Monument record 1230/1/1 - Tabley Old Hall

<1> Richards R, 1947, Old Cheshire Churches, p.260 (Book). SCH2309.

‘..The earliest manor-hall of which any record exists stood in a certain place adjoining the Saffronyards, a little above but apparently near to the pools. Sir Peter Leicester relates that in his time, about 1670, there was still to be seen a trench which ‘environed the Old Hall with water’. This house was succeeded by one built about 1380 on an island in the smaller of the pools, and it was reached by a bridge. A battlemented front was added in the time of Charles II and the building still remains, though derelict and in imminent danger of collapse owing to brine-pumping activities which have sapped the foundations of tile whole island and part of the park. It is sad to realize that this ancient building, which was erected by a Leicester who served in the French wars under John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, is doomed in spite of the solicitude of its owner. The large banqueting hall has a fine open timbered roof of massive proportions, with great rafters which make it almost unique in Cheshire. There is an open gallery round three sides of the hall approached by a fine heavily carved Jacobean staircase erected by Sir Peter. Much might be written about the heraldry, dates and initials which were displayed in and about the Hall, especially in the windows-beautiful in design and colour. Some idea of this island hall and chapel can be gathered from the early nineteenth century views of it reproduced in Ormerod's (see 2) and Hanshall's (see 11) histories...A more recent photograph is reproduced on the cover of Tabley Old Hall and its Associations, by J. Newns, and shows the hall and chapel before the removal of the latter. Access to the island is now gained by a wooden bridge, but formerly there was a stone bridge of two or more arches and a bridge house. The keystone of the latter, bearing arms and initials, is now in the kitchen garden. The Old Hall ceased to be the main seat of the family when Sir Peter Byrne Leicester succeeded to the property in the mid-eighteenth century. He…erected the present Tabley House on rising ground in the centre of Tabley Park, on the north side of the meres, and with a woodland background…’

<2> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, vol.I p.623 & 625 (Book). SCH1389.

‘…the old hall of Tabley, the residence of Sir Peter Leycester. This venerable building stands on an island within the circuit of the upper part of the lake, and appears to have been originally quadrangular ; but the eastern side only is remaining, the exterior front of which is completely covered with ivy : the other side being a part of the interior of the former quadrangle, is composed of timber and plaister. The entrance is on the east side, to the left of which is a large low wainscoted hall, one fourth of which is occupied by a large oak staircase leading to a gallery, which runs round two sides of the apartment. On the west side of the hall is a chimney piece, richly decorated with fanciful ornaments, dated 1619 and opposite to it a large bay window, in which is emblazoned the Leycester pedigree, in stained glass. The island on which the building stands is planted in a manner which exhibits the old hall, the lake, and surrounding scenery, to the greatest advantage. In the south-east part of it is a domestic chapel of brick, finished with large bay windows at the sides, a pointed east window, and a bell turret at the west end. The interior is neatly fitted up with oak desks, and precisely resembles a college chapel. Over the door is the date 1675. [It has been considerably altered and improved within the last twenty years, and is now adorned with two or three beautifully painted windows, by the Misses Warren. Near to the lake a heronry has lately been established]…’ Illustration on p.625.

<3> Mercer E, 1975, English Vernacular Houses: A Study of Traditional Farmhouses and Cottages, p.142 (Book). SCH1122.

Tabley Old Hall is now derelict. What survives is the shell c.1670 of a house which contained a fine timber framed hall of c.1380. The Hall had two-and-a-half bays and a storeyed cross wing of four bays. Central truss remains with moulded base crucks and arch braces supporting a cambered tie with short crown-post above. Scissor-braces to the trussed rafter-roof. Cross wing is of two storeys. Part of roof remains with arch-braced ties and crown-posts with collars to the trussed rafters. Surviving walling is in herringbone framing. In late sixteenth century various additions were made to the building. House was further extended in brick c.1671 and other additions and alterations took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

<4> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 58564 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

