Maer Hall And Attached Garden Wall To South

This is a country house with an attached garden wall, dating to the mid-17th century. It has undergone significant alterations and extensions in the mid-to-late 19th century, primarily by W. Culshaw and later J. Francis Doyle of Liverpool, though it has since been reduced back to its original size. The house is mainly constructed of yellow sandstone ashlar on a chamfered plinth, with stone slate roofs. The cellars retain original red sandstone and mullioned open openings. The 19th-century work is in a Jacobean style.

The west garden front features two storeys with three shaped dormers surmounted by globe finials above a moulded eaves cornice. The fenestration is 1:1:1:1:1 bays, with mullioned and transomed windows; stepped lights are present in the dormers. A two-storeyed porch is centrally located with a round-headed doorway and applied Doric columns, transitioning to Ionic order above. An openwork balustrade tops the porch, connecting to the eaves and dormers. Two sandstone ashlar stacks are behind the ridge, with paired rebated shafts. The north front mirrors the west with a similar fenestration pattern and shaped gabled dormers. A mid-20th century porch with applied columns stands centrally. The east front incorporates two storeys and an attic storey, with 1:1:1:1 bays of mullioned and transomed windows, and three plain gables to the attic storey, including upper gable lights. A late 19th-century flat-roofed porch is attached to the south side, and a coped stone garden wall is attached to the south.

The interior was reportedly considerably altered in the 1960s when many Victorian fittings were removed, although the building has not been recently inspected.

Historically, Maer Hall was the residence of Josiah Wedgwood the younger from 1804 to 1843. It also housed F.J. Harrison, a Liverpool ship owner, for whom Doyle carried out extensions in the late 19th century. The hall is notable as the place where Charles Darwin, who married his cousin Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and whose mother was the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood the elder, is reputed to have made some of his early geological and botanical studies.