Rufford New Hall

Last updated
Rufford New Hall
Neale(1818) p2.234 - Rufford Hall, Lancashire.jpg
Rufford New Hall in 1818
Location map United Kingdom Borough of West Lancashire.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within the Borough of West Lancashire
General information
Architectural style Georgian
Town or city Rufford
CountryEngland
Coordinates 53°38′27″N2°49′27″W / 53.6409°N 2.8242°W / 53.6409; -2.8242
Completed1798
ClientRobert Hesketh
Technical details
Structural system Brick with stucco
Listed Building – Grade II
Designated2 December 1986
Reference no. 1361855

Rufford New Hall is a former country house that belonged to the Heskeths who were lords of the manor of Rufford, Lancashire, England. It replaced Rufford Old Hall as their residence in 1760. From 1920 to 1987 it was used as a hospital and has subsequently been restored and converted for residential use. It was designated a Grade II listed building in 1986. [1]

Contents

History

The portico entrance in 2010. Rufford New Hall Portico Entrance.JPG
The portico entrance in 2010.

Rufford New Hall was built in 1760. The country house was built by Sir Robert Hesketh and enlarged by his grandson around 1798-9 when the Heskeths left Rufford Old Hall. Heskeths lived at Rufford New Hall until 1919.

The hall is built in brick which was formerly stuccoed. It has a low-pitched hipped slate roof concealed by a low parapet. The two storey symmetrical frontage has a five-bay facade with an Ionic portico of unfluted columns over a wide doorway with a fanlight. The hall has four 15-paned sashed windows on the ground floor, with five 12-paned windows on the first. Some spout heads bear the initials of Sir Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh and the date 1811 and one is dated 1822. The entrance hall has a cantilevered or flying stone staircase and landing on three sides with wrought iron balusters and is lighted by a domed oval skylight. [1] [2] The main hall has columns and pilasters made from Scagliola marble.

Hospital

Rufford New Hall was bought by Lancashire County Council in 1920 and converted for use as a hospital. Rufford Pulmonary Hospital opened on 6 August 1926. It had 50 beds to treat patients with tuberculosis. [3] Subsequently, it was used by the NHS as a pre-convalescent hospital until its closure in 1987. [4] [5] The convalescent hospital was administered by Ormskirk District General Hospital.

Rufford Park

The Heskeths created Rufford Park around the hall, with a deer park, a ha-ha, and leisure gardens surrounded by a stone wall. Rufford Park extended from the boundary with Holmeswood to the boundary with Croston and Mawdesley. The area was divided by the Liverpool-Preston Turnpike Road (the A59 Liverpool Road). The development of the park resulted in cottages being demolished and their inhabitants relocated in the village. The park is screened by trees and contains an ice house, a rose garden, a restored ornamental garden, lake, and plantations. The southern part of the park is designated a Biological Heritage Site, and is home to bats, red squirrels and other species of animals, shrubs and rare fungi. [5] [6]

Ice house

The ice house is a Grade II listed building, one of three survivors in the district. The building was renovated when the main hall was restored and is protected and maintained by the estate. It is circular, built in sandstone, brick and earth with a domed roof above an underground chamber entered through a brick passage. Surrounding the ice house is a ha-ha forming a complete circle about 35 metres (115 ft) in diameter. [7] In winter ice was taken from the frozen lake to the ice house for storage for the rest of the year.

Lodges

Gate posts at Rufford New Hall in 2010. Rufford New Hall Gate Posts.JPG
Gate posts at Rufford New Hall in 2010.

Rufford New Hall had three lodges, which can be seen on the 1847 Ordnance Survey map. Holmeswood Lodge was constructed in the early 19th century on Holmeswood Road. Hesketh Lodge was constructed in the early 19th century as the main entrance lodge. It was named after the original owners. It is a single storey building and is stuccoed with stone dressings. Croston Lodge is the north entrance lodge on the A59, Liverpool Road, built in 1798. It is a single storey brick building with a slate roof. Springwood Lodge is the former gamekeeper or gardener's cottage.

