Landscape record 131/3/5 - Garden and Parkland at Great Moreton Hall

<1> Cheshire Gardens Trust, 2011 onwards, Research and Recording Report, Great Moreton Hall, 2019 (Report). SCH6655.

"...'Medieval' perimeter walls, ( in the same style as the 19th century 'Castellated Gothic’ work by Edward Blore) and largely intact, enclose the pleasure grounds south of the mansion. Evidence of large-scale manipulation of the site's levels suggests that the pleasure grounds were built at the same time as the mansion. Their design is in the 'Mixed Style', combining the Geometric with the Picturesque, as favoured in the 1840s-50s. The remains of extensive ground-modelling point to the influence of 'Gardenesque' ideas current at that time.
The historic layout of walkways and paths, and many of the original shrubs and trees remain as shown in the Ordnance Survey of 1873

Great Moreton's pleasure grounds appear to be a rare survival of an early Victorian garden, and the work of an expert landscape architect, who combined Blore's 'Castellated Gothic' with contemporary trends. As yet no conclusive evidence of this designer's name and work has been found."


"Principal remaining features within the garden and parkland include:

Great Moreton Hall, Grade II*, including service wing and stable court
Ice House, Grade II with mound and octagonal tower
East Lodge, Grade II
Kitchen garden walls, outbuildings and mushroom house, Grade II
Boat House, Grade II, in separate ownership
Ornamental lake, in separate ownership
Estate boundary walls
East and West drives
Pleasure gardens with:
Perimeter rampart walls with gazebo, bastions and gate into the park
Formal terrace walks
Woodland paths
Mounds and embankments
Brook, pool and two bridges
Rockery
Mature trees and shrubs"

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1881-2, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 6 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire (Maps and Plans). SCH2474.

A natural stream from the east was divided into two branches at the SE corner of the outer kitchen garden. One branch was directed northwards to serve the kitchen garden, the other westwards to enhance the pleasure grounds and to mark the transition from the formal to the informal layout.