House, now derelict. What still survives is the shell, c1670, of a house which contained a fine timber-framed hall of c1380 . Red English garden wall bond brick with stone dressings. 3 storeys. Entrance front: partial survival of E-shaped front. Central projecting stone porch with arched opening. 2 plain-shafted columns to left with Ionic capitals, standing on pedestals with lozenge-shaped panelling. Right hand pair of columns now missing but plinths and capitals remain. Dentil cornice above. First floor walling of brick with stone quoins: One 3-light mullioned window with hood mould. Blind second floor has oculus. The recessed wall to the left of this has now collapsed but the projecting wing to the left of that has a 4-light stone ovolo-mullioned basement window with 4-light ovolo mullioned and transomed ground floor window and 4-light mullioned window to first floor. To right of porch wing is a 4-light ovolo-mullioned window with a similar to first floor and oculus to second floor. Wing to right of this has stone quoins. 4-light mullioned windows to ground and first floors with oculus to second floor. The hall, remains of which now lie on the ground, is illustrated in Country Life for 14 July 1928. [Note: this may be an error and should read 1923, see 6].

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ77 NW 3 (Index). SCH2487.

TP Waggott F.I. 29/06/1964: The site of the Church is covered by impenetrable vegetation but according to the agent, fragments of foundation remain. Only the outer walls of Tabley Hall remain and these are architecturally uninteresting. The island was apparently formerly a peninsula since the channel on the north-western side seems to be artificial.

<6> IPC Media, 1897-Present, Country Life, Vol.LIV (54) p.50, 84 & 114 (1923) (Newspaper-Magazine). SCH993.

‘Adam Leycester, who died in 1591, probably altered the hall, and his widow built a gatehouse destroyed in the eighteenth century.’

<7> IPC Media, 1897-Present, Country Life, Vol.LXII (62) p.997 (1927) (Newspaper-Magazine). SCH993.

<8> English Heritage, Various, Schedule Entry (Scheduled Ancient Monuments Amendment), 13494 (Scheduling Record). SCH2950.

The moated site of Tabley Old Hall on island of 0.5 hectares. Contains much of northern and eastern walls of old hall plus fragments of internal walls and much rubble. To the south-east lie the sandstone foundations of a chapel. A flight of steps lead from the north-eastern corner to mere, wall runs along much of north-western edge of island. A fallen sundial indicates a garden area to the west of the ruins. Traces of old boat-house on south-west of island. Channel to north-west is 18m wide and 1.5m deep. Chapel from seventeenth century. Tower added to hall in 1724. Part of hall collapsed in 1927, building subsequently abandoned and chapel demolished.

<9> University of Manchester Archaeological Unit, 2000, Tabley Old Hall, Tablet Inferior: A Survey of the Standing Remains of the Medieval and 17th Century Hall (Client Report). SCH8186.

The Old Hall had at least four major phases:

A late fourteenth century medieval timber-framed hall of which the open hall in the southern part of the building is a survival.

In the sixteenth century a large ingle-nook fireplace was inserted into the hall and in the early seventeenth century a new brick fireplace was inserted in the great hall and an oak-panelled bay added.

In the late seventeenth century c.1670 the medieval hall was expanded by the addition of a symmetrical brick facade on the north-eastern side of the building and the great hall was converted into a large lobby or entrance hall. A grand Jacobean-style staircase was added to serve a new eastern wing and an open gallery was built on three sides of the hall. The hall’s new double-depth, central-staircase plan form was only just becoming fashionable.

In the eighteenth century (c. 1760s) the rooms to the east of the great hall were demolished after the Leicester family had moved to the New Hall.

The ruinous condition of the Old Hall dates from 1927 when the island began to be affected by subsidence due to brine extraction. The open spere trussed medieval great hall has been lost, but the 1619 wood and plaster chimney breast was saved. The Jacobean staircase and oak panelling have also been lost.

The major surviving portion of the structure is the main, north-eastern, facade which dates from around 1670. This is a mixture of classical elements (the symmetrical five bays, oculus features and the classical columns to the central porch) and vernacular details (the mullioned windows, keystone arch and quoining) in a Jacobean style.

