Manor House Of Abbey Of St Werburgh Chester, Including Old Hall And Monastery Cottages

The remains of the Manor House of the Abbey of St Werburgh, along with the Old Hall and Monastery Cottages, stand near Ellesmere Port and Neston. Dating back to at least the late 13th century, the site comprises two rectangular blocks of roughly coursed sandstone, forming parts of a courtyard. The structure displays at least five phases of masonry construction spanning from the late 13th century onwards.

The Hall has a modern pitched slate roof covering three-quarters of the building. Its west elevation features a segmental arched doorway with a hood mould and crenellated slits. A horizontal coved moulding is visible on the east elevation, projecting beneath two cove-moulded arches on the south. Later, after the Dissolution, rectangular four-light mullion and transom windows were inserted, featuring bossed heads and hood moulds, some now converted to doors or blocked. The north wall was largely rebuilt following a fire in the late 19th century. Inside, an internal wall passage and stairs incorporate a Caernarvon arch coving within the west, part of the north, and east walls. Windows are set within splayed recesses with segmental arched heads, and arched doorways, some blocked, lead to internal passages. A temporary corrugated sheeting covers the north wall, in place since roofing work.

The Monastery Cottages are roofless. Originally a range of four two-storey lodgings from the late 13th to 14th centuries, they were converted to two cottages and are now derelict. A two-storey tower survives at the west end, including a first-floor room above a projecting ground floor lobby. Steep buttresses are integrated into the south and north elevations. Numerous doorways, including arched round-head, pointed, and ogee-head examples, are visible. Crenels and small rectangular windows are also present, alongside inserted or altered doorways and windows. An additional, single-storey, coursed sandstone building sits at the east end, formerly identical to the western block. Within the tower, an internal stair, now blocked, with a Caernarvon arch coving leads from the lobby to a possible garderobe on the first floor. A freestanding partition wall with a pointed-arch doorway is also present on the first floor, alongside deep, splayed, corbelled window recesses and inserted openings. Stone corbels support the second-floor level. Within the easternmost cottage, a 17th or later fireplace with a heavy beam remains. A coursed sandstone boundary wall with stone coping joins the Hall to the Monastery Cottages.