Monument record 1298/1/2 - Post medieval manor buildings at Tatton Old Hall

A series of archaeological investigations at Tatton Old Hall between 1977 and 1985 by N Higham and North Cheshire Archaeology Group have recorded a number of now demolished features associated with the manor house including a well, a venison house, a possible kitchen or bakehouse and traces of an artificial platform. (4)

Excavations in 1977 had suggested that an artificial platform had been built. By the time the brick boundary wall had been built c.1700 the terracing had already taken place, creating a relatively flat platform adjacent to the hall, the makeup of which contained numerous sherds of 17th-18th century pottery. From the beginning the terrace seems to have been a garden feature rather than a building platform. (4)

Traces of an earlier hard-standing in hand-made brick implied construction broadly contemporary with the rebuilding of the hall. The later well was similarly brick-lined and there was no evidence that this or any other well had been constructed earlier than c.1700, before which water could easily have been taken from the nearby brook. (4)

A lean-to venison house was built onto the Old Hall in the 19th century. A small external chamber was added to the west gable end, in which deer carcasses were cleaned and hung, doing considerable damage to the surviving late medieval floors beneath. (4)

Outside, on the south-west side was a secondary building approached by a cobbled access with badly damaged clay floor associated with cooking, and was probably the kitchen. The main structural elements were a thin clay floor with numerous root or stake holes and a carefully laid area of stone paving which was stratigraphically later than the floor and spatially separate from it. The stone paving was contemporary with a pair of post holes and a slot between them across the paving suggestive of a timber doorway or threshold. No walls were found. It seems likely that the paving and associated features were added to the clay floor while the building was still in use. Charcoal and ashes from the south end of the clay floor imply that the structure was built as a kitchen, brewery or bakehouse, but it could have served any one of a number of functions as an ancillary building within a complex dominated by the early 16th century hall. This date was confirmed by pottery recovered from the cultivated soil beneath the floor. (4)

<1> Higham N J, 1984, Excavations at Tatton - 7th Season interim report, /1 (Unpublished Report). SCH7421.

<2> Higham N J, 1985, Excavations at Tatton - 8th Season 1985, /1 (Unpublished Report). SCH1198.

<3> Higham N J & Aylett P, 1990, A Short History of Tatton, p.6 (Booklet-Leaflet). SCH4950.

<4> Higham N.J, 1999, The Tatton Park Project, Part 2: The Medieval Estates, Settlements and Halls.JCAS, p.120-122 (Article in Journal). SCH4937.

<5> Parklands Consortium Ltd, 2002, Tatton Park Survey, Knutsford, Cheshire: Historic Landscape Appraisal. Volume 1, 2.6.1.1. (Report). SCH4977.