Puddington Hall Puddington Hall West

Puddington Hall and Puddington Hall West

A country house now divided into two dwellings, built 1872–4 for Sir Rowland Stanley Errington, Bart., and altered around 1904. The architects of both phases remain unidentified.

The 1872–4 building is constructed of squared, snecked and coursed red sandstone, while the 1904 additions employ pebbledash and timber framing with plaster panels. Graded stone-slate roofs cover the structure. The house rises two storeys with attics across five stone bays, plus a partly pebbledashed bay to the west.

The entrance front faces north and features a crenellated centre range with the entrance positioned between canted two-storey bays. Gabled projecting end-bays with canted corners flank this composition. A further short bay to the right has a stone lower storey with pebbledash above. The base has a plinth. The entrance door is boarded oak with two stone steps, wrought iron studs and hinges, and leaded lights to each side, topped by what may be a later flat oak-faced roof porch.

Windows to the entrance front include a mullioned and transomed five-light casement with leaded upper lights in the left bay; leaded two-light mullioned casements in each canted bay with an overlight above the porch roof; cross-casements near the sides of the right projecting bay; and a one-light transomed leaded light in each canted face. The far-right bay is blank. A first-floor stringcourse marks the projecting bays. Upper-storey windows are leaded, with a mullioned and transomed five-light casement with label in the left bay, one-light casements in the outer faces of the canted bays, mullioned two-light casements to the front and inner faces, two-light mullioned casements near each edge of the right projecting bay, and one-light casements in each canted face. A stringcourse beneath the parapet and moulded caps to the merlons over the central range complete the composition. The central gabled dormer is set back, while the gables to the projecting bays have kneelers, three ball finials and moulded copings. The inner return of the left bay carries a leaded first-floor light, and the return of the right bay features a leaded cross-casement to ground floor and a two-light mullioned casement to first floor.

The ground floors of the end elevations and the garden face facing south are stone, probably contemporary with the front, though the west end may have been foreshortened. The left end comprises two bays, each with a four-light mullioned and transomed window. The upper storey of the right bay is stone; the left bay is pebbledashed with a leaded cross-casement and three-light mullioned and transomed casement, topped by an ornate small-framed gable. The garden face features a three-gabled projection to the left with mullioned and transomed casements of four, five and four lights respectively, and a canted two-storey bay to the right with a cross-casement to each face; a simple veranda stands between the projections. The upper storey of the left projection is ornately timber-framed, while the remainder is pebble-dashed. Leaded casements stand proud of the wall-face. Timber-framed gables rise above each projection, with bargeboards displaying drop-finials. Six plinthed stone chimneys serve the building.

Interior features visible in Puddington Hall (though the building could not be fully inspected) probably date to 1872–4 and include an oak board floor to the hall, a substantial open-well newel stair of oak, and a pilastered basket-arch to the lobby with exposed joists. The south-east room features a strapwork ceiling and a fireplace with entablature on slender fluted columns, with rail, frieze and cornice to the ceiling. The south-west room has a pilaster fireplace.

Puddington Hall West contains oak doors with butted moulded rails, stiles and muntins of seven panels, some oak-board floors, and a modillion cornice in one room. The lounge features an oak fireplace surround and ceiling cornice. An open-well stair of five flights serves the first and second floors. Three classical fire surrounds on the first floor and a tiled fireplace on the second floor are also present.

The sandstone building of 1872–4 is of pleasing and consistent character. The early 20th-century alterations display no individually distinctive external features.

Comparison of Ordnance Survey large-scale maps from 1872, 1897 and 1909 indicates that the building retained essentially the form documented in 1897, though the west end may have experienced some foreshortening. The previous hall, located on a different site, was destroyed by fire around 1860. The present hall, which now encompasses both houses, had been erected before 1874, as confirmed by Morris's Directory of Cheshire of that date.