Rode Hall

Details

ODD RODE C.P. (Off) CHURCH LANE SJ 85 NW Scholar Green

7/73 Rode Hall 6.6.52 GV II*

Country House. A house of seven bays with stable block was built c.1700 for Randle Wilbraham. This now forms the service wing and replaced an earlier timber framed structure. To this was added for Randle Wilbraham II a large addition in 1752 attributed to the Hiorne brothers. In 1799 Randle Wilbraham III employed John Hope to add the bow windows on the western and east sides and at the same time he lowered the windows, covered the house in render and re-oriented the entrance to the western front. In 1808 he employed Lewis Wyatt to design the dining room. In 1926 Darcy Bradell stripped off the render, altered the western end of the hall and added the present portico and rebuilt the balconies at first floor level. Red Flemish bond brick with ashlar dressings and a slate roof with lead dressings. Two and three storeys. Entrance front: the portion of c.1700, now the service wing, is slightly recessed and at right. It is of 7 bays symmetrically disposed with projecting bays to either side and ashlar quoins to the corners at ground floor level and a stone string-course between the floors. Central doorway with plain ashlar pilaster pieces to the sides and round-arched doorhead with alternately projecting voussoirs. The door has 4 flush panels and a fanlight. To either side are cross-windows with stone sills and a flat-arched head of gauged brick with a central keystone. To the first floor are 5 similar windows, the central one having an ogee moulding to the lower edge of the head. The projecting lateral wings have later Venetian windows to the ground floor whose arched central lights project through the string-course. To the first floor above these are oeil-de-boeuf windows with ashlar surrounds. Hipped roof with a central octagonal bellcote with round-arched arcade and lead ogee dome and golden acorn finial. Lateral chimney-stacks. To the left of this is the house of 1752 which is of 5 bays having a bay at right which connects the new house to the old and which was probably added c.1800; and to left of this 4 bays symmetrically disposed. To the centre at first floor level are 2 windows with rugged ashlar surrounds and projecting keystones of 2 x 4 sash panes. Above these are two similar attic windows with 3 x 2 panes and to the ground floor is a projecting portico entrance added by Darcy Bradell which has 4 Ionic columns and pilaster responds to the rear with a plain frieze to the entablature and a flat roof. To the rear wall are central glazed doors with a fanlight over and lateral windows of 5 x 6 panes. To either side are portions of brick walling with rectangular ashlar panels carved with coats of arms and swags of drapery in relief, and rainwater heads both bearing the date 1927. To either side of this central arrangement are projecting bow windows replacing former square bay windows. These bows each incorporate three bays, the lateral of which have all been blocked. The ground floor has tripartite windows to the central bays with moulded surrounds. To the first floor are French windows, each set letting onto a balcony with cast iron railing, being replacements of 1927, and to the second floor are sash windows of 4 x 2 panes. Hipped roofs with lead flashings to both portions of the front, the earlier part at right having square chimney stacks of 4 flues to right and left of centre and the later portion having rectangular stacks to right and left of the 2 central bays and at far right. The left hand side of the house has 5 bays symmetrically disposed with an ashlar plinth and quoins to the corners at ground floor level and a central portico with paired Roman Doric columns to either side with pilaster responds. Doric frieze above and to the interior of the portico which has a flat roof. To either side are ground floor windows of 3 x 5 panes with flat-arched heads all of which appear to have been lowered c.1800. Between the floors is a stone band on which the first floor windows rest, all being of 3 x 4 sash panes and having also been lowered by cutting through an upper band upon which they used previously to rest. The 5 second floor windows are all of 3 x 2 sash panes and there is an ashlar cornice and parapet to the top of the wall. Chimney stacks to right and left of centre. The rear has 4 bays at left and a bow to the right with one central window of 3 x 5 panes, a blocked first floor window and a second floor window of 4 x 2 sash panes. The 4 bays at left of this are of two builds with brick flat-arched heads at right with 3 x 5 panes at ground floor level, 3 x 4 panes at first floor level and 3 x 2 panes to the second floor. To the left at ground floor level is an ashlar door surround designed by Wyatt with pilaster strips to either side and ashlar wedge-lintel above. Interior: The entrance hall has two screens of 2 painted wooden Tuscan columns with panelled pilasters in antis, one at each end, a coved ceiling and a chimneypiece of grey granite. The Dining Room has a coved ceiling and a segmental niche at one end, to accommodate a sideboard, with a richly modelled ceiling having gilded vines in high relief. Two screens of scagliola columns with Ionic capitals and doserettes placed against the walls and a black marble chimneypiece with bronze ornaments. Large-scale egg-and-dart moulding to the cornice and bands of guilloche ornament running between the columns. The staircase hall has dado panelling and a staircase of 3 flights with a ramped handrail with wreathed curtail and fluted balusters with acanthus bowls and moulded string. To the walls are lugged and shouldered picture surrounds and to the ceiling Rococo plasterwork including an eagle below the landing. To the northern (garden) front are a central octagonal anteroom with the library and drawing room at either side, the library having fitted mahogany bookcases with a small scale acanthus frieze of early C19 date and the drawing room having a white marble chimney-piece with trophies of arms in shields to either side.

Sources: Nikolaus Pevsner & The Buildings of England: Edward Hubbard Cheshire, 1971

Clive Aslet Rode Hall Country Life 1985

Listing NGR: SJ8189057336

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

56543

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Hubbard, E, The Buildings of England: Cheshire, (1971)
Country Life in Country Life, (1985)

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 6 Cheshire,

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