Lower Carden Hall

Lower Carden Hall is a historic hall, formerly the home of the Leche family. The building comprises a north wing dating to the 15th century or earlier, which was enlarged and refronted in the early 17th century, and a south cross-wing of mid-16th-century date. Late 19th-century alterations and additions to the rear were carried out by the Carden Estate.

The building is two storeys high. The main structure is of oak frame with plaster panels, set upon a sandstone plinth. The north end gable is of stone and brick, and the building features massive projecting chimneys of stone and brick, positioned on the north gable and on the south wall of the cross-wing. The rear wing is of brick. The roofs are of grey slate with steep pitch and were probably formerly thatched.

The front gable of the cross-wing displays exceptionally heavy timbers, with rectangular panels to the lower storey and chevron patterns to the upper storey and gable. The north wing, which includes two gabled dormers to the front, has lighter small-framing. This early 17th-century refronting of a medieval hall is not fully tied to the earlier internal structure. The windows are iron casements set in oak subframes with restored leaded glazing, probably of 19th-century date. Features characteristic of late 19th-century Carden Estate work include a cross-boarded oak door in an oak case, bargeboards with five-spiked finials, and shaped brick upper parts of chimneys.

The interior contains features of major architectural significance. In the north wing are three late-medieval crown-post trusses of exceptional form and quality not yet found elsewhere in Cheshire. The early Elizabethan oak-framed structure of the cross-wing remains little altered.

The entrance hall at the centre contains an ingle-nook on the left with stonework remodelled in the 19th century, a great oak bressumer and a small fire-window. A 19th-century oak stair of two flights is positioned on the right, probably incorporating early 18th-century turned balusters.

The former great hall on the left contains two heavy stop-chamfered oak beams dating to the 17th century, one of which rests on two massive chamfered oak posts positioned in line with the former outer walls of the medieval hall, beneath posts of the roof-truss in the bedroom above. An ingle-nook with stonework altered in the 19th century and a great oaken bressumer is located here.

The drawing room, positioned on the right in the cross-wing, features painted softwood small-panelling and an ornate corner cupboard, both of early 18th-century date. An early Victorian iron grate is positioned beneath a mantel of painted plaster with swags and urns.

The bedroom trusses demonstrate that the medieval hall was widened and the first floor probably inserted when the north wing was refronted in the early 17th century. The left bedroom contains a heavy shaped arch-braced camber-beam of the width of the former hall between two posts with a central knot on the soffit, carrying a moulded octagonal crown-post. The left-middle bedroom has a truss of unmoulded square timbers with an arch-braced camber-beam between two posts carrying a braced square crown-post, with braces to the camber-beam and crown-post forming a rough ogee. The right-middle bedroom contains a nobly massive truss with a shaped camber-beam with central knot, lengthened by 17th-century spliced arch-braces showing the positions of the former medieval wall-plates, carrying a moulded octagonal crown-post. The secondary rafters in the north wing have been replaced. The right bedroom in the cross-wing contains two queen-strut oak trusses and is stated to have original secondary roof timbers, though these are not visible.