<10> Arnold AJ, Howard RE & Tyers C, 2018, Tabley Old Hall, Chester Road, Nether Tabley, near Knutsford, Cheshire: Tree-Ring Analysis of Oak Timbers (Report). SCH8517.

Tree-ring analysis at Tabley Old Hall has successfully dated five timbers. The three timbers felled in the range AD 1351–76 appear likely to be associated with the primary construction of Tabley Old Hall and may suggest, albeit based on only limited evidence, that this original construction phase could have been slightly earlier than the c. AD 1380 usually ascribed. Two other timbers appear likely to have been felled in the latter half of the seventeenth century and were probably associated with the period of major construction activity at that time.

<11> Hanshall, J. H., 1817-1823, The History of the County Palatine of Chester, p.214 (Book). SCH1382.

John Leycester (d.1398) built '…the Manor Hall of Tabley within the lake, where it now stands, 'previous to which, it stood without the lake, near the Saffron yards,' where there is yet a trench to be seen which environed the old hall about with water; which old hall I conjecture, was the residence of the Hearts of Nether Tabley, whose freehold was bought out by Roger Leycester…'

<12> Webb S, 2012, 'A Noble Specimen of Architecture'; A History of Tabley Old Hall (Article in Journal). SCH8518.

John Leycester (d.1398) built the original timber-framed hall on its island site in about 1380. It originally consisted of an open hall, screens passage and (later) double-storey domestic wing.

The marriage of Peter Leycester (1588-1647) and Elizabeth Mainwaring in 1611 and was celebrated by an armorial fireplace in the Great Hall (dated 1619). It comprised a carnival of carved figures including; hounds, hares deer and huntsmen along the bottom, a merman and a mermaid flanking a naked child with an hour-glass top and an owl and a dove top right and left respectively. The family arms are flanked by figures of Lucretia and Cleopatra and four smaller figures. The allegorical meaning of the carvings is probably lost, but it has been suggested it represents the household virtues. The brick walls about the garden and wash-house were built in 1656-7. The drawing room and balcony were added around this time. Repairs were undertaken in 1671 during which the great hall was repanelled and an impressive staircase added for access to the gallery. The adjacent chapel was built between 1674 and 1678.

The external changes to the hall were old fashioned. The east front was extended forwards and, with a new entrance porch flanked by two new projecting bays, it produced an E-shaped facade. Everything was faced in brick and topped with battlements while oculi below the parapet suggest a second floor, but actually open onto the roof space. The rear of the building seems to have been left largely untouched. Little evidence survives to indicate the room functions. However it is known that the hall accommodated Sir Peter’s study and extensive libraries.

Sir Francis Leicester (1674-1742) substantially expanded the hall. The domestic quarters to the rear of the hall were expanded to include a servants hall and dining room. Glass portraits of English Monarchs were inserted into the large window in the great hall. A further wing, probably timber framed, was added beyond the staircase of the great hall. Sir Peter’s study was retained, a new library created (possibly in the new wing) and a nursery.

Sir Francis's immediate heir was his grandson Sir Peter Byrne (1732-70) who wished to demolish the old hall and utilise the salvage to build the stables and outbuildings of his new house. Sir Francis's will prevented this as unless a residence was kept in Nether Tabley the whole estate of Nether Tabley became forfeit. Following his death, his widow Catherine oversaw the completion of the new house and changes to the old hall. The more modern additions were removed reducing the hall to its seventeenth century plan. It was thence used as a farmhouse. Later the stone bridge to the house was removed and the salvage was used to build a new boat house. The bridge was replaced with a timber one.

During the nineteenth century the old hall was preserved with its original furniture as a memorial and museum, and occupied by retired employees who would act as guides to visitors. One of Sir Peter’s rooms was converted into an oratory. Another, not opened ‘within the memory of man’, reputedly contained the bodies of a married couple murdered in the hall and whose ghosts still haunted it. From the 1870s Lord de Tabley used the old hall to display his Roman finds from Ribchester and his collection of arms and armour and other artefacts, effectively a small museum, and adding the Nether Tabley Lending Library in 1881. Access became much more restricted in the early twentieth century.

