Building record 1633/1 - Lyme Park

Lyme Park. Position of original hall uncertain. Stone & timber remains of the early hall have been seen & spoken of as the old 'Castle' or the 'Castle on the Moors'by Lyme Estate workers. They were on a site slightly higher & to the S of the present hall (1). Present building - the house of c.1570 was L-shaped in plan with E & N ranges. By the end of C17 there were external additions to the E range & probably a kitchen range to the S. Giacomo Leoni & the Platt Family of Masons completed the courtyard plan from c.1725 and Lewis Wyatt made alterations from 1814. Pre-1700 fabric coursed, squared buff sandstone rubble with sandstone dressings; later work ashlar sandstone,all with Welsh slate roof. N range - central gatehouse c.1570 for Sir Piers Legh VII. Body of range altered in mid-late C17 with end pavilions remodelled c.1710. 3-storey symmetrical 15-bay front. W range - perhaps started c.1710 by John Platt & finished by Leoni, but possibly constructed at same time as S front. S range - c.1725 by Leoni with top hamper 1816 by Lewis Wyatt. 3 storey symmetrical 15-bay front. E range - core Elizabethan but projecting rooms & surface detail all remodelled by Wyatt 1814. Courtyard - c.1725 remodelling by Leoni hides the irregularities of earlier rebuilds most successfully. Int: rooms from all major building phases survive,but alterations make a reconstruction of the layout of earlier periods difficult. The Long Gallery is Elizabethan & was extended in later C17. The Drawing Room includes medieval stained glass moved from the original Lyme Hall to Disley Church & returned 1835. The Knight's Bedrooms are Elizabethan and the Stag Parlour,Jacobean. Parts of the chapel are late C17 & the remainder c.1710. Full architectural description (2). De Figueiredo and Treuherz believe medieval hall and chamber incoporated into all future houses and probably on site of present entrance hall (7).

<1> Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 1883 -, Transactions of the Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 81/133-139 Marhall S 1982 (Journal/Periodical). SCH3293.

<2> Department of the Environment, 1971-2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, /4/59 (Report). SCH1934.

<3> IPC Media, 1897-Present, Country Life, Cornforth J 1974 (Newspaper-Magazine). SCH993.

<4> Waterson M, 1981, Lyme Park - National Trust Guide (Book). SCH2034.

<5> Newton Lady, 1917, The House of Lyme (Book). SCH3171.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ98SE13/1969 (Index). SCH2487.

<7> de Figueiredo P & Treuherz J, 1988, Cheshire Country Houses, /123-127 (Book). SCH785.

<8> Oxford Archaeology North, 2006, Lyme Park, Cheshire; Detailed Survey of Aspects of the Historical Landscape Development (Client Report). SCH4774.

<9> Oxford Archaeology North, 2007, Lyme Park, Cheshire; Non-Intensive Survey and Desk-Based Study (Client Report). SCH4773.