Monument record 1902/2/2 - 17th century garden at Peel Hall

<1> Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), 1986, Peel Hall (Report). SCH2626.

Mid-late C17 garden at Peel Hall.An ornamental Garden Mound , formerly described as a motte or a moat, lies within associated landscaping features S of Peel Hall,

The degraded remains of the circular ditched mound lie approximately 100 SE of the S façade of the house. It is reported as having been bulldozed in or about 1948.It is depicted on early OS sheets as a precisely circular feature 54m in diameter overall with the mound itself 37m in diameter, of which about 27m formed the central platform. It appears from aerial photography in 1947 to have been an elevated and sharply defined mound: a description in 1897 refers to it as 'a circular raised plot of land measuring some fifty feet [sic] in circumference'. The same source refers also to 'well preserved remains of a very much older building' on the mound, which may have been an ornamental summerhouse or gazebo : they are reported as having been deliberately removed. There was a two-arched bridge in the middle of the NW (house) side, giving access to the mound (presumably the moat-like ditch was designed to hold water though no extant mapping shows it doing so) and a suggestion in its depiction on OS mapping and in the 1897 description that the outer arc of the moat was brick or stonerevetted.

Around the S two-thirds of the ditched mound, a high brick wall (visible on the early Aps formerly ran round the outer lip of the ditch. It was linked by 4 semicircular bays, embrasures or niches to both E and W onto straight brick walls leading back to the house (RN:1902/2/3&4), to form a continuous and elaborate garden enclosure, as shown on the Tithe Award map.

<2> 1881-1900s, Cheshire Notes and Queries, 10/190-1 1897 (Journal/Periodical). SCH558.

Desc 1897 refers to mound as 'circular raised plot of land measuring 50ft in circumference' & also mentions summer house or gazebo on summit

<3> Turner, R C, 1986, Peel Hall, An Artisan Mannerist Puzzle in Cheshire, p.30 (Article in Journal). SCH8669.

No direct access to the South front looks across a walled garden bounded by tall brick walls which narrow to increase the perspective effect. The view was closed by a large circular moat which is still just visible crossed by a twin arched causeway leading to summer-house on a prospect mound, surviving into this (the 20th) century.

<4> Varey, Sharon M, 2016, Keys to the Past: Unlocking the Secrets of the Landscape of Peel (Article in Journal). SCH8668.

<5> Wilson D et al, 1973-1986, Moated Sites Research Group Records (Paper Archive). SCH2205.

A circular (according to Omerod) moat which apparently originally had a drawbridge. Filled in some years ago.