The old hall was closed in 1914 and repairs were required due to subsidence caused by brine pumping. The old hall was reopened in 1916 and photographs show a building in good repair, though a Country Life article from 1923 (see 6) depicted ongoing damage from subsidence. The chapel was rescued on rebuilt next to the new house (by 1929). The old hall was described as ‘subsiding into the mere’ and its removal and reconstruction was deemed too expensive. A buyer was sought (see 7) and the old hall’s reconstruction in America was contemplated. At the same time the collections began to be sold. Elements of the Old Hall were removed to preserve them and they were used to decorate a room at the new house. These included: the rafters from the Chapel, the 1619 Jacobean fireplace the painted glass heads and autographed panes from the great hall window and flagstones from the ground floor rooms.

<13> Hartwell C, Hyde M, Hubbard E & Pevsner N, 2011, The Buildings of England: Cheshire (2011 revision), p.618 (Book). SCH7059.

Tabley Old Hall was built for the Leicester family. The hall and chapel stood picturesquely on a small island in the upper mere. Although reduced in size, there remained the hall of a medieval timber-framed house altered over the years and encased in brick in 1670. It was a condition of the inheritance that it was kept up, but in 1927 the house was suddenly undermined by. The chapel was subsequently dismantled and rebuilt by the eighteenth century house. Now only a few fragments of the Hall’s wall survive.

<14> Various, Various, Cheshire Life, Vol.12 no.6, p.8-11 (Journal/Periodical). SCH837.

‘…looking at the tremendous adzed framework of the hall…The immense ‘monoliths’ forming the central arch of the hall, rough-hewn into a five-fold moulding, resemble the stone mouldings of the period. The extreme massiveness of the work, especially in the roof, where solid bauks of timber measure in places several yards through, has preserved the frame of the hall through five and a half centuries. The arch itself is probably unique, certainly in domestic architecture. Two full-grown oaks have gone into its fashioning, the whole of each half being hewn from a trunk and one inclining limb till they meet at the apex. Across this is laid a massive truss, on which,…stands the king post with two lateral braces, and whence spring two other arched trusses supporting the rafters.’

<15> Ryder Dutton, 2001, Tabley Old Hall, Tabley Inferior, Cheshire: Draft Conservation Plan (Client Report). SCH8522.

The site retains material from a now mainly ruinous medieval hall and cross wing, with seventeenth and eighteenth century brickwork providing evidence of extensive alteration and improvement.

The medieval hall was a spear truss hall, or quasi aisled hall, (Margaret Wood), very much following similar examples from the early fourteenth century to the early sixteenth century. The Hall was 2 1/2 bays in length and 42 feet long by 28 feet wide. To the north of the screen passage was a cross wing with an identifiable cross passage and rooms on either side. In the sixteenth century a large inglenook fireplace was inserted into the southwest side of the Medieval Hall with a large external chimneybreast. A second large chimney was placed to the northern side of the cross wing. The hall have had a simple minstrel gallery which was later expanded.

The hall provides evidence of seventeenth century gentry housing similar to properties in the Upper Calder Valley of West Yorkshire Of paramount importance in Gentry Housing was the retention of the medieval plan form. This conformed closely with the need to demonstrate longevity of use and wealth. At Tabley the building facade was realigned and clad quite unusually in brick, given the availability of timber in seventeenth century north Cheshire. Brick and its use by the family, showing their wealth and status was further underlined the chapel was rebuilt adjacent to the house in matching material. The symmetrical front and the oculus windows, together with the colonnaded porch, provide evidence of a national movement in design, much of which remains. The greater part of the medieval structure has collapsed into the body of the house.

An estate map of 1797 depicts the seventeenth or eighteenth century footbridge lay to the north of the Hall, connecting it with an access roadway running along the northwest of the shore. The island was of an almost triangular shape, with a very prominent and structured north shoreline, which ran parallel to the northwest edge of the lake, both edges of land being manmade. The shape of the island close to the position of the seventeenth or eighteenth century remains unaltered. This bridge had been removed by 1896 and the isthmus of land which was used to foreshorten the distance that the bridge had to cross to the island has either sunk or been physically removed.

