Building record 15667/1 - Betchton Hall

<1> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England, 1330047 (Web Site). SCH6528.

Betchton Hall, Love Lane: Grade II Listed
Small country house. Early C19. Red Flemish bond brick with stone dressings and slate roof. Two storeys. Entrance front: seven bays symmetrically disposed. Central front door with arched stone surround incised with Greek key patterns. Central double semi-glazed doors with fanlight over and projecting keystone above. To either side are three sash windows with 4 x 4 sash panes and flat arched heads and stone sills. Seven similar windows to the first floor although the alternate windows here are blind. The central window has a stone surround with brackets at either side supporting a projecting shelf. Ashlar quoins to the corners and ashlar cornice and parapet to the top of the wall. The left hand side has three bays, that to the centre recessed and having a Venetian window with double semi-glazed doors to the centre and a moulded ashlar surround with projecting keystone. Ashlar band dividing the floors on which rests a further Venetian window at first floor level in a recess with a basket relieving arch over and a shallow pedimental gable above. To either side are projecting bays with ashlar quoins to their corners and windows of 4 x 4 sash panes with moulded ashlar surrounds.

<2> Cheshire Gardens Trust, 2011 onwards, Research and Recording Report, Betchton Hall, 12/04/12 (Report). SCH6655.

Omerod traces Betchton's owners back to Matthew de Becheton in 1307. In the later fourteenth century the site belonged to the Davenports of Henbury as part of the moiety of the manor of Betchton. By the seventeenth century, Betchton House and 200 acres of land were held by the Leversages and passed by marriage to the Jacksons.

Although an earlier timber-framed house was substantially rebuilt in brick in the mid eighteenth century for the Rev. Dr. Richard Jackson (1713-1796), Prebendary of Chester, he may not have lived there permenantly. His will suggests that his main residence was 'The Hill' at Sandbach, while Betchton House is listed as one of the five farms that he owned. Dr. Jackson left his estate to his three nieces, the Misses Day, who lived in Chester. Their properties leased out and managed by solicitors included Betchton House, 'now a farm' (1810). At the death of the last niece in 1821, the estate passed to Richard Galley Jackson, who extended and remodelled Betchton Hall. After his death, the estate was inherited by his brother, John Galley Day Jackson, who continued the Hall's remodelling. On John's death, the estate was largely left to his daughters, Mary and Frances, although census returns show that neither, initially, lived at Betchton House, which appears to have been let. However, by 1871, Frances Casson (nee Jackson) is recorded as living there, also her sister, Mary Salisbury. In 1919, the heirs of Frances Casson sold Betchton Hall and Betchton Hall Farm with circa 130 acres to the Gaskell family.

In addition to the circa 1750 farmhouse, the Betchton Hall Farm complex includes eighteenth century stables and coachman's house, modestly sized parkland, also gardens to the south and east of the Hall, and a kitchen garden to the north. Their layout probably dates to 1860-75 and remains virtually intact. See CHER 15667/2 for further details on gardens and parkland.