Building record 1281/1/1 - Ashley Hall

<1> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol.I p.557 (Book). SCH1389.

The Hall, which was for some time the seat of the Merediths and is now a farmhouse. The exterior is stuccoed and finished with gables; the interior contains an old entrance hall, and a variety of apartments, now altered, but retaining in general an air of respectable antiquity. The offices, as is usual in the old Cheshire mansions, are ranged in front of the building, between the Hall and the road adjacent (see CHER 1281/2/1). The Hall is noted for its collection of the portraits of ten Cheshire gentlemen who had, in 1715, met at each others houses as Members of a Club, to discuss the prospects of the rising in that year in favour of the Stuarts. After the failure of the 1715 Jacobite rising, they commemorated their decision to support the reigning king by having their portraits painted by an unknown artist in 1720. The portraits were hung in the large room at the Hall but were moved to Tatton in the nineteenth century by Lord Egerton.

<2> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 58378 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Farmhouse. Late sixteenth to early seventeenth century with eighteenth and nineteenth century additions. Brick and rendered brick with timber framing to right end and slate roof. Central through passage plan. Entrance front of two storeys and five bays the central one recessed. Whitewashed brickwork on painted plinth, probably of stone. Nineteenth century wood casement windows with moulded brick surrounds and mullions. Central bay has recessed porch. Central bay and wings support gables with purlins and ridge beams showing. Right side (exposed after demolition of seventeenth and eighteenth century range). Sixteenth century chimney shaft and stack abutting wall has three linked diamond-shaped flues. Close-studding and herringbone timbering exposed at first floor level. One pointed Gothick window with interlacing glazing bars reset from demolished eighteenth century range. Interior: Staggered nineteenth century staircase has seventeenth century balustrade reset, with flat balusters with heart-shaped piercings. Moulded hollow chamfering to ceiling beams. Further chamfered beams in present drawing room encased.

<3> Cardy, B, 1976, Report on Coat of Arms at Ashley Hall Cheshire (Report). SCH2827.

A painted coat of arms was found painted directly on the plaster between two diagonal struts of the roof truss in 1976. Correspondence and photographs.

<4> de Figueiredo P & Treuherz J, 1988, Cheshire Country Houses, p.213 (Book). SCH785.

<5> Burdett, P. P., 1777, A Survey of the County Palatine of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH113.

This map depicts the hall. It is labelled Ashley Hall.

<6> Greenwood, C. & Greenwood J., 1819, Map of the County Palatine of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH2115.

This map depicts the hall (labelled Ashley Hall) as a building with two projecting wings at either end on the eastern side. To the east are two parallel long buildings between the hall and the road (see CHER 1281/2/1). To the south, the map depicts woodland and a pond. To the north is a smaller woodland.

<7> Bryant, A., 1831, Map of the County Palatine of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH2114.

This map depicts the hall (labelled Ashley Hall) as a building with two projecting wings at either end on the eastern side. Further corresponding, but larger wings or ranges, project to the west. The southern wing or range is substantially larger than the original house. Further buildings are depicted to the south and west of the southern of the two long buildings located between the house and road (see CHER 1281/2/1). The house lies within an area of parkland (coloured green on this map) (see CHER 1281/3/1).

<8> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 20/2, 1838 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

This map depicts the hall. The hall is generally rectangular in shape, with two possible projecting wings on the eastern side at either end. There are further small projections on the northern side and at the northern end of the western side. A semi-circular bay is also apparent, slightly off centre, on this side.

<9> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ7684, 1877 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

The hall seems substantially smaller than the building depicted on the 1838 tithe map (see 8). It would appear that the northern half to two thirds of the hall have been demolished. Labelled Ashley Hall.

<10> Donald Insall Associates, 2019, The South Range, Ashley Hall, Tatton Estate, Altrincham WA14 3QA: Heritage, Design and Access Statement, p.2 (Client Report). SCH9143.

Ashley Hall was the centre of a large estate, built in the late fifteenth century with later additions made in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The hall itself is famous as the meeting place of the Cheshire gentry, who in 1715 met to decide whether to support the Jacobites or George I. Their support for the latter is commemorated in a series of portraits marking the event, part of the collection held at Tatton Hall following Lord Egerton’s purchase of the Ashley Estate. Part of the north range of the hall was demolished in 1972, exposing some of the oldest fabric including a sixteenth century chimney stack and herringbone timber framing.