Little Moreton Hall: Difference between revisions
Iridescent (talk | contribs) m Typo fixing , typos fixed: the the → the using AWB |
|||
| (87 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| ⚫ | |||
{{Unreferenced|date=May 2007}} |
|||
| ⚫ | |||
'''Little Moreton Hall''' is a 15th century [[manor house]] 4 miles SW of [[Congleton]], [[Cheshire]]. It is one of the finest |
'''Little Moreton Hall''' is a [[moated]] 15th century [[manor house]] 4 miles SW of [[Congleton]], [[Cheshire]]. It is one of the finest examples [[Timber framing|timber framed]] domestic architecture in [[England]].<ref>The National Trust website.</ref> The house is today owned by the [[National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|National Trust]]. It is a Grade I [[listed building]].<ref name="images">[http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?pid=1&id=56552 Images of England], accessed [[17 July]] [[2007]].</ref> So picturesque is the house that it has been described as "a ginger bread house lifted straight from a fairy story".<ref>Joekes, p.19.</ref> The earliest parts of the house were built for Sir [[Richard de Moreton]], a prosperous Cheshire landowner. The house was to remain in the ownership of the Moreton family for almost five centuries. |
||
The building is highly irregular, with asymmetrical façades which ramble around three sides of a small cobbled courtyard with "bays and porches jostling each other for space".<ref>Joekes, p.19.</ref> |
|||
Little Moreton belonged to the Moretons, a family of landowners, for nearly five centuries. It is a highly irregular building which rambles around three sides of a small cobbled courtyard. The exterior walls are made of white daub between dark wooden beams, which are set in a variety of patterns. It has a [[moat]] and an unusual [[Elizabethan]] [[knot garden]]. |
|||
== History and design == |
|||
The earliest part of the building is the [[great hall]] which dates from around 1450. The adjacent kitchen wing was added in about 1480. The east wing of the building was dates from about 1559 to 1570. This part of the house includes the chapel and the withdrawing room. At the junction of the east wing and the great hall there is a striking pair of gabled bay windows, which were signed by the carpenter: |
|||
[[Image:Little Moreton Hall window by Richard de Dale.jpg|thumb|left|150px|The window of the Great Hall by the carpenter Richard Dale]] |
|||
| ⚫ | |||
The de Moreton family's roots in the areal of Little Moreton can be traced to the marriage in 1216 of Lettice de Moreton to Sir Gralam de Lostock who inherited land at Little Moreton. A few generations later the de Lostocks adopted the de Moreton name.<ref>Crowhurst..</ref> The family fortune was substantially increased when they purchased vast tracts of land acquired cheaply as a reult of the falls in land values in the aftermath of the [[black death]] epidemic of 1348, the family also acted as tax collectors in the area. So it is likely that they held the manor of Little Moreton long before Sir Richard de Moreton decided to build his new house circa 1450. |
|||
[[Image:LittleMoretonHall gable.jpg|thumb|Gabled windows by carpenter Richard Dale, located in the central courtyard of Little Moreton Hall]] |
|||
While the building technique of Little Moreton Hall is unremarkable for Cheshire houses dating from this period—an oak framework filled with [[wattle and daub]] set upon stone [[Foundation (engineering)|footings]]<ref>UK Heritage website.</ref>—the architecture is interesting because while [[medieval]] and provincial in concept, the long period of its evolution encompassed the [[Renaissance]] era. As a result of this, Renaissance motifs can be seen in the carving of the beams and some of the interior fireplaces.<ref>Know Britain.</ref> However, any Renaissance ornament is overpowered by the patterning of the wooden framework. Diagonal black [[oak]] beams creating [[chevron]] and [[lozenge]] patterns adorn the façades. The geometric shapes formed are filled by white painted wattle and daub or windows. Higher in the façades under the [[eaves]] and in the numerous [[gable]]s a recurrent [[quatrefoil]] motif is evident on the woodwork. |
|||
The last major extension was the south wing of c. 1570–80, which includes a gatehouse and a third storey containing a 68 foot [[long gallery]]. The roof of the Long Gallery has heavy quarried slate tiles, which have caused the front of the structure to bow under the pressure.It is now propped up with concealed steel beams. A small domestic block was added to the south wing in around 1600, completing the structure. |
|||
