Combermere Abbey

This country house stands on the site of a Cistercian monastery founded in 1133 by Hugh de Malbank. Although nothing within the present structure can be securely dated to the 12th century, several fragments of Romanesque carving have been discovered in the gardens.

At the Dissolution, the estate was granted to Sir George Cotton. He appears to have demolished the church and other abbey buildings but retained the abbot's lodging, which was positioned above the western cloister range, converting it into his house. Judging from the ecclesiastical arms on the roof of the great hall, the abbot's lodging had likely been remodelled shortly before the Dissolution. The placement of the great hall (now the library) at first floor level is similar to the planning at Vale Royal, another Cistercian house. A datestone discovered in 1795 records: "Master Richard Cotton and his sons three Both for their pleasure and commodity This building did edifies In fifteen hundred and sixty three".

An engraving by Buck from 1727 shows the present entrance front with a stone ground floor set with blocked pointed arches, presumably from the cloister arcade, and a decoratively timber-framed first floor. An early 18th-century oil painting shows the rear elevation (now the lake front) with a similar ashlar ground floor, projecting timber-framed wings to either side, and a timber-framed first floor with decorative infill and gables. In 1774, Dr Johnson recorded the house as still being largely timber-framed, but alterations occurred in 1795 and after 1814, including the addition of new service wings and the covering of the house with cement render applied to wooden battens. The structure now comprises rendered timber framing, rendered stone, and rendered brick with a slate roof and lead flashings. It stands two and three storeys high.

Entrance Front (Eastern)

Originally E-shaped, the dining room wing to the right, dating from around 1820, has been demolished, leaving a screen of three arches to the far right and a blank rendered gable end where it originally joined the house. To the left of this are five bays of three storeys with two-light windows featuring Y-tracery and cusped heads, all inserted around 1814–20 into the original timber-framed fabric, which was also rendered at that time and decorated with incised blind cross arrow slits. The distribution of bays follows the original rhythm of the timber-framed house as shown in Buck's print of 1727, except for a projecting single-storey gabled porch with octagonal corner turrets positioned left of centre. This porch has a four-centred doorway with panelled double doors and a square stone panel of blind tracery in the gable bearing the Cotton arms in a shield. A further addition is the semi-octagonal staircase turret immediately to the left of the porch, set with cusped lancets and pinnacles on the roof. To the right of the porch is a tripartite window with French windows at the centre with a pointed head and lancets to either side.

To the left of this section is a projecting three-bay wing from around 1814–20, originally three storeys but reduced to two storeys in the 20th century. This has two-light cusped windows of similar form to those at right. At the top of the wall, as elsewhere on the house, is a moulded cornice supporting a shallow battlemented parapet. Projecting to the left is the single-storey service wing with a water tower (listed separately).

Right-Hand Side

The right-hand side features, at left, the arcade of three arches which originally formed one outer wall of the demolished dining room. The pointed arches have floating hood moulds above. To the right are four symmetrically disposed bays with pilaster buttresses between and at either side of the two central bays. Four-centred relieving arches sit above all four bays. Where the render has fallen away at the left, exposed lower walls of replaced 19th-century brick and upper walls reveal timber framing, including massive beams with incised ornament of quatrefoils and fleurs-de-lis and decorative infill of quadrant and S-shaped timbers.

Lake Front

The lake front comprises eight bays with projecting wings at right and left, each with tripartite windows at ground floor level similar to that on the entrance front. A similar window with a central door sits left of centre with a wooden porch of three arches set before it. All other windows are of the two-light cusped form seen on the entrance front. All bays have projecting four-centred relieving arches over and are divided by pilaster buttresses. The bay left of centre has a shallow gable above. To the right is a recessed range now two storeys high but formerly three, with a canted bay window at right and a staircase window at left extending through two storeys. A further three bays to the right dating from around 1814–20 have now been demolished.

Interior

The present entrance hall has coved niches to either side and a ceiling formed of recessed square panels divided by moulded ribs with diamond-shaped bosses. The cornice here and in the cross corridor features foliage motifs of painted wood. The corridor has cross arches of four-centred form with wall posts formed of clusters of columns.

The former entrance hall is divided by two transverse screens, each with columns to either side formed of clusters of columns rising to capitals showing acanthus leaves with lilies between and quatrefoils to the frieze. The chimney piece on the northern wall is of white and grey marble with demi-columns to either side of similar form to those forming the screens.

The dining room has 17th-century panelling with round-arched panels to the lower wall with diamond rustication, and above the chair rail, rectangular panels with moulded borders to the tops and sides and chamfered sills. The southern staircase comprises two flights and has balusters of quatrefoil section.

The library at first floor level is divided from the landing by a wooden screen with two sets of double doors with round-arched heads. Each door has three raised and fielded panels, and the slam plates are formed of a continuous band of alternating miniature caryatids and Ionic pilasters with cherub heads at the top. Between the doors are set painted panels showing figures in 16th- or early 17th-century costume. The library side has similar slam plates on the doors. The spandrels feature animated carvings of satyrs and the arches have projecting wooden keystones. To either side of the doors are Ionic pilasters divided by panels of diamond-pointed rustication, with lion masks to the central panels of the plinths. Further similar pilasters sit at the extreme left and right with panels showing grotesque heads. Above in the frieze are panels of marquetry, and above each pilaster is a moulded bracket. The remaining panelling in the room appears to have been rearranged or brought from elsewhere, including an early 20th-century screen opposite the Jacobean screen that originally housed an organ. The coved ceiling is 17th century and has arched panels to the coving on two sides. The central panel has circular panels with radiating bars and bosses decorated with coats of arms, as are the panels to the coving, all being 19th-century additions.

The roof above this ceiling has three false hammer-beam trusses with moulded arched braces rising to richly carved central bosses and coats of arms to the lower braces, including ecclesiastical arms. A special truss at the northern end features tension bracing and wattle-and-daub infill, and a moulded tie beam with quatrefoils in relief.

The northern wing contains a staircase of two flights with a half-turn, and one room with exposed timber framing to the walls including chevron and ogee struts. An ashlar chimney piece with four-centred moulded arch is accompanied by pargetting on the walls, including a rectangular panel with four rosettes to the corners and rosette and rope motifs with fleurs-de-lis.

The house retains a fine great hall and a considerable quantity of good 16th- and 17th-century timber framing, as well as possible earlier material beneath a skin of early 19th-century render.