Tatton Old Hall

Tatton Old Hall is a house of late 15th to early 16th-century date, with significant additions and alterations from the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of red English garden wall bond brick on a stone plinth, with a stone slate roof. The building was originally entirely timber-framed, but the external wall framing was replaced in the late 17th or early 18th century.

The plan is L-shaped with two storeys. The south-east front features a slight projection to the far left with a band three bricks in height, and a gabled wing to the far right (probably an 18th-century extension of a less prominent 16th-century projection). Two chimneysstacks are present: one to the right of centre with one flue, and another with two diamond-shaped flues. The ground floor has five windows and the first floor three windows, all 19th-century replacements. The upper floor windows and two ground floor windows are ovolo-moulded mullion windows of two lights. A 19th-century gabled porch projects from the left of centre. A break in the plinth indicates a probable former doorway to the left of the two-flue chimneystack.

The north-eastern elevation has a stone plinth and gable with string courses above ground and first floor windows, raised at the corners. The gable brickwork is slightly recessed above the string course. One 19th-century ovolo-moulded two-light mullion window appears on each floor, and a circular light sits in the gable. End rafters and the ends of purlins are exposed. An 18th-century wing projects to the left with one two-light ovolo-moulded mullion window on each floor and a ground floor doorway.

The exterior walls show uneven bonding in places due to the piecemeal replacement of timber framing with brick. A 19th-century porch is attached to the south-west.

The interior hall is a single rectangular space without aisles, with a gallery at the south-eastern end. Inserted floors have been removed. The roof, dating to approximately 1480–1520, features a wall plate with facing carved in a fern-leaf and artichoke pattern with a battlemented moulding above. Two principal trusses and a spere truss have cambered ties, decorated on the side facing the north-western (dais) end with the fern-leaf, artichoke and battlement pattern. A row of eleven moulded struts above connects with a cambered collar beam carved with a row of quatrefoils, the north-westernmost principal truss having rosettes at the centre of each quatrefoil. A triangular plate carved with a central quatrefoil and two daggers connects this to the ridge. Simple trusses alternate with principal rafters, connected by unmoulded collar beams. The principal rafters are plainly chamfered, but those on the principal trusses and each of the three pairs of purlins are hollow and step-chamfered. Quatrefoil wind bracing runs throughout except for three bays on the south-west side and one on the north-east side, locations where chimneysstacks may once have stood. Buttresses and the gallery are 20th-century additions.

The parlour in the south-eastern wing has richly chamfered ceiling beams. Upper rooms have small framed walls with wattle and daub infill and king and queen post trusses to their roofs. A basket-arched early 17th-century hearth is present in one first floor room.

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.