Vale Royal Abbey

Vale Royal Abbey is a country house incorporating substantial remains of former abbey buildings. It has a complex building history spanning the medieval, Tudor, Georgian, and Victorian periods, and is of exceptional architectural and historical importance.

The abbey was founded by Edward I following a vow he made after 1263. In 1277 a Cistercian community previously established at Darnhall was moved to this site, and construction began on what would be the last Cistercian monastery built in England. Archaeological evidence of the abbey church, which stood to the north-east of the present house, reveals it to have been approximately 420 feet long, making it the largest Cistercian church in the country. Uniquely, it had thirteen chapels at its eastern end, seven of which were hexagonal in plan.

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the site was sold in 1543 to Thomas Holcroft. He demolished the abbey church and converted the southern and western cloister ranges into a house. In 1616 the property passed to the Cholmondeley family, who retained ownership until 1947. Major alterations were carried out in the 19th century by the architect Edward Blore in the 1830s and John Douglas in the 1860s and 1870s.

The house is constructed of red sandstone ashlar and red Flemish bond brick with ashlar dressings under a slate roof.

Entrance Front

The central portion of the entrance front is a refacing of the range that originally contained the Abbot's hall and its undercroft. Short projecting wings at either side were constructed in 1796, replacing larger structures. These wings have cross windows dating from the 1830s on both floors with casement moulded surrounds and triple keystones. The first floor windows are taller and have half-H shaped aprons. Pilasters with moulded bases and capitals formed of three pieces of ashlar flank the central windows on each wing, with similar pilasters at the corners. These corner pilasters are formed of several courses of ashlar and may have been applied as late as the early 19th century. Each wing terminates in a canted bay window with three central lights divided by mullions and transoms and single lateral lights divided by transoms. The wings are topped with battlemented parapets and 19th-century iron finials at the corners.

The central range has seven bays divided by pilasters, with projecting wings of three bays to either side. At ground floor level is a Gothic porch of 1823, similar to one formerly positioned at first floor level above a flight of steps. That earlier arrangement provided access to the great hall and was removed in 1811. The porch has angle buttresses, a pointed arch, a battlemented parapet, and shields on the upper walls to either side. Above the porch is a bay window of three lights with mullions and two transoms and a battlemented parapet. The pilasters set either side of the central bays are made up of several pieces of coursed stone and also appear to be later than those at the centre of the wings.

To the right of the right-hand wing is a recessed entrance porch and clock tower by Douglas, dated 1877, built of brick with ashlar dressings. The lean-to ground floor porch has a clock tower to the right with an ashlar clock stage supported on corbels. The clock face is circular within a square surround and is topped by a pyramidal roof.

Right-Hand Facade (Garden Front)

This facade is dated 1860, marking the date of its last refacing in dressed brick and its extension. It was adapted from a range of abbey buildings including the refectory, which had been altered during Holcroft's ownership. The range was partially refaced by Blore in the 1830s and further refaced by Douglas in the 1860s in the same style as Blore's additions.

The composition has a recessed centre with projecting wings to either side. The central section has irregular fenestration consisting of two-light and three-light mullioned and transomed windows on the ground and first floors, with a bowed oriel at the extreme left of the first floor. A slightly projecting gable to the right of centre has two single-light ground floor windows and two two-light first floor windows with coats of arms below and date stones above, all encompassed in the same hood mould. A single lancet window lights the gable. All windows have ashlar surrounds. A chimney stack at the right has an offset to the left and three flues above.

To the left of this recessed portion is a projecting section, the outer face of which has a gable on the right with a first-floor bowed oriel supported on an offset buttress. At the far left is a single-storey conservatory of later date with heavy stone coping. The inner face of this projection has an oriel at first floor level with a gable above.

To the far right is a further projection of three bays by Blore, which rebuilt a similarly shaped timber-framed wing of post-monastic date. It has three-light ground and first floor windows with a central first floor oriel supported on brackets with a hipped roof, a two-light second floor window with hood moulds, and three single-light windows to the gables. The inner side of this projection has two-light and three-light mullioned and transomed windows.

Rear Elevations

The rear of this range is similar in the type and distribution of bays to the garden front except that a gabled two-storey 19th-century wing has been added to the right of centre.

The rear of the entrance front is faced in ashlar and has two massive projecting rectangular chimney stacks. Between these is a projecting rectangular bay with a three-light arched window at ground floor and a first floor window above of three lights with mullions and transoms. To either side are low arched windows of four lights with first floor windows over of four by six panes. To the right of this arrangement is a further low arched window of four arched lights. These low arched windows are reputedly cloister openings, though they appear to have been altered in the 18th and 19th centuries. Further to the right is an arched porchway supporting an oriel window with canted corners and a central bow with a hipped and conical copper roof by Douglas, dated 1877.

Interior

The northern wing originally contained the Abbot's hall and Great Chamber, divided by a screens passage and set above an undercroft. The eastern wing contained the refectory, also above an undercroft.

The refectory was altered by Holcroft to form a range of four apartments with four-centred doorways leading off a corridor. The Abbot's hall was altered by the Cholmondeleys prior to 1811 to form a series of state rooms comprising the Armoury, Great Hall, and Library.

Both these halls were originally served by a kitchen of two storeys at the angle of the two ranges. The present ground floor kitchen, in the same location, has chamfered 17th-century ceiling beams and a basket-arched wide hearth with lateral basket-arched openings.

Also at ground floor level is the cloister corridor with early 19th-century Gothic plaster vaulting, forming a T-shape. The downstroke is an entrance corridor from the Gothic porchway which retains the massive 16th-century door that, prior to 1811, opened to the hall at first floor level.

Leading from this corridor to the first floor is a staircase with spiral twist balusters and heavy newel posts of late 17th-century form. This leads up to the Armoury, which is formed from part of the Great Chamber and has two panelled door surrounds of 1811 with steep pediments above.

The Great Hall has five ceiling bays with half bays at either end, indicating division in the 18th or 19th century. Each truss consists of a pair of arched braces resting on hammer beams with 19th-century wall posts below. The hammer beams would appear to replace tie beams, and marks in the lower sides of the arched braces indicate possible vertical struts formerly connecting the braces to the tie beam. There is a brattished wooden cornice and double wind bracing of 19th-century date with four purlins. Applied to the plasterwork of the ceiling are a series of armigerous shields relating to the marriages of the Cholmondeley family and dated 1868, which replaced an earlier similarly painted ceiling of 1824.

The Library has a wooden door surround of 17th-century date and of German origin, with columns to either side carved with trails of foliage in relief. Above is a broken elaborate pediment. The chimney piece has twisted columns to either side encircled by rich floral swags and with birds of prey also in relief.

The dining room in the south-western wing has dado panelling of 19th-century date and an 18th-century door surround with Corinthian columns flanking a six-panel door. The overdoor features swags and a head in profile, with a pediment above incorporating a shell and rinceau ornament to the frieze and an enriched cornice.

The eastern wing has 16th-century small-framed walling to the inserted corridor. The corridor reveals the original 16th-century outside wall with chevron-decorated timber-framing, a four-light mullioned and transomed window, and a tall doorway with four-centred head, probably monastic and giving access from the day stairs. The studded partition is an insertion into the monastic refectory and has one original doorway, now blocked.

The roof timbers of this refectory range, which are evident in the corridor and in the attic, have deep bird beak mouldings. The roof consists of five bays subdivided by further minor cross beams. The ridge and purlins are similarly moulded into roughly square panels and appear to have had roof bosses, now removed. Dendrochronology has revealed the date of the timbers as circa 1470.