The History
"From Saxon times to the present day, this venerable old Hall has been the living reflection of English history."
The origins of Adlington Hall can be traced back to Saxon Times when Earl Edwin built a hunting lodge there.
After the Norman conquest, Edwin was dispossessed by William I and his land was given to Hugh Lupus who again used it for hunting. The Norman Earls held Adlington for seven generations until 1221 when it passed to the Crown.
Henry III then passed the manor to Hugh de Corona. His daughter, Lucy, had one son, Thomas, who died childless and two daughters, Ellen and Isobel. Ellen married John de Legh of Booth and during the reign of Edward II, Thomas granted Adlington to Ellen and John for life with the remainder to Robert, their second son and his heirs.
In this way, Adlington became the ancestral home of the ancient and noble family of Legh.
Adlington has changed in many ways from the original hunting lodge which occupied this site. Of this structure nothing remains apart from the two oak trees around which the lodge was built and which now stand at the east end of the Great Hall.
Adlington Hall is quadrangular in shape. At an early date it was surrounded by a moat but whether there were always buildings on each side of the quadrangle is not known. It is possible that the west side was open whilst on the south side there may have been a detached gatehouse with a bridge over the moat.
The Great Hall, on the north side, was built by Thomas Legh between 1480 and 1505. It was constructed originally of timber, the south wall being later refaced with brick and stone, and in part plastered over.
The rest of the house was built by another Thomas Legh in 1581 and was almost certainly half-timbered throughout in the brown-and-white Cheshire style.
The north front was rebuilt between 1665 and 1670 by yet another Thomas Legh.
As a Royalist garrison, held for the crown by Colonel Thomas Legh during the Civil War; the moat was put to defensive use. The Hall was taken on two occasions by Parliamentarian forces in 1642 and 1644 and was confiscated from Colonel Legh's eldest son, Colonel Thomas Legh the Younger, at the end of the war. He recovered his property in 1656 and two years after the Restoration, was appointed High Sheriff of Cheshire.
After two sieges and years of neglect, restoration work was carried out in 1660 on the north front of the house.
Charles Legh who inherited Adlington on the death of his father in 1739, embarked on an ambitious programme of improvements to the house and its surroundings, transforming it from a medium sized Tudor house into a large Georgian manor. Firstly, he built a new West Wing comprising a staircase, Dining Room, Drawing Room and Library, while adding a number of rooms in the north west corner. These were completed by 1749. The west side of the quadrangle was then rebuilt with the Ballroom occupying the full length of the first floor.
The next stage of his plans was to demolish the buildings on the south side of the quadrangle and build the Georgian South Front connecting the new West Wing with the old Elizabethan East Wing. The centre of the South Front is marked by an archway through which the quadrangle would have been entered and originally featured projecting bays at either end. Apart from the house itself, Charles also constructed stables and a brewhouse.
The identity of the architect who conceived of all this is now lost in the mists of time, but it has been suggested that it was designed by Charles Legh himself, using local builders to carry out the work. Certainly the bricks were fired in the kilns of Adlington Park and the grey flags with which the whole building is roofed came from the nearby quarry at Kerridge.
The next large-scale structural change occurred in 1928 when much of the west side of the quadrangle was pulled down, including all Charles Legh's north west corner additions. The Drawing Room, Dining Room and staircase were left intact, but the large Ballroom was demolished and its place taken by a narrow gallery above the arcade built round the west and south sides of the quadrangle. The projecting bays at either end of the South Front were pulled down. These alterations were designed by Sir Hubert Worthington.
The many alterations carried out over the last six hundred years have made Adlington Hall what it is today - an outstanding example of architectural history.