Restoration

Restored garden doorway in 2010. Rufford New Hall Garden Doorway.JPG
Restored garden doorway in 2010.

The hall and north wing were restored and converted into apartments and mews houses. The stone cantilevered staircase with the Hesketh family crest, the Georgian belvedere tower and the oval glass dome on the roof have been retained. The hall retains its Ionic colonnades and portico. [8] The stable block has been converted to mews cottages. The formal gardens, ornamental ponds, lawns and tennis courts have been restored. The majority of trees around the hall are protected by a Tree Preservation Order and include many species, the rarest being a handkerchief tree. [5]

Ghosts

The hall and its grounds are reputed to be haunted by four different ghosts.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

Tarleton Human settlement in England

Tarleton is a village and civil parish in North West England, situated in the Lancashire mosslands approximately 10 miles north east of the seaside town of Southport, approximately 10 miles south west of the city of Preston, approximately 10 miles west of the town of Chorley, and approximately 10 miles north of the market town of Ormskirk. The village is known for farming due to its rich soil quality. The River Douglas runs northwards to the east of the village, which is locally thought to be where the Vikings camped on the river banks of what is now Tarleton. The parish also includes the village of Mere Brow and the hamlets of Sollom and Holmes.

Rufford, Lancashire Human settlement in England

Rufford is a village in West Lancashire, England, where the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway, the A59 and the River Douglas meet.

Croston Human settlement in England

Croston is a village and civil parish in Lancashire, England near Chorley. The River Yarrow flows through the village. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 1,280.

Bretherton Human settlement in England

Bretherton is a small village and civil parish in the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, situated to the south west of Leyland and east of Tarleton. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 669. Its name suggests pre-conquest origins and its early history was closely involved with the manor house Bank Hall and the families who lived there. Bretherton remained a rural community and today is largely residential with residents travelling to nearby towns for employment.

Martin Mere Marshland area near Burscough, in Lancashire, England

Martin Mere is a mere near Burscough, in Lancashire, England, on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain. The mere is a vast marsh, around grid reference SD 41 15 that was, until it was drained, the largest body of fresh water in England.

Rufford Old Hall

Rufford Old Hall is a National Trust property in Rufford, Lancashire, England. Built in about 1530 for Sir Robert Hesketh, only the Great Hall survives from the original structure. A brick-built wing in the Jacobean style was added in 1661, at right angles to the Great Hall, and a third wing was added in the 1820s.

Holmeswood Human settlement in England

Holmeswood is a small agricultural village in West Lancashire, in the north-west of England. It lies just north of the Martin Mere Wetland Centre and to the south of North Meols about six miles east of the Irish Sea coast at Southport.

Adlington Hall Country house in Cheshire, England

Adlington Hall is a country house near Adlington, Cheshire. The oldest part of the existing building, the Great Hall, was constructed between 1480 and 1505; the east wing was added in 1581. The Legh family has lived in the hall and in previous buildings on the same site since the early 14th century. After the house was occupied by Parliamentary forces during the Civil War, changes were made to the north wing, including encasing the Great Hall in brick, inserting windows, and installing an organ in the Great Hall. In the 18th century the house was inherited by Charles Legh who organised a series of major changes. These included building a new west wing, which incorporated a ballroom, and a south wing with a large portico. It is possible that Charles Legh himself was the architect for these additions. He also played a large part in planning and designing the gardens, woodland and parkland, which included a number of buildings of various types, including a bridge known as the Chinese Bridge that carried a summerhouse.

Cholmondeley, Cheshire Human settlement in England

Cholmondeley is a civil parish in Cheshire, England, north east of Malpas and west of Nantwich. It includes the small settlements of Croxton Green and Dowse Green, with a total population of a little over a hundred, increasing to 157 at the 2011 Census. Nearby villages include Bickerton to the north east, Bulkeley to the north, Chorley to the east, No Man's Heath to the south west, and Bickley Moss to the south.

