Utkinton Hall

SJ 56 SE 8/35 10/3/1953

UTKINTON C.P. UTKINTON LANE (South Side)

Utkinton Hall (formerly listed as Old Hall)

I

GV

Formerly large manor house, now farmhouse: Medieval core, but majority of the early Cl7 both for the Done family, partly refaced c1700 and again in early C18 for Sir John Crewe. Ashlar red sandstone, partly with an English bond and a Flemish bond orange brick facade with red sandstone dressings. Welsh slate roof and brick chimneys. The present plan is L-shaped with an additional line of gables and a parallel range along the east side. This was created from the early C17 full courtyard plan by demolition in the later 18th century. The main portion of the east front is of 2 storeys and 7 bays over a basement and under a hipped roof. The cyma-moulded plinth contains 2 rebated and cyma moulded 2-light mullioned windows. Plain stone band at 1st floor and flush quoins. Wooden cross windows, partly under original basket-arched brick heads and partly under later flat gauged and rubbed brick heads (5 of them are blocked). The 2nd bay of this portion has a studded oak board door in a moulded stone surround (this may open into the former medieval screen's passage). To the left are a line of 4 gables of different materials and date. The 2 to the left are probably later C18 the 3rd is primarily in stone with a timber truss and the 4th adjacent to the main portion has similar treatment to it but with thinner bricks to the window heads, and a simpler stone doorcase with a faintly channelled head. The 2-storey 6-bay south road front is a brick facade with stone dressings. The projecting 2-bay part at the left end is similar to the main portion of the east front but with an added moulded cornice and a stone-framed brick blocking course. This addition belongs to the refacing of the remaining 4 bays in Flemish bond brickwork and with rusticated quoins. Here the cross windows have original gauged and rubbed heads. The 2-storey, 6-bay west front is in stone with 3-light mullioned and transomed windows and 2 doorways (1 blocked) with heavy lintels. At the angle facing north is a gable with a brick nogged timber truss above a stone portion, with 7 and 5-light mullioned and transomed windows. Interior: not inspected but the provisional list records a stone-paved hall with a central octagonal wooden column on a stone base running through ground and first floors. Wide fireplaces, one with a carved seat, Jacobean doors; and doors with 2 bolection moulded panels. Stopped bevelled beams. Staircase with shaped flat balusters on the close string. Post with moulded corbel. The Done family were hereditary wardens of Delamere Forest, an office of great power, and the house at its full extent must have been of some magnificance. The house formerly contained a chapel and an oval library, and the twisted baluster staircase is now at Tarporley Rectory and some armorial glass in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow.

Listing NGR: SJ 55284 64623