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PEEL HALL

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DESCRIPTION

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Formerly mansion, now farmhouse; built 1637, but much reduced in size by 1812. Remains of a moat and motte and bailey which were bulldozed in 1948.

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[SJ 4984 6975] Peel Hall [T.I.]
[SJ 4989 6965] Moat [GT] (1)

Within the walled garden of the present Peel Hall, dated 1637, are the well preserved remains of a much older building built upon a circular raised plot and surrounded by a moat with bridge (2). The present hall is on the site of, or near to, a mansion occupied by Henry Hardware in 1560 and shown on Saxton's Map as 'The Pyle'. The Peel Hall moat which existed until a few years ago, was a typical motte and bailey and it is almost certain that where there is evidence of a moat, and near to it a field known as 'Barley field' the site is that of an old Norman fort. (3) (2-3)

The circular raised platform, with its ruined building, the bridge, and the surrounding garden wall were demolished about the year 1948 - when the area was "bull-dozed" for agricultural purposes.(4)

Of the moat only a fragment of the outer scarp of the ditch remains. This has an average depth of 0.3 m: it has been surveyed on 25". Nothing remains of the raised platform, the ruin or of the bridge across the moat. See AO/59/85/6. (5)

The house is not architecturally outstanding. Survey of 16. 7.1959 checked and found correct. No trace was found of a bailey. (6)

A mound surrounded by a circular moat, part of which appears to be revetted with stonework of the same period as the Hall, 1637 and with a stone bridge also of the same period. (7)

No change since reports of 16 7 59 and 17 7 64. Published 1:2500 survey, 1964, correct. (8)

Peel Hall, Grade 2*. (9)

Peel Hall. Formerly mansion, now farmhouse: dated 1637, but substantially reduced in size by 1812. An intriguing portion of what must have been a fine Jacobean mansion, where the east entrance front and the northern crosswing have been demolished, leaving the remains of a central first floor, 2-storey hall of some magnificance, showing only as a number of blocked openings on the outside walls. Grade 2*. (10)

Peel Hall (SJ 4984 6975) (FCE) and ornamental garden mound or mount (SJ 4989 6965). Peel Hall, currently occupied as a farmhouse, is as described by Authority 10. This structure possibly replaces an earlier residence on the same site.

Earthworks and structures alleged by previous authorities to a form a moat or motte and bailey are in fact remains of a formal garden arrangement associated with the Hall. Although now much degraded and visible as only as a roughly circular ditch or sunken area some 10m wide and 0.2m deep with an overall diameter of 54-56m, the earthworks are pricipally the remains of a ditched ornamental mound or mount, originally 54m in diameter overall with the mound itself 37m in diameter: a structure on the mound may have been a summerhouse or gazebo. There is evidence that this mound was part of a more extensive formal garden which has been subjected to changes in layout throughout the history of the house.

This summary is derived from a standard RCHME Level 3 survey undertaken at a scale of 1:1000 in March 1986. The resultant archive is held in the NMR. (11)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) General reference

O.S. 6" 1911

( 2) General reference

Cheshire N & Q 2 N.S.1897 190-1 drawings (Sarah Cash)

( 3) General reference

The Ches Historian No 10 1960 37-40 (S Jackson) Map of Ches 1577 (Saxton)

( 4a) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F1 DAD 16-JUL-59

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F2 DAD 16-JUL-59

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F3 JR 17-JUL-64

( 7b) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

( 7) General reference

Ches Rural Community Council Survey of Antiquities about 1968

( 8) Field Investigators Comments

F4 ASP 27-FEB-76

( 9) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

MHLG (Prov List) Tarvin R D Ches Feb 1962 35

(10) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

DOE Listed Buildings City of Chester Ches 8-Nov-1985 22

(11) General reference

Everson, Paul/MAR-1986/RCHME: Peel Hall Survey

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