The house as completed forms an "H" plan.<ref>Brititsh History website.</ref> It was enlarged in ratio to the increasing fortunes of successive generations of the Moreton family, who reached the zenith of their wealth during the [[Elizabethan era]].<ref>Know Britain website.</ref> The earliest part of the building is the [[great hall]] built for Sir Richard de Moreton, which dates from around 1450. The adjacent kitchen wing was added in about 1480 for William Moreton. The east wing of the building dates from about 1559 to 1570.<ref>Joekes, p.155.</ref> This part of the house includes the chapel and the withdrawing room. The chapel contains Renaissance style [[tempera]] painting which is thought to date from the 16th century.<ref>Joekes, p.156.</ref> |
|||
The fortunes of the Moreton family declined during and after the [[English Civil War]], in which they sided with the royalists. Little Moreton Hall was then let to tenant farmers, and little or no attempt was made to modernise it. In the 19th century its antiquarian value began to be appreciated and Miss Elizabeth Moreton started to restore it. The building, however, was never again occupied by the Moreton family. In 1912 Elizabeth Moreton bequeathed the house to a cousin, Charles Abraham, [[Bishop of Derby]], who continued the preservation effort until 1938, when it was transferred to the National Trust. |
|||
[[Image:LittleMoretonHall gable.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Gabled windows. The varying pattern formed by beams ranges from [[chevron]]s and [[lozenge]] to [[quatrefoil]]s in the gables.]] |
|||
==Trivia== |
|||
Little Moreton Hall was used as a location for [[Granada Television]]'s adaptation of [[Daniel Defoe]]'s ''[[Moll Flanders]]'' in 1996. |
|||
At the junction of the east wing and the great hall there is a large pair of gabled bay windows, over which the carpenter who designed them carved his name with the following inscription: |
|||
| ⚫ | |||
The last major extension was the south wing of circa 1570–80, built for William Moreton's son John. The south wing includes the gatehouse and a third storey containing a 68-foot [[long gallery]].<ref>Joekes, p.155.</ref> The gallery appears to have been an afterthought to the design.<ref>Crowhurst.</ref> The weight of the structure with its heavy roof of quarried slate tiles has caused the lower floors which support it to bow under the pressure. It seems the addition of the long gallery always caused structural problems to a building with little or no foundations.<ref>UK Heritage site.</ref> The gallery is today supported by concealed steel rods inserted in the 19th century.<ref>Crowhurst.</ref> The long gallery has a fine plaster ceiling depicting [[Destiny]] and [[Fortune]]. The gatehouse is also ornamented with [[Renaissance]] [[motifs]].<ref>Joekes, p.155.</ref> This range of buildings has each upper floor [[jettied]] out over the floor beneath in typical 16th century mode.<ref>Brititsh History website.</ref> A small domestic block was added to the south wing in around 1600 in the same style. This was the final stage of the building of Little Moreton. |
|||
The fortunes of the Moreton family declined with the outbreak of the [[English Civil War]]. Strong supporters of the Royalist cause, they found themselves isolated in a community of Parliamentarians. The house was requisitioned by Parliamentarians and used to billet Cromwell's soldiers.<ref>Crowhurst.</ref> The Moretons survived the Civil War with their ownership of Little Moreton intact, but financially they were crippled. Their fortunes were never to fully recover. By the beginning of the 18th century, the mansion was let to tenants as a farmhouse. Much of it was unoccupied and used for storage, the deconsecrated chapel being used for the storage of coal.<ref>UK Heritage website.</ref> By the 19th century, the house was in a ruinous condition, its windows boarded up and its roof caving.<ref>RIBA.</ref> |
|||
== Little Moreton today == |
|||
[[Image:Little Moreton Hall.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Today, fully restored, the house still buckles and tilts under the weight of the long gallery perched precariously on top of the south wing.<ref>Know Britain website.</ref>]] |
|||
During the 19th century the building's antiquarian value began to be appreciated and Miss Elizabeth Moreton, an [[Anglican]] [[nun]], began restoration of the near derelict [[mansion]] and had the chapel rededicated.<ref>UK Heritage website.</ref> However, the distinctive black and white colour scheme so typical of houses dating from the Tudor period is not authentic but a product of the [[romanticism]] of the 19th century. Originally the oak beams were allowed to fade naturally to silver-grey while the wattle-and-daub was painted or stained a light shade of ochre.<ref>UK Heritage website.</ref> |
|||
The building was never again occupied by the Moreton family.<ref>Know Britain.</ref> In 1912 Elizabeth Moreton bequeathed the house to a cousin, Charles Abraham, [[Bishop of Derby]], with the stipulation that the house must never be sold.<ref>UK Heritage website.</ref> Abraham continued the preservation effort until 1938, when he and his son transferred ownership to the National Trust.<ref>UK Heritage website.</ref> |
