| Haslington Hall | |
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Haslington Hall
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| Location: | Haslington, Cheshire, England |
| OS grid reference: | SJ 748 560 |
| Built: | 1545 |
| Built for: | Admiral Sir Francis Vernon |
| Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Designated: | 10 June 1952 |
| Reference #: | 1136283 |
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Location in Cheshire
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Haslington Hall is a country house located in open countryside 1 km to the east of the village of Haslington, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.[1]
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It is difficult to trace the early history of the hall, because all early documents relating to the hall were kept in a bank vault in Manchester. They were destroyed in 1940 during World War II bombing of Manchester.[2]
The manor of Haslington was acquired by the Vernon family as a consequence of the 14th-century marriage of Sir Thomas Vernon to Joan Lostock, heiress of Haslington.[3] The house was built by Admiral Sir Francis Vernon in 1545, and contains parts of the original medieval manor house,[4] which are said to date back to 1480.[5] Additions and alterations were made to it in the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries.[1] It is claimed that some of the timbers used in the early phase of construction were salvaged from ships of the Spanish Armada in 1588. In the late 19th century it was a farmhouse.[6] In 1931 extensive repairs, alterations and additions were made.[7]
The house is built partly in timber framing and partly in brick, with a slate roof. It has two storeys and six bays.[1] The timber framed areas are decorated with herringbone bracing, quatrefoils and cusped concave-sided lozenges.[7] The rear elevation is mainly in brickwork.[1]
Previous residents include Colonel H Watts and Mrs Lillian Watts, Mrs Watts was the first president of the Haslington and Crewe Green branch of the Women’s Institute founded in 1944. Confusion has arisen in several publications with Mrs Madge Watt, a Canadian lady who founded the Women’s Institute in Britain in 1915; she returned to Canada in 1919 and is unlikely ever to have visited Haslington.[8] After the first World War Air Commodore Dame Felicity Peake, the first director of the Women's Royal Air Force, daughter of Colonel H Watts, spent much of her youth living in the house.[9] The house was bought in 1970 by the millionaire Tony Vernon who established Murray Vernon, one of the largest independent dairy companies in the country. He restored the house over the next thirty years.[5] Following his death in 2005 the house was sold for £3m to Isaq and Nina Raja.[10] It is now part of TailorMade Venues, an exclusive collection of venues for weddings and private functions.[11]