Sessions House is a Grade II* listed building in the Cheshire East local planning authority area, England. First listed on 15 December 1954. A 19th century Government building. 8 related planning applications.

Sessions House

WRENN ID
endless-thatch-wind
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
Cheshire East
Constituency
Tatton MP: Esther McVey (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
15 December 1954
Type
Government building
Address
Sessions House, Toft Road, Knutsford, WA16 0PB
OS grid reference
SJ 751 784
Coordinates
53.3023, -2.37424
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Sessions House, formerly part of a gaol with the cell blocks now demolished, was built between 1815 and 1818 by George Moneypenny. The building features a main block flanked by curtain walls that screen the court rooms on the right and a caretaker's house on the left. It is a single-storey structure with a central portico supported by paired Ionic columns, topped by a high parapet and a pedimented lantern. The side wings are divided by pilasters into three bays, with the caretaker's house occupying the northernmost bay, which has an arched entrance at the rear. The caretaker's house includes a doorway to the right and a tripartite window to the left, with two 4-pane sash windows above. To the right of the main block, there is a similar screen wall with a raised roof for a top-lit court room, featuring three round-arched windows over segmentally-arched sashes on each side of a central canted bay at the rear of this range. The interior has not been inspected.

Local climate

Sessions House sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,000 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 80% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 59% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 40 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 78% of listed buildings. Of these, 22 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 8 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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