Little Moreton Hall
We visited Little Moreton Hall with our friends Jeeves and Michelle after meeting up with them for the weekend in Sandbach.
When you look at the hall, it is amazing that it is still standing, with barely a single level surface or straight wall. Now in the ownership of the National Trust, it was originally built by the Moreton family over 500 years ago, (building was started in 1504), but will many additions as the family prospered. It’s “wonkiness” is as a result of it being built on marshy land, combined with later additions, all on inadequate foundations.
The house has many old original features:
At the time the hall was built, glass was a symbol of great wealth, and stained glass even more so:
In recent years, there has been much work to maintain the structure with hidden steel reinforcement between floors and inside walls.
One of the last additions was a long gallery, built on top of the front part of the hall. This addition caused much additional stress to be placed on the original structure.
At either end of the gallery, there are ornate plasterwork tableau. At one end is the wheel of Fortune (or luck), “whose rule is ignorance”:
…and at the other end is The Sphere of Destiny “whose ruler is knowledge”.
Over the years, with repair and restoration work, various workers have left their mark:
After bidding farewell to our friends, we moved on to Biddulph Grange Garden, another National Trust property.
Biddulph Grange Garden
Biddulph Grange Garden was created in Victorian times by James Bateman as a place for his extensive collection of plants from around the world. Unlike the garden, the house is not in National Trust hands.
As we expected, we were a little early for a good show of colour and some of the garden was closed for maintenance. It will be worth returning in a few weeks.
A nice walk in pleasantly warm weather was enjoyed before we returned home.
"See-u-Later" 