Oakmere Hall

Oakmere Hall is a large house, dating from around 1867 and designed by John Douglas for John Higson, a Liverpool merchant. A later addition was also made. The house is built in the French Baronial style and has a long rectangular plan. The west front has two storeys and nine bays. An entrance is provided through a two-storey porte cochere, finished as a gatehouse. The porte cochere has octagonal pilasters which end as turrets, broad arched openings on three sides, and rib vaulting internally. An oriel window is positioned at the first floor level. Bays to either side have a balustrade supported by a corbel table, and feature a mix of two and three-light windows, some with colonnettes. Two tall double lancet windows light the stairwell. A circular projection with a tall conical roof sits at the right end, and an octagonal turret with a tall pyramidal roof is at the left end. The garden front utilises similar architectural details, but is partially obscured by 20th-century extensions. It incorporates a large three–storey tower with an embattled parapet and a truncated pyramidal roof with a wrought-iron balustrade. The tower is dated and is raised further by an octagonal turret.

The interior features an entry porch with ceiling beams resting on stone corbels. To the right of the porch is a hall accessed through a three-bay, semi-circular arcade. The hall is panelled and includes a bolection moulded fireplace and a fine cast-iron grate. It is open to the roof, with a first floor gallery on four sides and a balustrade. A large rectangular lantern is set into the roof, supported by arch braces. The open well staircase has twisted balusters. The other main rooms on the ground floor have decorative borders to the ceilings and shouldered architraves around the fireplaces. The former billiard room on the first floor is also open to the roof, with arch-braced trusses, and a chimney breast with carved hunting scenes.