Tatton Hall

Tatton Hall is a substantial country house begun in 1780 and completed in 1884, built in Runcorn sandstone ashlar with terracotta detail and slate and lead roofs. The house represents two major phases of construction and design: Samuel Wyatt's western section built between 1780 and 1791, and Lewis Wyatt's redesign of 1808–1813 which created a new truncated composition. Later additions by G H Stokes in 1860 and the 2nd Baron Egerton of Tatton in 1884 complete the building.

The main block is two storeys with an attic around a central staircase hall. The south front comprises seven bays in a 1:5:1 rhythm. Samuel Wyatt's four western bays (1780–1791) were initially conceived as part of an eleven-bay scheme. Lewis Wyatt's three eastern bays and portico (1808–1813) represent the revised design. The centre features a giant Corinthian portico of four monolithic columns and responds. The two end bays contain tripartite windows separated by Ionic columns with segmental arches and paterae in the tympana. The five central bays between the principal floors have rectangular panels containing swags and paterae. Ground-floor sash windows are of three-by-five panes, with two of one-by-five panes flanking the end-bay windows. First-floor windows are all three-by-four panes. All windows have slender glazing bars and recessed sash boxes. A decorated band runs immediately below the first-floor windows around the main block, with a frieze and cornice above.

The north front is also of the two periods, arranged in seven bays in 1:5:1 rhythm and similar to the south front in composition. The central bay has a pedimented porch to the ground floor with two columns of Tower of the Winds form. A lugged doorcase bears an achievement of arms above. The five central bays have blank panels between floors. The east front displays five bays with a giant order of Corinthian pilasters rising from a slightly projecting plinth and a full entablature commencing immediately above the first-floor windows.

The Family Wing is attached to the west. Its ground floor was built in 1780–1791 by Samuel Wyatt. In 1810 Lewis Wyatt added a Tuscan colonnade to the south front. In 1860 G H Stokes added the second floor, an Ionic colonnade, verandah and balustrade. The terracotta smoking room at the extreme west dates to 1884 by the 2nd Baron Egerton, as do the terracotta family entrance and chapel to the west of the north front.

Interior: The Dining Room, located at the south-west corner of the main block, dates to 1760 by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard and was incorporated into the new house by Samuel Wyatt. It is Rococo in character with high-relief vine swags in the frieze, around picture frames, and in a band of decoration to the ceiling. The Card Room at the north-west corner, originally Mr Egerton's room, was designed by Samuel Wyatt and redecorated by Lewis Wyatt during the 1808–1813 building phase. It features a simple neo-classical fireplace and cornice.

The remaining interior rooms are all by Lewis Wyatt. The Entrance Hall in the centre of the north front has a segmental ceiling with guilloche moulding to panel frames and paterae at junctions. Two pairs of scagliola columns to the centre, on the line with the entrance door, have Ionic capitals supporting transverse entablatured lintels, each bearing a Coade stone urn and two Coade stone gryphons painted in simulation of black marble. The Music Room at the north-east corner has a coved ceiling with a central circular band of floral decoration and a large segmental-headed alcove in the north wall originally intended for an organ. The Drawing Room at the south-east corner has a richly moulded panelled ceiling with paterae. The Library on the south front contains mahogany bookcases to Lewis Wyatt's design; the ceiling and overmantels date to the early twentieth century.

The Staircase Hall forms the central east–west spine of the building. Although constructed in two phases, decoration is solely by Lewis Wyatt. The two-storey rectangular western end contains a dogleg staircase with half landing and a large oval skylight with scalloped squinches. The eastern square end has an oculus in the ground-floor ceiling with a circular skylight to the first-floor ceiling above. The first-floor landing has a square balustrade. Upper rooms are mostly altered and redecorated.

The Family Wing has a spinal corridor plan on the ground floor. The original lower flight of the backstairs was replaced in the 1880s by an oak staircase with balusters, newel posts and panelling brought from elsewhere and assembled as an open newel staircase at the north-eastern corner of the Family Wing.

Before the north front is a contiguous Entrance Court designed by the 2nd Baron Egerton of Tatton in 1884. The family entrance to the west side is one-and-a-half storeys, blind arcaded in terracotta. A screen wall of ashlar and yellow brick to the east has a pedimented archway to the garden on line with the arch of a porte-cochère. The northern part of the court is outlined by wrought iron railings above a low ashlar wall bowing outwards from the house. A pair of rusticated gate piers opposite the entrance porch have granite ball finials and wrought iron gates with armigerons cresting.

The service wing to the west of the house continues in line from the Family Wing. It features a large kitchen window with iron tracery rising into the gable and with a triangular head. The Kitchen Court has an outer wall in English garden wall bond running in a quarter-circle from west to south. A colonnade of thirteen bays runs along the west wall in ashlar and brick with wooden trusses and a slate lean-to roof. The Tuscan columns have entasis; several are monolithic with brick basket arches and relieving arches at the north and south ends, with a wooden moulded lintel above.

Tatton Park belonged to the Egerton family from 1598 until 1958 when it was given to the National Trust, which now administers it in conjunction with Cheshire County Council.