Backford Hall is a country house in the village of Backford, Cheshire, England. It was built in the mid 19th Century on the site of earlier halls, and was designed by John Cunningham. Its style is described as "exuberant Elizabethan, Jacobean and Bohemian Rococo". [1]
Since 1946 it has been used as offices by Cheshire County Council, and in 2012 its sale was agreed for residential development if planning approval was granted. [2] Planning permission was granted in 2014 and the first residents moved into one of the new houses in 2016. [3] The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. [1]
Backford Hall was built by Lieutenant Colonel Edward Holt Glegg (1809-1877) of the Rifle Brigade. The foundation stone for was laid in 1848. In June 1849 when the building was in progress a dinner for the workmen was held in a farmhouse on the estate. This was described in the local newspaper at that time. [4] They said that the foundation stone had been laid in June of the previous year and that John Cunningham was the architect. They also made the following comment about the Hall.
"It is a beautiful specimen of the ornamental Elizabethan style and admirably built and is expected to be ready for the reception of the family in May or June next year." [4]
Lieutenant Colonel Edward Holt Glegg was a member of a wealthy land owning family. Besides Backford estate the Gleggs owned large areas in Irbie. A full account of the family is given in the book called “The Mansions of England and Wales” [5] In 1845 he married Margaret Maxwell Logan who was the daughter of John Maxwell Logan of Fingalton. [6]
Edward inherited the Backford Estate when his elder brother died in 1843. He built the new Hall on the site of an 18th Century old hall which he demolished. [7] When he died in 1877 his eldest son Birkenhead Glegg (1848-1914) inherited the house. He did not marry. The 1881 Census records him living at the Hall with his mother, Margaret and his brother, Edward as well seven servants including a butler and footman. [8]
When Birkenhead Glegg died in 1914 his brother Edward Maxwell Glegg (1849-1927) inherited the Hall. He married in 1904 at the age of 55 but the couple had no children. When he died in 1927 the house was inherited by a distant relative Lettice Valentine Lee Townshend [9] She did not live at the Hall but instead rented it to various tenants one of which was a country club. In 1945 it was sold to Cheshire County Council.
Farnley Hall is a stately home in Farnley, west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is a grade II listed building. It was built in Elizabethan times by the Danbys. The manor is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Fernelei, so it is probable that this house was a replacement for earlier medieval structures.
The Wirral Peninsula, known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about 15 miles (24 km) long and 7 miles (11 km) wide, and is bounded by the Dee Estuary to the west, the Mersey Estuary to the east, and Liverpool Bay to the north.
The Diocese of Chester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York covering the pre-1974 county of Cheshire and therefore including the Wirral and parts of Stockport, Trafford and Tameside.
Mollington is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England, two miles north of the city of Chester, with the A41 Liverpool-Chester trunk road and Shropshire Union Canal to the east and southeast, the A540 Wirral Peninsula trunk road to the south and west and the A5117 link road to the north.
St Oswald's Church is in the village of Backford, to the northwest of Chester, Cheshire, England, close to the A41 road and adjoining Backford Hall. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. The church dates from the 14th century with later additions and restorations. It contains one of the few surviving aumbries in Cheshire and a number of memorial boards painted by the Randle Holme family. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Wirral South. Its benefice is combined with that of Holy Trinity Church, Capenhurst. From March 2018 this benefice shares a vicar with All Saints, Saughall.
Farndon Bridge, also known as Holt Bridge, crosses the River Dee and the England-Wales border between the villages of Farndon, Cheshire, England and Holt, Wrexham, Wales. The bridge, which was built in the mid-14th century, is recorded in the National Heritage List for England and by Cadw as a designated Grade I listed building and scheduled monument. It is built from locally quarried red sandstone and had eight arches, of which five are over the river. On the Farndon side there is one flood arch and two flood arches are on the Holt side.
Edward Kemp was an English landscape architect and an author. Together with Joseph Paxton and Edward Milner, Kemp became one of the leaders in the design of parks and gardens during the mid-Victorian era in England.
Rowland Eyles Egerton-Warburton was an English landowner and poet from the Egerton family in Cheshire. He was a devout Anglican in the high church tradition and a local benefactor. He paid for the restoration of his parish church and for the building of two new churches in villages on his estates. He also built cottages and farm buildings in the villages.
