In Cheshire, near Congleton, Little Moreton Hall is perhaps the most spectacular timber-framed house in England: an extraordinary construction of black-and-white wood, surrounded by a moat, with leaning walls and undulating windows. Built over more than a century by the Moreton family, it is a living manifesto of the English domestic Renaissance.
A house built over a century
Little Moreton Hall was not built at a stroke, but in stages, from 1504 to 1610, each phase reflecting the growing enrichment of the Moreton family and the evolution of taste. The north wing was raised from 1504 to 1508 for William Moreton; the south wing, with its Long Gallery, around 1560-1562; the kitchen and brewhouse extensions around 1610. This growth by successive additions, around a court and a moat, gives the house its improbable silhouette — walls that lean, jettied floors, beams that seem to defy gravity. Far from being a flaw, this apparent instability is the very charm of the building.
A festival of wood and glass
Little Moreton Hall is a celebration of the skill of the Tudor carpenters. Its Long Gallery (21 metres), at the very top of the house, undulates under the weight of the centuries; its windows number some 30,000 small leaded panes of glass, a dazzling luxury at a time when glass was rare and costly; its chapel keeps Renaissance tempera paintings. A carved inscription of 1559 even signs the work in the name of the carpenter Richard Dale — a rare thing, a craftsman claiming his creation. To see: the 'long and crooked' Long Gallery, the arch-braced Great Hall, the chapel and its Renaissance paintings, the knot garden, the patterned windows.
Did you know?
On a window of Little Moreton Hall, an inscription of 1559 proudly signs the work: 'This windous whire made by William Moreton in the yeare of Oure Lorde MDLIX. Rycharde Dale Carpeder made thies windous by the grac of God.' It is rare, in the Renaissance, for a mere craftsman thus to carve his name beside that of the master: the carpenter Dale wanted posterity to know who had built these prodigious windows.
Notes
Little Moreton Hall lies near Congleton, Cheshire; a National Trust property, open to the public. Seasonal hours to check.
Quiz
- What is exceptional about Little Moreton Hall?
- It is a masterpiece of moated Tudor timber-framing
- It is an artillery fort
- It is a cathedral
- Over how long was it built?
- Over more than a century (1504-1610)
- In a year
- In a day
- Who signed the windows in 1559?
- The carpenter Richard Dale
- Queen Elizabeth
- Shakespeare