Building record 15348 - Bache Hall

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 490834 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Small country house, now hospital beauty centre. c. 1720, with early nineteenth and late nineteenth century additions and alterations. Converted twentieth century. Red brick with painted ashlar dressings and slate roof. Painted chamfered plinth. First floor cill band. Plain brick parapet with ashlar coping. two storey plus attics.

South-east elevation 5 windows with slightly projecting centre. Edwardian stone porch with Doric pilasters and round arches between, topped with deeply moulded entablature. Inner doorway has double panels doors with side lights. Either side two glazing bar sashes with painted cill band, those to left twentieth century replacements without brick lintels. Above central French doors with over light leading to porch balcony, to right two glazing bar sashes and to left a small Edwardian sash and a twentieth century sash beyond without a brick lintel. Central projection has painted attic floor topped with pediment and two-light casement window.

South-west front has central two storey bowed window, with large tripartite glazing bar sash window and above two small glazing bar sashes. To right two storey canted bay window with three glazing bar sashes to each floor, and to left a large tripartite glazing bar sash and above two smaller glazing bar sashes.

North-east elevation has three storey stuccoed early nineteenth century wing with twentieth century replacement casement windows and to right a brick three storey Edwardian wing with glazing bar sashes.

INTERIOR has early eighteenth single flight and return staircase in main entrance hall. Stair has elaborately carved tread ends, two turned balusters per tread, with turned newels and ramped and moulded handrail. Staircase hall has original six panel doors in panelled surrounds and dentilated plaster coving. Most of remaining rooms retain panelled shutters, good panelled doors and panelled doorcases, some rooms with moulded plaster coving. First floor south-west room retains dado panelling and moulded doorcase.

<2> Cheshire Gardens Trust, 2011 onwards, Research and Recording Report (Report). SCH6655.

Bache Hall, Grade II, was built in the early 18th century replacing an earlier house. It had a lodge at the entrance from Liverpool Road, extensive gardens, trees, woodlands, a waterfall and bridges over the Bache Brook. Owners of Bache Hall have been associated with Kinmel Park, North Wales, Sibbersfield in Cheshire and Flesk Castle, Ireland. The grounds of Bache Hall have largely been lost due to road widening, construction of Countess Way, housing development and the expansion of the Countess of Chester Hospital. Bache Hall is currently owned by the University of Chester and now houses research facilities for the Chester Medical School.

Principal remaining features include:- House, Portion of drive, Mature trees, trees following the line of Bache Brook on the south side of the Countess Way.

<3> Oxford Archaeology, 2024, Countess of Chester, Women and Childrens Ward, Chester, Cheshire: Archaeological Watching Brief Report, R4780 (Client Report). SCH9615.

A watching brief was conducted in 2024 during ground works associated with the construction of the new Women and Children’s Ward, at the Countess of Chester Hospital. It revealed a small quantity of post-medieval archaeological features which clearly relate to cartographic evidence of aspects of the walled garden of Bache Hall, featured on the 1899 Ordnance Survey map. Many of the features comprised sections of red brick wall forming either garden boundary walls or else associated structures, such as greenhouses, illustrated upon the 1899 map. These were generally found to be poorly preserved within the confines of the observed trenches, usually comprising footings and basal courses only, with little other detail or in situ deposits, the site having been considerably reworked to provide car parking and other facilities for the foundation of the hospital.