Building record 15041/1 - Hare Hill Hall, Over Alderley

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 1139611 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Hare Hill Hall, Over Alderley, Grade II Listed. Villa: late C18/early C19 for Hibbert family, remodelled and extended mid C19 for the Brocklehurst family. English garden wall bond red brick, Welsh slate roof and 4 brick chimneys. 2-storey, 3-bay east front. Lower storey has a continuous verandah with cast-iron chinoiserie supports and frieze with a tented glass roof (only partially surviving). Behind are 2 long casements and above 3 sashes with marginal lights, stone sills and flat wedged brick heads. Verandah continues onto south front where there is a porch with a hipped roof on brick piers and 2 wooden Tuscan columns. Half-glazed doors and panels behind. Addition to left with 4-pane sashes. Interior: Well staircase with square balusters and curving mahogany headrail. Hall has late classical fireplace with sub-Corinthian columns. 6-panelled doors have moulded panels in doorcases. Rosettes in ceiling frieze.

<2> Peter de Figueiredo (Independent Consultant), 2013, Hare Hill, Over Alderley, Cheshire: Heritage Statement, R4608 (Client Report). SCH9252.

Heritage statement produced in 2013 for Hare Hill. The present house was built by William Hibbert of nearby Birtles Hall c.1800. The Tithe apportionments of 1842 record him as the owner of the house, then named 'Harchill Hall', and its estate. The main house is depicted, surrounded by pleasure gardens, with stables and outbuilding to the west. Two driveways, one from the south east and one from the south west, led to the house.

The 1875 OS map shows certain changes. The house had by then been extended on the north-west side, potentially to enlarge the service accommodation, a new drive had been formed from the south-west, by - passing the stables, and the south east drive had been re-routed with a more serpentine approach. The parkland had been greatly extended to include former agricultural land beyond the pleasure gardens.

In 1879 the estate was acquired by Francis Dicken Brocklehurst, a member of the Macclesfield silk manufacturing family. He was an enthusiastic explorer who made journeys to North America, China, India, Tibet, and Japan between 1858 and 1862. His travels are recorded in journals and letters deposited in the Cheshire Record Office. He was also a generous benefactor, creating Macclesfield West Park and Museum from the grounds of the family’s previous home on the edge of the town.

The 1910 OS map of Hare Hill suggests some remodelling of the south-east corner of the house, but otherwise records few changes. At that time it was the property of Robert Walter Douglas Phillips Brocklehurst. The last member of the family to own Hare Hill was Lieutenant Colonel Charles Douglas Ferguson Phillips Brocklehurst. He was a great rhododendron enthusiast and transformed the grounds with advice from the plantsman James Russell. On Colonel Brocklehurst’s death in 1981, he left the estate to the National Trust in memory of his twin brother Patrick Heron Phillips Brocklehurst, who was killed in a riding accident in 1930. The Trust decided to open the walled garden and wooded grounds to the public, and sold the house in order to help finance the running of the gardens.

<3> ?, 2019, Hare Hill Hall, Over Alderley, Cheshire. Heritage Statement: Stables, Manege & Gazebo, R4386 (Client Report). SCH8805.

A heritage statement was produced in 2019 in support of an application to make some internal changes to Hare Hill Hall, Over Alderley, and also to create stables with associated menage, and construct a gazebo.

<4> Aeon Archaeology, 2020, Hare Hill Hall, Over Alderley, Macclesfield, SK10 4PY: Archaeological Watching Brief, R4433 (Client Report). SCH8875.

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken at Hare Hill Hall in 2020. It revealed the partial remains of a post-medieval brick-built surface, inspection chamber, and L-shaped brick wall. The bonding material and construction form would suggest a mid to late 19th century date for these features, which is supported by the recovered artefact assemblage.

It is almost certain that the L-shaped wall found during the strip for the new stables is that of the large rectangular building shown on the 1842 tithe map, although the high level of demolition made it impossible to ascertain any further details about this structure or indeed its original function. Its siting to the immediate west of the formal gardens and within tithe plot 541 (Harchill's Hall Pleasure Grounds) would suggest that it was possibly an associated folly, although the close proximity of Hare Hill Stables to the immediate west may suggest an equestrian function or store.

The watching brief also showed that, in the location of the new ménage, the level of disturbance from the construction of the former tennis court had all but removed any trace of the earlier formal garden features shown on the 1842 tithe map.