|||
During the 20th century the long abandoned gardens were returned to their Tudor condition. The [[knot garden]] was replanted in the early 1980s to a design taken from [[Leonard Meager|Meager]]'s ''Complete English Gardener'', published in 1672.<ref>Joekes, p.155.</ref><ref>Joekes, p.257.</ref> The intricate design of the knot can be viewed from an original viewing mound, one of two in the gardens, features common in of 16th century formal gardening. Other authentic features of the grounds also include a [[Yew]] tunnel and an orchard growing fruits which would have been known to the house's Tudor occupants - apples, pears, [[quince]]s and [[medlar]]s. |
|||
Today, fully restored, the house is open to the public from March to December each year.<ref>National Trust website.</ref> Money is also raised for its upkeep from its use as a film location. In 1996 it was the setting for [[Granada Television]]'s adaptation of [[Daniel Defoe]]'s ''[[Moll Flanders]]''. In 2007 the house's architectural significance was highlighted in [[David Dimbleby]]'s 'How we built Britain' documentary.<ref>National Trust website.</ref> |
|||
==Notes== |
==Notes== |
||
{{Reflist}} |
{{Reflist|2}} |
||
== References == |
|||
*{{cite book |
|||
| last = Joekes |
|||
| first = Rosemary |
|||
| year = 1984 |
|||
| title = The National Trust Guide |
|||
| publisher = The National Trust |
|||
| location = London |
|||
| id = ISBN 0-224-01946-5 |
|||
}} |
|||
| ⚫ | |||
==External links== |
|||
*[http://www.know-britain.com/country_houses/little_moreton_hall_2.html Know Britain] published by Mediat Web Agency. Retrieved 13 November 2007. |
|||
| ⚫ | |||
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/great_hall_04.shtml British History, The midle ages] Published by the [[BBC]]. Retrieved 13 November 2007. |
|||
*[http://www.strollingguides.co.uk/books/other/places/littlemorton.php Photographs and Description] |
|||
*[http://www.ukheritage.net/houses/little_moreton_hall.htm UK Heritage] published by Jonathan & Clare. MicroArts © 1998-2007. Retrieved 13 November 2007. |
|||
*Crowhurst, Richard [http://www.timetravel-britain.com/05/fall/moreton.shtml Little Moreton Hall: Cheshire's Crooked House] published by Time Travel Britain.com. Retrieved 13 November 2007. |
|||
*[http://www.architecture.com/HowWeBuiltBritain/HistoricalPeriods/TudorsAndStuarts/ElizabethanDevice/LittleMoretonHall.aspx RIBA] published by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Retrieved 13 November 2007. |
|||
[[Category:Houses in Cheshire]] |
[[Category:Houses in Cheshire]] |
||
Revision as of 07:25, 15 November 2007
Little Moreton Hall is a moated 15th century manor house 4 miles SW of Congleton, Cheshire. It is one of the finest examples timber framed domestic architecture in England.[1] The house is today owned by the National Trust. It is a Grade I listed building.[2] So picturesque is the house that it has been described as "a ginger bread house lifted straight from a fairy story".[3] The earliest parts of the house were built for Sir Richard de Moreton, a prosperous Cheshire landowner. The house was to remain in the ownership of the Moreton family for almost five centuries.
The building is highly irregular, with asymmetrical façades which ramble around three sides of a small cobbled courtyard with "bays and porches jostling each other for space".[4]
History and design
The de Moreton family's roots in the areal of Little Moreton can be traced to the marriage in 1216 of Lettice de Moreton to Sir Gralam de Lostock who inherited land at Little Moreton. A few generations later the de Lostocks adopted the de Moreton name.[5] The family fortune was substantially increased when they purchased vast tracts of land acquired cheaply as a reult of the falls in land values in the aftermath of the black death epidemic of 1348, the family also acted as tax collectors in the area. So it is likely that they held the manor of Little Moreton long before Sir Richard de Moreton decided to build his new house circa 1450.
While the building technique of Little Moreton Hall is unremarkable for Cheshire houses dating from this period—an oak framework filled with wattle and daub set upon stone footings[6]—the architecture is interesting because while medieval and provincial in concept, the long period of its evolution encompassed the Renaissance era. As a result of this, Renaissance motifs can be seen in the carving of the beams and some of the interior fireplaces.[7] However, any Renaissance ornament is overpowered by the patterning of the wooden framework. Diagonal black oak beams creating chevron and lozenge patterns adorn the façades. The geometric shapes formed are filled by white painted wattle and daub or windows. Higher in the façades under the eaves and in the numerous gables a recurrent quatrefoil motif is evident on the woodwork.
