The Old Hall

The Old Hall is a manor house built in the early to mid 17th century for Sir Thomas Stanley II, featuring earlier fragments and alterations made in 1912 by Edmund Warre of London. The structure is constructed of English garden wall bond red brick with some purple bands, buff sandstone dressings, and a Kerridge stone-slate roof, topped with three brick chimneys, two of which have diamond-shaped end stacks. The building has a rectangular plan and consists of two and three stories with a three-bay south front. A projecting stone band is present at the first floor. The central bay, which is three stories high, features rebated five-light chamfered stone mullioned windows on the ground and first storeys, and a similar three-light window under a hood mould in a stone-coped gable with a ball finial. To the left, there is a bead-moulded stone doorcase with a cambered lintel and a three-light window above it, while to the right is a 20th-century door. The 1912 additions to the west are made of ashlar. Inside, the main room has light oak wainscotting, likely from 1912, along with two-panelled doors featuring large diamonds in each panel and heavy chamfered ceiling beams. The rest of the interior is considered unexceptional. The Old Hall is an addition to the earliest hall from the 16th century. A major Baroque front built in 1754 was destroyed by fire in 1779 and subsequently demolished, leading to the construction of the now-demolished Alderley Park. The Old Hall is set within a decorative moat created by extending an arm of the mill pond in the late 16th century.