Building record 1253/1/1 - Dukenfield Hall, formerly Podmere House

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 1230099 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Dunkenfield Hall, Listed Grade II*. List description:-

House. Early and Mid C17 with C19 and C20 additions. Plum coloured English garden wall bond brick with stone dressings and stone-slate roof. 2 storeys with attic. Central hall. Entrance front: E-shaped with 3 projecting gabled wings. Central wing: segment headed entrance. Porch to ground floor with C19 blank doorway with iron hinges and nails. C19 3-light mullioned and transomed wooden casement window to first floor with lintel of headers. Square wooden casement window to attic. Ground floor windows to either side have paired relieving arches over each window falling in the centre but without a mullion support (apparently none ever intended). Hood mould over all. Cl9 wooden 3-light casement windows. First floor windows have cambered arched tops with splayed heads. Left hand wing has 2 ground floor windows with basket relieving arches now containing C19 3-light casements with flat tops and C19 brickwork in tympana. One similar window to first floor 3-light splayed-head casement windows to ground and first floor of righthand-wing with mullions and transoms. String course of 2 rows of stretchers on one of headers across whole façade. All three gable wings have stone quoins and gable cappings and balls to the apex and corners of each gable. 2-flue ridge chimney stack to left of centre and 3-flue ridge stack to centre of right hand gable wing, both with diamond-shaped flues. Rear façade: gabled wing to right hand side with stone copings and balls at apex and corners of gable. C19 door adjacent and Cl9 4-light casement window to ground floor. C19 3-light casement window to attic. The remaining windows all C20 replacements including 3 gabled dormer windows with shingles on gable face and 2-light casements. C20 gabled wing to left in keeping. South west front has all C20 fenestration including angled bay faced with shingles. Large 3-flue chimney stack to North-east front with three C19 diamond-shaped stacks. Interior: Central cruck framed hall with 2 pairs of raised crucks, one at each end with cambered truss above and queen posts rising to principals. Hall divided by later C17 incursions including small framing dividing wall at North eastern end with adjacent stone hearth and division into 2 floors with ceiling beams with run-out stops. Kitchen to North east has ingle-nook fireplace with large bead-moulded bressumer with run-out stops. Dining room has mid C17 plasterwork to ceiling. 2 central panels on either side of a bead-moulded end-stopped beam high-relief leaf-moulded oval panel with patera in centre. Similar smaller panel with palm leaves around patera. 6 panels to sides with flower and plant sprays. Staircase to hall with ribbed newel posts and turned balusters, and octagonal caps of oval section. Pargetting on staircase panel between floors showing leopard's mask. 2nd similar staircase with octagonal finials of round section with repeated cotton-bobbin section to balusters.

<2> Peter de Figueiredo (Independent Consultant), 2016, Dunkenfield Hall Barn, Mobberley, Cheshire: Heritage Statement, R4574 (Client Report). SCH9174.

Originally known as 'Podmore House', Dukenfield Hall received its present name when Sarah Parker brought it in marriage to Sir Charles Dukinfield in 1718 with her Over Tabley and Mobberley estates.

The earliest part of the Hall is on the left side, and began as a small cruck-framed house of the late 16th or early 17th century. When it was faced in brick in the late 17th century, it was made to look symmetrical by adding more to one side than the other. At the same time, the cross wings were built and the roof was heightened, as can be seen inside the house where the crucks have been cut off at the top and cambered trusses and queen post trusses inserted. Tall brick chimneys with diamond flues rise above the ridge line. On the south-east side of the Hall is a cobbled courtyard, which is enclosed by former stables and farm buildings. The range of stables was converted to a dwelling some years ago. The listed barn is set back from the Hall to the south-east.

The Dukenfield Hall barn (see CHER 1253/1/3) was originally a threshing barn. In most traditional farmsteads, the threshing barn was the central focus. It was used for housing and threshing the corn and other crops grown on the farm, and might also have housed hay and threshed straw. In Cheshire, all crops were stored in barns until the 19th century, when the practice of using ricks became common. The barn was filled with harvested crops right up to the ridge, leaving only the threshing floor clear.

According to the Tithe apportionments (1839), the owner of the estate was Peter Legh, and the tenant farmer was George Eden.