Building record 200/2/8 - Crewe Hall Boat house

<1> TJC Heritage Ltd, 2024, Crewe Hall Boathouse, Crewe Hall, Weston Road, Cheshire: Historic Building Record, R4815 (Client Report). SCH9709.

Crewe Hall Boat House is a Grade II listed building situated within the grounds of Crewe Hall, Cheshire. It is located c.132m north of Crewe Hall and historically formed part of a terraced garden designed by W.A. Nesfield in 1856. The boat house, which is built in brick with stone dressings, was constructed between 1856 and 1863 as part of a wider scheme to redesign the formal gardens and appears to have been added as a way of connecting Nesfield’s earlier landscaped gardens with the artificial lake to the north of Crewe Hall, believed to be the work of Humphry Repton (c.1791). It projects into the former lake with stone landing stages and small rooms to either side which served as storage and secondary access to the external stages. The garden terrace extended over the roof of the boat house, with the statue of Neptune, also Grade II listed (CHER 200/2/7), as a focal point, with flanking stairs which led down to a landing stage around the perimeter of the structure. The formality in Nesfield’s garden design is reflected by the symmetrical design of the building both when viewed from the former lake and from the garden terrace to the south. Access to the building appears to have been limited to the western side, which has the only external doorway. The form of the building remains unchanged on the OS maps even after the lake was accidentally drained by the collapse of a dam in 1941. The site of the lake reverted to woodland in the 20th century which has caused extensive damage to the building; there is large-scale collapse of walling and little evidence remaining of the stairs.