Building record 1202/1/1 - Arley Hall

<1> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol 1, p.613 (Book). SCH1389.

Arley Hall was built by Piers Warburton, who died in 1495, but it is probable that a house existed earlier from the date of a deed of Sir Geoffrey de Werberton at Arlegh in 1346. The original house was quadrangular and of wood and plaster. In c.1758 the house was greatly altered and encased in brick. It formed a quadrangle enclosing a central courtyard. The house included a domestic chapel and was surrounded by a moat, which is now filled in. In 1833 this building was demolished and replaced by a new house

<2> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England (Web Site). SCH6528.

House. 1835-45. By George Latham of Nantwich. Red Flemish bond brick with blue headers arranged in patterns of diapering, Horton stone dressings and slate roof. 2 storeys with cellars and attic. Mezzanine floor to west side. South front: symmetrical 7-bay facade in A.B.B.C.B.B.A. rhythm. Stone plinth, quoins, window surrounds and parapet. Slightly projecting wings to either side with stone quoins and shaped gables with stone decorations. Canted 2-storey bays of 6 lights. 5 mullions to both floors with 2 transoms to ground floor windows and one to first floor. Pierced stone parapets to both bays. Central porch with 2 pairs of debased Ionic columns with Jacobean diamond lozenges to lower shafts and strapwork to pedestals. Central arch with coats of arms in the spandrels. Above this there originally rose a square tower with a semi-circular oriel window and octagonal lantern over. This was demolished in 1968 and replaced by a 3-light window with 2 mullions and one transom in a stone surround. To either side are two 3-light windows with 2 transoms and 2 mullions. Hood moulds over join at level of upper transom. First floor windows similar to central replacement. 2 groups of 4 moulded brick Tudor chimneys to left and right behind ridge. West front: 2 floors with mezzanine. Doorway to centre imposed upon central 2 lights of a 4-light mullioned and transomed window. 2-light mullioned and transomed window to left with two 2-light mullioned windows at mezzanine level. Two 2-light mullioned windows above these. To right a 3-flue chimney stack, then blank ground and mezzanine floors. Stone oriel to first floor of 3 mullioned and transomed lights supported on consoles with 2-light mullioned and transomed windows to either side. Strapwork decoration to lower part of oriel and pierced stone parapet above. Interior: Front Hall: Oak panelling in a C17 style. Plaster strapwork to ceiling. Library: bookcases and chimney-piece in loose Jacobean style. Ionic pillars with lozenges to lower shafts and strapwork to pedestals with male and female terms above in pairs to overmantel. Fittings supplied by H Wood and Co. of Covent Garden in 1843. Elaborate Jacobean ceiling with pendants. Canted bays containing stained glass to upper lights by M Lusson of Paris, 1852. Gallery: oak panelling to lower walls, panelled, moulded ceiling with strapwork and pendants. Canted bay with stained glass to upper lights by M Lusson 1863. Fireplace with 2 Doric columns, panelled at bases. Overmantel with central carved panel of St George slaying the dragon with personifications of Hope and Patience to either side in niches. Underneath the appropriate carvings the inscriptions 'HOPE CONFIDENTLY' 'DO VALIINTLY' and 'WAIT PATIENTLY'. Drawing room: coved ceiling with delicate 'Jacobean' strapwork, arabesque decoration to cornice frieze and raised and fielded panelling to the lower walls of mid-C19 French style. 9-panel doors with similar mid-C19 French doorcases. Great Staircase: half-turn staircase with landings. Plaster strapwork to soffit. Deep moulded handrail and heavy oak balusters. Coved ceiling decorated with strapwork rising to central octagonal lantern also with plaster strapwork decoration to ceiling. Ante-room: oak panelled barrel-vault with strapwork and pendants. The first Arley Hall was built on this site by the Warburton family in 1469. The estate has descended in the same family since then. In 1968 the house suffered considerable reduction due to demolition, the Banqueting Hall and much of the East front and service court having been razed. The Chapel (q.v.) was then isolated. The service court originally abutted the west front and the present left hand portion of that front is a rendering of an originally external wall with old mullioned windows reset.

<3> IPC Media, 1897-Present, Country Life, 16/942-950 Egerton-Warburton P 1904 (Newspaper-Magazine). SCH993.

<4> Hartwell C, Hyde M, Hubbard E & Pevsner N, 2011, The Buildings of England: Cheshire (2011 revision), p.105-7 (Book). SCH7059.

In 1469 Piers Warburton moved his seat from Warburton to Arley. His house was timber-framed, initially a U but made quadrangular by a gatehouse range of circa 1750. It was cased in brick and tidied up in the 1750s by Sir Peter Warburton with the builder-architect William Lyon. The front was now symmetrical, with lintels blocked to look like voussoirs and keystone, and fancy glazing patterns as at Belmont Hall. That house was taken down in 1832. Latham had made Gothic designs, reminiscent of the Websters of Kendal, in 1826, but the style settled upon by Rowland Egerton-Warburton was Elizabethan or Jacobean, modelled on Crewe Hall. Red brick diapered with black, large mullioned and transomed windows arranged symmetrically, shaped gables. Construction was in two phases, 1832-5 and 1840-5. The disposition of the new followed that of the old, with porch and hall in the same places, although the quadrangle was much reduced. Salvin came in 1842-5 alongside Latham to build a large chapel en suite at the back, to which Street added a north aisle in 1856-7. A nursery wing, muniment tower and big kitchen were added to the west in 1859-60 by T.H.Wyatt, but in 1968 this section was taken down, as were the hall, the oriel room over the porch and the tall octagonal tower and ogee dome that capped it. The front as a result was left rather flat, the parade of rooms truncated. The scars of the partial demolition were wiped out from 1986 by a new quadrangle of houses by Harry Graham.

<6> de Figueiredo P & Treuherz J, 1988, Cheshire Country Houses, p.23 (Book). SCH785.

Sir Piers Warburton moved from Warburton to Arley in 1469 and built a new house. Of an E-plan, it was timber-framed and set within a moat. In C16, extended to a full courtyard plan with gatehouse

<7> Foster C, 1982, Arley Hall - Cheshire (Book). SCH373.