On what, for once, turned out to be a gloriously
warm sunny day I (DB decided to stay in the garden) took myself off to visit
Doddington Hall on the Cheshire/Staffordshire borders.
Doddington Hall is a privately owned
historic country estate, home to the Delves Broughton family for over 650 years
with an interesting history.
Sir John De Delves purchased the
manor of Doddington in 1352 and later fought with the Black Prince (the son of
King Edward III) as one of four squires with Lord Audley at the battle of
Poitiers in September 1356.
Described as a ‘Goodly Mansion’ when
it was built in 1364 the sandstone tower is the only thing that remains of the
original Elizabethan Doddington Hall, which was surrounded by formal gardens
and a deer park.
Sandstone statues of the four
squires stand at the bottom of the tower, but I have no idea which one is
Delves of Doddington.
Garrisoned by Parliamentary forces during
the English Civil War the original Doddington Hall was demolished in 1762
leaving only the sandstone tower.
The new hall built between 1777 and
1798 was constructed to the designs of Samuel Wyatt and later landscaped by
Capability Brown.
Access to the house is through the
door under the curving stone steps, which leads to the ground floor and I
assume was once the servants’ entrance.
Iron railings follow the curve
of the stone stairs to the main doors and through into the entrance hall
From the entrance hall, double doors
unique to Doddington Hall and one other house which I believe is somewhere in
the USA lead into different rooms, including the circular saloon below.
The double doors are somehow
engineered so that when one door is opened the other opens automatically, which
must’ve been very handy for the servants.
A new, narrow flight of wooden stairs
takes you out onto the roof which was one of the renovations partially funded
by English Heritage.
Another view of the house showing
the circular saloon from the outside.
Now silent horse boxes.
In the undergrowth just outside the
stables is a bear cage where Sir Henry Delves Broughton (Jock of ‘White
Mischief’ fame) kept 3 Himalayan bears he used to take out for walks around the
grounds.
During WWII French sailors camped at
Doddington and Polish refugees camped there until 1960.
In 1943 Doddington became a Ministry
of Defence camp, the family left the hall when it was requisitioned by General
Dwight Eisenhower and became the European Headquarters for the American Army.
After WWII a girls school occupied
the building until the mid-1980’s since then the hall has been unoccupied.
I enjoyed my visit to Doddington, the
hall is a lovely building, very Pride and Prejudice, I almost expected to bump
into Mr Darcy!
Have fun, we are!
