Building record 15875/1 - Barclay Hall, Mobberley

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 1139558 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Formerly Mobberley Hall. 1848 and later. By Leonard C Howitt. Ashlar, slate roof. Three storey, villa plan. Entrance front: symmetrical with central square porch with gothic arch and carved leaves to spandrels dying to angled bay to first floor with mullioned windows. Achievement of arms above with ball finial. Three-light mullioned square bay windows to brick floors at either side with gables above. Rear facade has four-storey octagonal turret to centre with a three-storey range to the north with three mullioned casements each to ground and first floors Mansard roof to attic with hipped dormer windows. Wing at far left c.1820 with semicircular two-storey bow with twentieth century louvres to ground floor. Range to right of centre of two storeys, angled bay to ground floor with two two-light mullioned casements to first floor. Gabled slightly-projecting wing at right with inserted twentieth century doors to ground floor and oriel window above with carved coving underneath of diamond shaped panels containing foliage. Single-light blocked casement above in gable. twentieth century boiler' house to left of octagonal stair turret. Large twentieth century wing to south of house to accommodate school not included in item.

Interior: Staircase hall with arcades to ground floor, landing of three gothic arches supported on pairs of red and green marble columns with carved capitals of birds and natural foliage. Ribbed newel posts to staircase with alternating spiral and plain balusters. Octagonal skylight over staircase well.

<2> Macclesfield Borough Council, 2006, Mobberley Conservation Area Appraisal, p.2, 11, 14, 18, 27 (Report). SCH9125.

Mobberley New Hall, now Barclay Hall, was built a little to the east in 1848. Barclay Hall is deliberately sited away from the road in its own parkland. Set in open fields, is now a home for elderly people. The modern buildings at Barclay Hall do nothing to enhance the listed building and its setting.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ7979, 1877 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

This map depicts the house, with to the immediate north-east, a yard area and two further buildings. One, L-shaped, and occupying the north-eastern, and most of the north-western side s of this area. The second building is located in the southern corner and has a glass house attached. To the north-west of the yard and buildings are two large glass houses. To their north-east is a smaller group of buildings labelled kennel and gasometer. The house is labelled Mobberley New Hall.

<4> Pevsner N & Hubbard E, 1971, The Buildings of England: Cheshire, p.485 (Book). SCH3078.

Neo-Elizabethan house built in 1848 for Major Blakinson and his wife Jane Wright of the Old Hall, and extended 1870. Twentieth century buildings by Leonard C. Howitt for the Margret Barclay School have been replaced by twenty-first century accommodation.

<5> Thomas R, 2020, Historic England Research Report: The Manufactured Gas Industry in England (volumes I-V), Vol.III p.81 (Report). SCH9005.

Gasometer marked on the 1897 OS map indicating a private gasworks to Mobberley New Hall. Nothing visible survives.

<6> Times Media, Various, The Times, 21/12/1943 (Newspaper-Magazine). SCH9754.

The house was donated by the then owner, Robert Norton Barclay, to Manchester Education Committee for use as a residential school in 1943.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 1896-1898, Ordnance Survey First Revision County Series (Epoch 2) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ7979, 1898 (Maps and Plans). SCH3848.