Building record 136/3/1 - Lawton Hall

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 56496 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Country house, now school. Mid eighteenth century. Red Flemish bond brick with ashlar dressings and a slate roof with lead flashings. Two and three storeys. Entrance front: of nine bays symmetrically disposed with asymmetrical wings at either side. Projecting centrepiece of three bays and two storeys with, at centre, a central ashlar door surround with a round-arched doorway which is now blocked and contains a sash window. Moulded band at the level of the springing of the arch and triple keystone to the apex. Demi-columns of Roman Doric form to either side with Doric entablature above and segmental pediment. This stone frontispiece continues at first floor level as an ashlar window surround with sloping shoulders containing a sash window of three by five sash panes and round-arched head which projects up into the pediment with a band at the level of the springing of the arch and a triple keystone above. To either side at ground floor level the lateral windows have panelled stone surrounds and a round-arched top with projecting keystones. The first floor window surrounds above this are lugged and shouldered. The open pediment has moulded brackets to either side supporting doserettes. To either side of this projecting central portion are three bays of three storeys which rise to the same height as the central three bays and continue the entablature, projecting portions of which are supported by brackets to the far right and left. To the ground and first floors are windows of three by four sash panes with wedge lintels carved in simulation of chamfered rustication and having projecting keystones. The second floor has similar windows of three by two panes. The exception to this arrangement is the stone porchway to the resited hallway of c.1860 which is to the central ground floor bay of the right hand side. This has Roman Doric columns at either side and a flat roof. To either side of these central nine bays there were originally recessed single bay wings of two storeys with doorways at ground floor level. These have both been extended to form larger wings, that at right being a service wing of four bays with a projecting end-pavilion of two storeys, the floors divided by an ashlar string course with ashlar cornice and parapet to the top of the wall, and with windows of three by four panes and the first floor windows of three by three panes, the pavilion having a Venetian window with a doorway to its centre and a Diocletian window to the first floor. The left hand wing has been extended by one further bay at left and is terminated by a pilaster buttress. To left again and recessed is a late nineteenth century billiard room of three bays. To left and right of the central block are chimney stacks of four bays with a central stack of five flues. Rear: at centre of the central nine symmetrical bays is a semi-octagonal bay window of two storeys height. At the centre is a Venetian window the central light of which has been extended downwards in the early nineteenth century to form a French window. This has Ionic pilasters to either side with a simplified entablature above. To the angles are sash windows of three by five panes with wedge lintels carved in imitation of chamfered rustication with projecting keystones. To the mezzanine level are three roundels, that at centre having stone blocks to either side which remain uncarved. To the first floor at centre is an arched window and to either side windows of three by two panes. The three-bay, three-storey portions at either side have ground and first floor windows of three by four sash panes and windows of three by two panes to the attics, all with wedge-shaped lintels, carved in imitation of chamfered rustication, and projecting keystones. The exceptions to this arrangement are the bays at left of the right hand wing and at right of the right hand wing which both have semi-glazed doors inserted. The service wing at left has four similar bays with four by three sash panes at ground floor level and three by three sash panes to the first floor.

Interior: Original entrance hall has lugged and shouldered picture surrounds of moulded plaster to the walls with Rococo cartouches. Similar cartouches around the arched windows and former doorway. Two lateral doors to each side with richly moulded surrounds and opposite the original entrance a fire surround of wood with demi-columns to the sides with egg and dart capitals and a frieze of modillions with dentils below and square flowers to the metopes. Heavy cornice below ceiling which has richly moulded panels of Rococo plasterwork. The saloon has a fire surround with volutes to either side with female heads. Shouldered surround with egg-and-dart moulding and a grotesque mask to the central projecting keystone. The overmantel has pilasters to the sides with trails of foliage falling from lion masks and lower consoles which are heavily moulded with acanthus leaves. Swan-necked pediment over. Lugged and shouldered door surrounds with ears of corn and swags of foliage with female masks at centre of the overdoors. The cornice has shell motifs. One side of the room has a semi-octagonal bay window with a central Venetian window which has a full entablature. The windows at either side have lugged surrounds. The ceiling has a full cornice and Rococo plasterwork in the manner of Bagucci with heads and cartouches and at the centre an oval frame with an eagle in relief with extending claws. One first floor room has raised and fielded panelling divided by a chair rail and Doric pilasters with cabling to their lower bodies and egg-and-dart moulding to their capitals. Several of the first floor rooms have lugged and shouldered door and fire surrounds with egg and dart moulding. The staircase hall has been altered at ground floor level and the lowest flight turned at right angles and one ground floor room knocked through to make a larger hallway which is lined with pseudo-Jacobean panelling. The staircase is of four flights with double vase, balusters, square newels and a heavy moulded and ramped handrail. The ceiling above the stairwell is of Rococo plasterwork with a heavy central boss. Three attic rooms have seventeenth century wooden panelling brought from elsewhere.

