Little Moreton Hall
Friday 21.6.24
Our UK holiday this year started yesterday with a night at John’s House in Mountsorrel near Loughborough where we ate and stayed in one of the cottages. We enjoyed an excellent meal and the hospitality offered in the cottage was outstanding. I can recommend this as a suitable stopping point on journeys which need a break as well as a decent destination in its own right for dinner.
Today we are heading north towards Didsbury tonight but stopping off near Congleton at Little Moreton Hall. We have recently joined the National Trust as our plans on this holiday will mean that it almost pays for itself. Our onward holiday is to Manchester and then to North Wales and Anglesey for a couple of nights and somewhere along the line some railways.
However the highlight today is allegedly the “wonkiest house” in the country which is located a few miles south of Congleton and apart from encountering the A50 and the delays caused by the roundabouts (all of which need flyovers adding to ease traffic flow).
Construction of the Hall commenced before 1450 with William Moreton adding significantly from 1500 onwards. There were earlier buildings on the site. The family at this stage were growing in wealth and continually adding to their land estates and so whilst the house commenced small the family kept adding to it. The extensions were to build a larger house and then to form buildings on three sides of the small courtyard. Finally in common with other grand houses the family added a long gallery as a third floor running the length of the newer extension – but this gallery was not as wide as the floors below so the weight was not carried on the external walls. A slate roof added weight estimated at 32 tons to complete the structure. This was added in 1570-1580 marking a high water in the family fortunes.
A fuller description is held in the Official Listing.
Being on the wrong side in the Civil War cost the family the accumulated fortune and much of the estate was sold to buy the freedom of William Moreton III. In the early Twentieth Century attempts were made to stabilise the structure and to restore it and it passed to the National Trust in 1937 who have in recent years spent a small fortune to seek to prevent further movement.
From Little Moreton Hall we headed further north to Didsbury for a couple of nights. In the evening we dined at Adam Reid at the French – a restaurant inside the Midland Hotel. Absolutely stunning meal plus some good wines. The team here are young and very talented – and the service is excellent.