Rocksavage or Rock Savage was an Elizabethan mansion in Cheshire, England, which served as the primary seat of the Savage family. The house lies in ruins, at SJ526799 in Clifton. Built in the 1560s for Sir John Savage, Rocksavage was one of the great Elizabethan houses of the county, a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house; in 1674, it was the second largest house in Cheshire. James I visited in 1617. The house was abandoned after it passed into the Cholmondeley family early in the 18th century, and by 1782 only ruins remained.
Jodrell Hall is a country house near Jodrell Bank in the parish of Twemlow, in the county of Cheshire, England.
Chorlton Hall is a country house to the east of the village of Backford, Cheshire, England.
Chorlton Hall is a country house in the parish of Chorlton, Cheshire, England. It stands some 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of Malpas. The house dates from the 17th century, with additions made in the second quarter of the 19th century. Its entrance front is pebbledashed and it stands on a stone plinth. The roof is slated. The house is in 2½ storeys plus cellars. Across the front are three bays, each with a gable, and with the central bay protruding. On the gables are ball finials. The porch has an ogee-arched entrance. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. A stable block and two cottages to the southeast of the house have also been designated at Grade II.
Haughton Hall is a country house to the east of the village of Haughton, Cheshire, England. It was rebuilt between 1891 and 1894 for the shipowner and art collector Ralph Brocklebank. The architect was J. F. Doyle, the design being influenced by the Old English picturesque style of Norman Shaw. The house was altered in about 1950, reducing it from three storeys to two, and replacing tile-hanging with roughcast. It is constructed in red brick, some of which has been roughcast, and has red tiled roofs. The house has an L-shaped plan. The garden front is in two storeys and has five bays; there is a single-storey five-bay wing to the east, and a three-storey three-bay service wing to the north. In the garden front are three bay windows, a Venetian window and a door. Above the door is a sundial. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.
Hoole Hall is a former country house located to the north of Chester, Cheshire, England. It originated as a small house in about 1760, built for the Rev John Baldwin. After Rev Baldwin's death in 1793, the house passed to his eldest son, Thomas Baldwin, who then sold the house and surrounding land in 1800.
North Rode Manor is a country house standing to the north of the village of North Rode, Cheshire, England. The house was built between 1838 and 1840 for John Smith Daintry, a banker and silk manufacturer from Macclesfield, on the site of an earlier house that had been destroyed by fire. Alterations have been carried out since it was originally built. The house is constructed in stuccoed brick with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. It is in two storeys. The entrance front has five bays, the two on the left protruding forwards. The entrance porch dates from the 19th-century and is supported by paired Tuscan columns. To the right of this is a canted bay window. On the right side of the house is another canted bay window, and on the left side is a tower with a pyramidal roof. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. The authors of the Buildings of England series describe it a "sprawling white house in Regency Gothic".
Ravenscroft Hall is a country house standing to the east of the B5309 road about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north of Middlewich, Cheshire, England. The house was built in 1837 for William T. Buchanan, replacing a former Jacobean house. It was extended, possibly in 1852 when the house was bought by the Moss family, and again in 1877. The house has since been divided into two dwellings. It is constructed in roughcast and yellow brick, with stone dressings and slate roofs. The house is in two storeys, with a main front of five bays, and a five-bay extension to the northeast. The garden front also has five bays. The house has an Ionic porch, and an Italianate belvedere. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.
Trafford Hall is an 18th-century country house standing to the east of the village of Wimbolds Trafford in Cheshire, England, about 4+1⁄2 miles (7 km) northeast of the city of Chester. It is owned by The Regenda Group and operated as a youth hostel and training centre by the Youth Hostels Association.
Stapeley House is a country house in London Road, Stapeley, Cheshire. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. It was built in 1778, and remodelled in 1847–48 by Anthony Salvin. It has subsequently been converted for use as offices, alterations being carried out during the 20th century. The house is constructed in brick with ashlar dressings, and it has a slate roof. It is in three storeys, with an entrance front of three bays. To the right is a lower four-bay wing, also in three storeys. At the rear of the house are 20th-century additions.
Bispham Hall is a Grade II* listed Elizabethan country house in Billinge, now part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester.
Soughton Hall is a Grade II* listed country house hotel in Sychdyn, Flintshire, Wales. Notable guests that have stayed include Luciano Pavarotti, Michael Jackson and King Juan Carlos I of Spain. William John Bankes inherited Soughton Hall in the 1815.