<2> Lawton Hall Estate, c.2004, Lawton Hall Estate (Web Site). SCH9290.

The present Hall was preceded by a Jacobean manor house which was located on the site of the current front lawn. The first part of the current building was built circa 1755 in the Georgian style by Robert Lawton. The former hall building remained standing during the new hall’s construction, only being demolished once many of the fixtures and fittings (including fireplaces and oak panelling) had been removed for reuse in the new hall. Alterations to the hall began after 1831. The central entrance was sealed up to allow the conversion of the main entrance hall into a dining room. The main staircase was diverted, and a new entrance and portico constructed to the right of the original entrance. New wings of unequal size were constructed, the north-eastern wing being longer to give the illusion of the new entrance being central. A billiard room was added to the north-eastern wing circa 1860.

In 1906 the hall was leased as a hotel (one of the attractions was a golf course). During the First World War it was requisitioned and used as a hospital, later becoming a spa hotel. During the second World War it was used to billet the Civil Defence Reserve and the Fire Service. After the war it was used briefly as a school for the disabled, then from 1950 – 1986 a private school. With the closure of the school, the building fell into disrepair and was the subject of substantial damage and loss through theft, vandalism, and fire. The hall was redeveloped for residential use between 2001 and 2004.

<3> Hartwell C, Hyde M, Hubbard E & Pevsner N, 2011, The Buildings of England: Cheshire (2011 revision), p.290 (Book). SCH7059.

After falling into decay, the hall was converted to apartments in 2004. A seventeenth century house, but not recognisable as such externally. Inside are two Jacobean fireplaces and a seventeenth century staircase. The exterior is mid eighteenth century. Probably built for Robert Lawton in the mid eighteenth century and the wings added in the 1830s.

<4> de Figueiredo P & Treuherz J, 1988, Cheshire Country Houses, p.248 (Book). SCH785.

A large and puzzling eighteenth-century house. The puzzling aspects are first the awkwardness of the plan, basically a double pile but with an extremely narrow service passage between the two principal rooms, and second the centrepieces of the two main fronts. These must be the result of alterations made soon after the house was built, for the inconvenience of the interior defies logical planning. The entrance front has a pedimented centrepiece. The study, formerly a small dining room to the left of the entrance hall, is lined with seventeenth century oak panelling. Also, a Jacobean stone fireplace surmounted by a quite separate overmantel, both perhaps re-used from the old Hall on a nearby moated site. The house was probably built for Robert Lawton who held the estate from 1736-70. The wings were added in the 1830s.

<5> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol.III p.15 (Book). SCH1389.

A handsome and spacious building of brick; the offices are disposed as wings. Architecture is chiefly of the reigns of Jac. I and Geo. II. New wings were built about half a century since, and the interior has undergone several alterations within that period. A small oak panelled dining room is said to have been used as a bed chamber by Charles II, and must therefore, have formed part of the older residence. Beneath a passage leading from the lesser drawing room to the library, exists an apartment, accessed by a trapdoor, in which Charles was concealed.

<6> Cheshire Gardens Trust, 2011 onwards, Research and Recording Report (Report). SCH6655.

<7> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Land Line and Master Map Vector Maps, 15/11/2022 (Maps and Plans). SCH4491.

<8> Oxford Archaeology North, 2004, Lawton Hall, Cheshire. Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment, Building Investigation and Watching Brief, R2499 (Client Report). SCH4520.

An archaeological desk-based assessment was produced in October 2001 for parkland around Lawton Hall, along with a building investigation of the Hall and stables, also a watching brief of groundwork undertaken for a development in the park. The building survey of the hall and stables found evidence of at least one probable late medieval structure on the site, which was almost entirely rebuilt in the mid-eighteenth century and then extended in the mid-nineteenth.

Five phases of development are also visible within the hall, two of which refer to major building or rebuilding events.

Phase 1: A free standing brick chimney and stone foundations within the remains of the entry hall are the remains of an earlier building, possibly substantially timber framed, parts of which were incorporated into the later house. Parts of the cellar and a large part of the centre of the west wing may also relate to this earlier building which probably dates from the sixteenth or seventeenth century. This building was presumably built after 1541 when the manor and the patronage of the church was purchased from the crown by William Lawton following the dissolution of the monasteries.

Phase 2: The construction of the eighteenth century house with its symmetrical wings off a central entrance hall and rear saloon. At the same time the detached kitchen/service block at the west end would have been built and the retained walls of the earlier building were possibly clad with a matching layer of brick.

Phase 3: The expansion of the hall to the east and its full connection to the service block to the west in the 1830s. It is possible that the service block was re-faced at this time in order to restore a sense of symmetry.

Phase 4: The addition of the billiard room onto the south-east corner of the hall.

Phase 5: The construction of internal partition walls and the minor remodelling of doorways and fireplaces during the twentieth century.

<9> Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), 1991, Lawton Hall, Church Lawton, Cheshire (Report). SCH9293.