Description

SJ 56 SE
8/35
10/3/1953

UTKINTON C.P.
UTKINTON LANE
(South Side)

Utkinton Hall (formerly listed as Old Hall)

I

GV

Formerly large manor house, now farmhouse: Medieval core, but
majority of the early Cl7 both for the Done family, partly refaced
c1700 and again in early C18 for Sir John Crewe. Ashlar red
sandstone, partly with an English bond and a Flemish bond orange brick
facade with red sandstone dressings. Welsh slate roof and brick
chimneys. The present plan is L-shaped with an additional line of
gables and a parallel range along the east side. This was created
from the early C17 full courtyard plan by demolition in the later 18th
century. The main portion of the east front is of 2 storeys and 7
bays over a basement and under a hipped roof. The cyma-moulded plinth
contains 2 rebated and cyma moulded 2-light mullioned windows. Plain
stone band at 1st floor and flush quoins. Wooden cross windows,
partly under original basket-arched brick heads and partly under later
flat gauged and rubbed brick heads (5 of them are blocked). The 2nd
bay of this portion has a studded oak board door in a moulded stone
surround (this may open into the former medieval screen's passage).
To the left are a line of 4 gables of different materials and date.
The 2 to the left are probably later C18 the 3rd is primarily in stone
with a timber truss and the 4th adjacent to the main portion has
similar treatment to it but with thinner bricks to the window heads,
and a simpler stone doorcase with a faintly channelled head. The
2-storey 6-bay south road front is a brick facade with stone
dressings. The projecting 2-bay part at the left end is similar to
the main portion of the east front but with an added moulded cornice
and a stone-framed brick blocking course. This addition belongs to
the refacing of the remaining 4 bays in Flemish bond brickwork and
with rusticated quoins. Here the cross windows have original gauged
and rubbed heads. The 2-storey, 6-bay west front is in stone with
3-light mullioned and transomed windows and 2 doorways (1 blocked)
with heavy lintels. At the angle facing north is a gable with a brick
nogged timber truss above a stone portion, with 7 and 5-light
mullioned and transomed windows.
Interior: not inspected but the provisional list records a
stone-paved hall with a central octagonal wooden column on a stone
base running through ground and first floors. Wide fireplaces, one
with a carved seat, Jacobean doors; and doors with 2 bolection moulded
panels. Stopped bevelled beams. Staircase with shaped flat balusters
on the close string. Post with moulded corbel.
The Done family were hereditary wardens of Delamere Forest, an office
of great power, and the house at its full extent must have been of
some magnificance. The house formerly contained a chapel and an oval
library, and the twisted baluster staircase is now at Tarporley
Rectory and some armorial glass in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow.

Listing NGR: SJ 55284 64623

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Utkinton Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7902895

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)