Tabley Hall provides a rare and important example of upper/middle class housing, a position it maintained from its earliest days as a moated site right through until the date of the construction of the new hall in eighteenth century.

<16> Smiths Gore, 2003, Tabley Old Hall, Tabley Inferior, Cheshire: Report for the Tabley Estate Management Board (Client Report). SCH8527.

<17> Angus-Butterworth, LM, 1932, Old Cheshire Families and their Seats, p.139, p.149-155 (Book). SCH2321.

‘… the island is not entirely natural. It would appear that at some remote time the lower lake…had a broad tongue of land projecting into it on its north-west side. A deep trench was cut across the base of this, and the hall thus converted into a moated grange…The island is now reached by a wooden footbridge, but the foundations of an old stone bridge still remain…’

‘…The Old Hall was originally a many-gabled half-timbered building resembling Bramhall…erected…in the reign of Richard II, and then extended…There was also a picturesque black-and-white gatehouse facing the former stone bridge. At that time it was called the New Hall of Nether Table, the year being about 1380…’

‘..Sir Peter Leycester…[in 1671]…converted Tabley Old Hall into [a] Jacobean brick and stone building…the size and importance of the great halt was lessened to provide…apartments and the greater seclusion they afforded. Sir Peter made his chief enlargement on the north-east, which is the main front of the house. He gave it symmetry by causing the entrance and the two side wings to project slightly. The brick external walls which took the place of the old timber-framing were carried to a uniform height at the front and sides of the building, and were given a battlemented top. The windows, which are large for the period, have stone mullions and transoms, and the corners of the building are strengthened in the same way. The whole of the north-east front is of admirable proportions, the sense of balance perhaps resulting in an important degree from a charming entrance in stone. This doorway has on either side simple twin pillars supporting a pediment, upon which are a couple of well-carved heraldic beasts. Immediately beneath the pediment is a small coat of arms…’

‘…the great hall…is forty feet long by twenty-five wide and, together with parts of the kitchens and butteries, appears to be all that remains of the structure built in the reign of Richard II. The roof timbers are of great size and massiveness…The high table was at the south-east end of the room, and a huge inglenook occupied the middle of the south-west side…Sir Peter erected a grand Jacobean staircase in the hall to serve his new eastern wing, and placed an open gallery on three sides…giving access from the staircase to the principal bedrooms. The western part of this gallery took the place of the earlier musicians' gallery over the screens. Sir Peter also enriched the apartment with the splendid Jacobean oak panelling which still remains in position. The huge inglenook, which was about twelve feet wide and six feet deep inside, was replaced by a chimneypiece decorated with grotesque carvings of Cleopatra and Lucretia, each at the point of death. This elaborate fireplace is dated 1619…’

<18> English Heritage, 1993, Tabley Old Hall, Cheshire (Condition Assessment) (Unpublished Report). SCH8531.

<19> Douglas J, 1872-5, The Abbey Square Sketch Book, Vol.II, plates 26-30 (Book). SCH3014.

Includes illustrations of elevations, floor plans and furniture.

<20> Historic England (Historic Places Investigation (North)), 2017, Tabley Old Hall and Moated Site, Nether Tabley, near Knutsford, Cheshire: Architectural and Archaeological Investigation (Report). SCH8610.

Combined architectural and archaeological survey of the ruined remains of Tabley Old Hall, Grade II* Listed, and the island upon which it sits which is also a scheduled monument. The survey was undertaken in 2017 by Historic England as the Old Hall has been placed on the Heritage at Risk Register due to the on-going threat of subsidence due to historic brine pumping and the deteriorating condition of the standing remains. The purpose of the survey was to record the condition of the remains and understand the significance of the site in order to contribute to the development of a management plan for the site. As part of this project, dendrochronological analysis of some timbers of the Old Hall was undertaken and is reported on separately, see ECH6573, SCH8517 (source 10).