Cholmondeley Castle Country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England

Cholmondeley Castle is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. Together with its adjacent formal gardens, it is surrounded by parkland. The site of the house has been a seat of the Cholmondeley family since the 12th century. The present house replaced a timber-framed hall nearby. It was built at the start of the 19th century for George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, who designed most of it himself in the form of a crenellated castle. After the death of the Marquess, the house was extended to designs by Robert Smirke to produce the building in its present form. The house is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.

Abbeystead House

Abbeystead House is a large country house to the east of the village of Abbeystead, Lancashire, England, some 12 km south-east of Lancaster. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.

Bank Hall

Bank Hall is a Jacobean mansion in Bretherton, Lancashire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building and is at the centre of a private estate, surrounded by parkland. The hall was built on the site of an older house in 1608 by the Banastres who were lords of the manor. The hall was extended during the 18th and 19th centuries. Extensions were built for George Anthony Legh Keck in 1832–1833, to the design of the architect George Webster.

Yaralla Estate Hospital in New South Wales, Australia

The Yaralla Estate, also known as the Dame Eadith Walker Estate and now home to the Dame Eadith Walker Hospital, is a heritage-listed hospital at The Drive, Concord West, City of Canada Bay in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Huntroyde Hall House in Lancashire, England

Huntroyde Hall is a grade II listed, 16th-century house in the civil parish of Simonstone in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. Its estate, Huntroyde Demesne, once extended to over 6,500 acres.

The Bank Hall Estate is the demesne of the Jacobean mansion house of Bank Hall, including much of land around the village of Bretherton, which is owned by the Lilford Trust.

Haigh Hall

Haigh Hall is a historic country house in Haigh, Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. Built between 1827 and 1840 for James Lindsay, 7th Earl of Balcarres, it replaced an ancient manor house and was a Lindsay family home until 1947, when it was sold to Wigan Corporation. The hall is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building and is owned by Metropolitan Borough of Wigan.

Country house conversion to apartments is the process whereby a large country house, which was originally built to accommodate one wealthy family, is subdivided into separate apartments to allow multiple residential occupancy by a number of unrelated families. They are usually, by virtue of their age or style, listed buildings. The re-purposing of these mansions is one alternative to their demolition; there was wide-spread destruction of country houses in 20th-century Britain, but remodelling them as multiple dwelling units became a more popular option after the Destruction of the Country House exhibition in 1974.

Hall house Vernacular house typical of Britain, centred on a hall

The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples were built in stone.

Ince Blundell Hall Former country house in Merseyside, England

Ince Blundell Hall is a former country house near the village of Ince Blundell, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. It was built between 1720 and 1750 for Robert Blundell, the lord of the manor, and was designed by Henry Sephton, a local mason-architect. Robert's son, Henry, was a collector of paintings and antiquities, and he built impressive structures in the grounds of the hall in which to house them. In the 19th century the estate passed to the Weld family. Thomas Weld Blundell modernised and expanded the house, and built an adjoining chapel. In the 1960s the house and estate were sold again, and have since been run as a nursing home by the Canonesses of St. Augustine of the Mercy of Jesus.

Rufford is a civil parish in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England. It contains ten buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings. Of these, one is listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The parish contains the villages of Rufford and Holmeswood, as well as the surrounding countryside. The most important building in the parish is Rufford Old Hall; this and associated structures are listed. The Rufford Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal passes through the parish and a lock on it is listed. The other listed buildings include houses, a church and a cross base in the churchyard, and a public house.

References

  1. 1 2 Historic England. "Rufford New Hall (1361855)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  2. Farrer, William; Brownbill, J, eds. (1911). "Rufford". A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6. British History Online. pp. 119–128. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  3. "Extract Treatment of tuberculosis in Lancashire". BMJ. 2 (3424): 357–358. 1926. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.3424.357 . Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  4. "A History of Rufford by Fred Lee". ruffordvillage.com. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 "Rufford Park Conservation Area" (PDF). Lancashire County Council. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  6. "Rufford" (PDF). Lancashire County Council. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  7. Historic England. "Ice House in Rufford Park at SD 454 159 (1073105)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  8. "Rufford as described in History of the county palatine and duchy of Lancaster by Edward Baines 1836". heskethbank.com. Retrieved 22 January 2015.