Building record 15769/2 - Gardens and Park and at Davenport Hall, Brereton

<1> Cheshire Gardens Trust, 2011 onwards, Research and Recording Report (Report). SCH6655.

For 250 years Davenport Hall was not inhabited by its owners but was maintained and leased out as ‘the residence of a gentleman’s family’. Thus, the site escaped the radical alterations and landscape improvements undertaken during the C18 and C19 by the owners of neighbouring estates.
There appears to have been no major change to the layout of the associated landscape and small gardens until the 1990s, when the hall was extended, its gardens re-designed and a cascade of 7 ponds created E of the hall.

<2> Burdett, P. P., 1777, A Survey of the County Palatine of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH113.

Davenport Hall is marked at this location at the centre of a parkland enclosure. Burdett’s park enclosure extends to the
river Dane and includes much land E of the hall
and the road leading North.

<3> Greenwood, C. & Greenwood J., 1819, Map of the County Palatine of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH2115.

Marked as Davenport Park, house shown within a area of parkland which extends southwards to the A54 road. A lodge is shown at the crossroads

<4> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 136/2 Davenport c.1839 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

Plot name recorded as "Davenport Hall outbuildings gardens and pleasure grounds". The tithe map shows hall and stables sited within a man-made rectangular enclosure. Within lie a garden by the hall’s E elevation and a W walled (kitchen) garden. Another garden plot is listed S of the stables, outside the enclosure.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ7966 1873 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

Davenport Hall marked and building shown within formal garden setting.
The layout has been modified:
• W, N and E: the gardens have been enlarged and enclosed with straight walls or fencing.
• The walled kitchen garden contains a bothy or glasshouse.
• The garden by the hall’s E elevation
contains a border, lawn and shrubs.
• S: 2 short drives branch off the road:
to the hall’s N elevation (as in 1839), and
to the S stable yard and a new block of servants‘ accommodation.
A plantation screens this area from the road.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1909-1912, Ordnance Survey Second Revision County Series (Epoch 3) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire (Maps and Plans). SCH4361.

As in 1839, the W plateau remains the hall‘s park, including one of the former arable fields.
N Lodge built c.1846 (N of river Dane).
Trees have been established:
• along the W edge of ‘Engine Wood‘,
• NW and N of the hall,
• on the escarpment SE of the hall

<7> National Remote Sensing Centre Ltd, 1992-3, National Remote Sensing Centre County Survey (1992-1993) (Aerial Photograph). SCH5297.

The N wing of the hall appears to have been demolished – as have the N and E garden boundaries.
The walls of the kitchen garden and the W strip garden remain. Both gardens are put to grass.
Although some trees remain in the former E garden and N of the hall, many trees have disappeared – not only between stables and road, but also on the W (hall-side) of the escarpment and the valley bottom.

<8> Bluesky International Ltd, 2015-2017, Aerial Photography for Great Britain, Bluesky International APGB Imagery 2015-2017 (Aerial Photograph). SCH8848.

Gardens:
The walled kitchen garden contains a tennis court and a cruciform building linked to the hall.
Part of the W strip garden contains an
L-shaped building, which appears to be part of the converted stables complex.
• The former E and S gardens are now linked to the considerably enlarged and enclosed N garden, and unified by a coherent planting style.
A new approach to the hall’s E elevation bisects the former E garden.
• Much shrub/tree planting has taken place on the escarpment W of the road and the E valley.
• Creation of a large landscape feature, the cascade of 7 ponds in the E valley.