinth. South gable has 2, 2-storey bowed bay windows. East front has 9-pane windows and a pair of doors in an eared architrave under a flat hood on carved wooden brackets. South front of north range has a pair of semi-circular headed arches on a stone Tuscan pillar. Interior: Hall is open to 2 storeys with simple oak balustrade along the upstairs landing. Grey sandstone fireplace to the side with an acanthus border and a C18 cast-iron grate. 3 openings off hall into long garden room which can be partitioned into living and dining rooms by sliding oak screens to leave a central passage. One end of room has oak panelled alcoves with fitted furniture flanking a good cast-iron grate with an oak overmantel. Modillion cornice to ceilings. Oak well staircase with carved brackets on open string. 3-panelled oak doors throughout. A good example of its period, with faint Scottish flavour under Arts and Crafts influence.

<2> Hyde, Matthew, 1999, The Villas of Alderley Edge, 144 (Book). SCH8722.

Date 1912 on an oval plaque above the garden door with entwined intials WDM ( Walter and Dorothy Milne). White rendered neo-Georgian house with sash windows throughout. Sprocketed eaved roof in graded Lake District slate

<3> Hartwell C, Hyde M, Hubbard E & Pevsner N, 2011, The Buildings of England: Cheshire (2011 revision), p.93 (Book). SCH7059.

Early 20th century Villa built during the second wave of Alderley Edge villa development.. Penn, dated 1912 for Walter and Dorothy Milne by Percy Scott Worthington is white and Neo Georgian. Extended on 2009 by Hayer and Partners

<4> Peter de Figueiredo (Independent Consultant), 2017, Penn, Macclesfield Road, Alderley Edge, Cheshire: Heritage Statement, R4728 (Client Report). SCH9504.

Heritage statement produced in 2017 for 'Penn', a Grade II Listed house, in support of a proposal for demolition and re-development of the garage outbuilding erected in the 1930s or possibly the 1950s.

The Tithe Map (source 5) dating from c.1839 shows that the land on which 'Penn' was built was largely formerly agricultural land; it comprised plots 590 and part of 597, owned by Lord Stanley of Alderley. Plot 590 contained a cottage with its entrance off Woodbrook Road, which appears to have been known as the 'Mountain of Poverty' occupied by James Ridgeway. The purchasers of the plot were Walter Milne of Kendal Milne’s Department Store in Manchester and his wife Dorothy who were members of the prosperous business community who colonised the Edge and created the leafy suburb which is now a conservation area.

The Penn, designed by Percy Worthington, was built in 1912. An original plan of the villa, published in 'The Villas of Alderley Edge' (see source 2), indicates that the cottage depicted on the tithe map, occupied by Ridgeway, was to be retained after construction of the house. The cottage appears to have been roughly in the area where the present garage is located. A boundary line drawn around the cottage suggests that it was not included in the sale to the Milnes, who must have purchased it later. This may explain why the garage building was erected some time later, for while no documents survive to date it precisely, its style and insubstantial construction place it in the 1930s or possibly the 1950s.

<5> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, Nether Alderley Township, 1842 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.