The house as completed forms an "H" plan.[8] It was enlarged in ratio to the increasing fortunes of successive generations of the Moreton family, who reached the zenith of their wealth during the Elizabethan era.[9] The earliest part of the building is the great hall built for Sir Richard de Moreton, which dates from around 1450. The adjacent kitchen wing was added in about 1480 for William Moreton. The east wing of the building dates from about 1559 to 1570.[10] This part of the house includes the chapel and the withdrawing room. The chapel contains Renaissance style tempera painting which is thought to date from the 16th century.[11]
At the junction of the east wing and the great hall there is a large pair of gabled bay windows, over which the carpenter who designed them carved his name with the following inscription:
- "God is Al in Al Thing: This windous whire made by William Moreton in the yeare of Oure Lorde MDLIX. Richard Dale Carpeder made thies windous by the grac of God."[12]
The last major extension was the south wing of circa 1570–80, built for William Moreton's son John. The south wing includes the gatehouse and a third storey containing a 68-foot long gallery.[13] The gallery appears to have been an afterthought to the design.[14] The weight of the structure with its heavy roof of quarried slate tiles has caused the lower floors which support it to bow under the pressure. It seems the addition of the long gallery always caused structural problems to a building with little or no foundations.[15] The gallery is today supported by concealed steel rods inserted in the 19th century.[16] The long gallery has a fine plaster ceiling depicting Destiny and Fortune. The gatehouse is also ornamented with Renaissance motifs.[17] This range of buildings has each upper floor jettied out over the floor beneath in typical 16th century mode.[18] A small domestic block was added to the south wing in around 1600 in the same style. This was the final stage of the building of Little Moreton.
The fortunes of the Moreton family declined with the outbreak of the English Civil War. Strong supporters of the Royalist cause, they found themselves isolated in a community of Parliamentarians. The house was requisitioned by Parliamentarians and used to billet Cromwell's soldiers.[19] The Moretons survived the Civil War with their ownership of Little Moreton intact, but financially they were crippled. Their fortunes were never to fully recover. By the beginning of the 18th century, the mansion was let to tenants as a farmhouse. Much of it was unoccupied and used for storage, the deconsecrated chapel being used for the storage of coal.[20] By the 19th century, the house was in a ruinous condition, its windows boarded up and its roof caving.[21]
Little Moreton today
During the 19th century the building's antiquarian value began to be appreciated and Miss Elizabeth Moreton, an Anglican nun, began restoration of the near derelict mansion and had the chapel rededicated.[23] However, the distinctive black and white colour scheme so typical of houses dating from the Tudor period is not authentic but a product of the romanticism of the 19th century. Originally the oak beams were allowed to fade naturally to silver-grey while the wattle-and-daub was painted or stained a light shade of ochre.[24]
The building was never again occupied by the Moreton family.[25] In 1912 Elizabeth Moreton bequeathed the house to a cousin, Charles Abraham, Bishop of Derby, with the stipulation that the house must never be sold.[26] Abraham continued the preservation effort until 1938, when he and his son transferred ownership to the National Trust.[27]
During the 20th century the long abandoned gardens were returned to their Tudor condition. The knot garden was replanted in the early 1980s to a design taken from Meager's Complete English Gardener, published in 1672.[28][29] The intricate design of the knot can be viewed from an original viewing mound, one of two in the gardens, features common in of 16th century formal gardening. Other authentic features of the grounds also include a Yew tunnel and an orchard growing fruits which would have been known to the house's Tudor occupants - apples, pears, quinces and medlars.
Today, fully restored, the house is open to the public from March to December each year.[30] Money is also raised for its upkeep from its use as a film location. In 1996 it was the setting for Granada Television's adaptation of Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders. In 2007 the house's architectural significance was highlighted in David Dimbleby's 'How we built Britain' documentary.[31]
Notes
- ^ The National Trust website.
- ^ Images of England, accessed 17 July 2007.
- ^ Joekes, p.19.
- ^ Joekes, p.19.
- ^ Crowhurst..
- ^ UK Heritage website.
- ^ Know Britain.
- ^ Brititsh History website.
- ^ Know Britain website.
- ^ Joekes, p.155.
- ^ Joekes, p.156.
- ^ Know Britain.
- ^ Joekes, p.155.
- ^ Crowhurst.
- ^ UK Heritage site.
- ^ Crowhurst.
- ^ Joekes, p.155.
- ^ Brititsh History website.
- ^ Crowhurst.
- ^ UK Heritage website.
- ^ RIBA.
- ^ Know Britain website.
- ^ UK Heritage website.
- ^ UK Heritage website.
- ^ Know Britain.
- ^ UK Heritage website.
- ^ UK Heritage website.
- ^ Joekes, p.155.
- ^ Joekes, p.257.
- ^ National Trust website.
- ^ National Trust website.
References
- Joekes, Rosemary (1984). The National Trust Guide. London: The National Trust. ISBN 0-224-01946-5.
- The National Trust, Little Moreton Hall published by The National Trust. Retrieved 13 November 2007.
- Know Britain published by Mediat Web Agency. Retrieved 13 November 2007.
- British History, The midle ages Published by the BBC. Retrieved 13 November 2007.
- UK Heritage published by Jonathan & Clare. MicroArts © 1998-2007. Retrieved 13 November 2007.
- Crowhurst, Richard Little Moreton Hall: Cheshire's Crooked House published by Time Travel Britain.com. Retrieved 13 November 2007.
- RIBA published by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Retrieved 13 November 2007.