The Exterior
A contrasting, yet complimentary mix of architectural styles.
The Tudor east side of the house features a Cheshire-style brown-and-white, half timbered front. When original built in the 16th century, the Hall was half-timbered throughout, but the South and West Wings were destroyed in fire. These were replaced by the Georgian-style South Front and Wing in the 18th Century. The quadrangle is approached by a porch featuring an oak beam with the following inscription:
"Thomas Leyghe Esquyer who maryed Sybbell daughter to Sir Urian Brereton of Handforde Knighte and be her had issue foure sonnes and fyve daughters made this buyldinge in the yeare of ó lorde god 1581, And in the raigne of our Sovyraigne Lady Queene Elizabeth the XXIIIrd."
The heavy doors which from 1757 to 1961 were in the centre of the South Front are now fixed to the wall. Probably made in 1581 for the gatehouse on the south side, they incorporate holes which were used by Royalist defenders to aim the muskets at the Parliamentarians.
The South Front has a portico supported by four Ionic columns on octagonal pedestals. In the pediment is carved the Legh coat-of-arms and the frieze beneath it bears the legend "Charles and Hester Legh 1757".
When Charles Legh was enlarging the house, he built the stables which lay a short distance to the east. The entrance to the stable yard was through an archway with a broad pediment surmounted by a cupola featuring a clock and a graceful wrought-iron weather vane. The stables were converted to mews flats in 1971 and are let by the Estate. On the west side of the yard was a brewhouse built in the Caroline style. The large brick building on the north side which is now know as the Hunting Lodge, was added in 1817.
