Castle Park House

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Castle Park House is a country house on a large lot in the market Frodsham in the English county of Cheshire . It was built on the site of Frodsham Castle in the 18th century . In the 1850s it was expanded and its gardens laid out by landscape architect Edward Kemp . Today the house is owned by the city council and serves a number of purposes. Its gardens are a public park.

House

history

The house was built on the site of Frodsham Castle, which burned down in 1654. At the end of the 18th century, Robert Wainwright Ashley , a lawyer, had the first country house built on the site and named it Park Place . After his death, his eldest son, Major Daniel Ashley II , inherited the property. After his death in 1841 his brother, Reverend Thomas Ashley inherited it, but pawned it to Philip Humberston from Chester . During this time, Captain Harry Heron leased the house.

In 1851 Joseph Stubs of Warrington , a manufacturer of engineering tools, bought the property. He started the renovation and expansion of the house and its outbuildings and commissioned Edward Kemp to design the wooded areas and gardens that covered an area of ​​more than 9.7 hectares. The work on the buildings was probably planned by Thomas Mainwaring Penson . The style was called "reserved Italianate ". Stubs, who died in 1861, did not see the completion of the work he had commissioned. After his death, Edward Abbott Wright , a Quaker and cotton manufacturer from Oldham , bought the property for over £ 9,500 (equivalent to around £ 800,000 in 2015) and was then called Castle Park House . The Wrights had five children; one boy died at the age of 14, the other four were girls. Edward Abbott Wright's wife died in 1868, and the widower continued to live in the house, commuting from Frodsham Station for business and political interests until he died in 1891 at the age of 83. Wright's unmarried daughters Harriet and Emily then lived in the house until the last of them, Harriet, also died in 1931.

today

The grandchildren of Edward Abbott Wright, who received his last will, offered the country house and its 4.9 hectares of ornamental gardens to the administration of the rural community of Runcorn (to which Frodsham was then part) for the "use, edification and benefit" of the residents. The property served as a public park and the offices of the rural community administration were housed in the house. After the local government reform of 1974, the ground floor of the administration of was boroughs of Vale Royal and the local government Frodsham used.

In 2006 the country house was completely renovated and now serves a number of different purposes. It is owned by the Cheshire West and Chester County Administration, which offers its citizens a one-stop shop for local government records, adult education and conferences. The Archives of the Frodsham and District Local History Group are also in the house.

Outbuildings and gardens

history

Castle Park Arts Center

Edward Kemp planned a formal garden with greenhouses north of the country house. Further away from the Landhaus were the garden courtyard, a stable yard, a coach house and a farm. To the west of it was a large kitchen garden. Other outbuildings were a wine cellar, a heated wall and a smokehouse for smoking ham and bacon. Joseph Stubs collected rare plants and many of them were planted in the "American Garden". In the days of the Wrights, a master gardener and seven full-time gardeners were employed and additional outbuildings were built beyond the coach house.

today

An extensive park extends up the hill to the west of the country house. Some of the trees that Joseph Stubs planted still exist today, even though they will soon have to be felled for reasons of age. The formal garden is still there and the Frodsham Round Table has created a garden for the disabled. There are children's playgrounds in the park. The Remise became the Castle Park Arts Center with a small café and exhibition rooms for art objects. Other outbuildings now serve as offices for smaller companies. The park and gardens have been designated Grade II on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f W. R. Hawkin, N. Duncan: Discovering Castle Park . The Frodsham & District Local History Group, Frodsham 1989.
  2. ^ Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde, Edward Hubbard, Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England . Chapter: Cheshire . Yale University Press, New Haven and London (1971) 2011. ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6 . P. 363.
  3. ^ The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain 1209 – Present (New Series) . Measuring Worth. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  4. ^ A b Castle Park House and Gardens . Cheshire West and Chester Council. Archived from the original on September 20, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 22, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk
  5. ^ Frodsham & District History Society . Cheshire Local History Association. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  6. ↑ Castle Park, Frodsham . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved April 11, 2016.

Web links

Coordinates: 53 ° 17 ′ 33.4 "  N , 2 ° 43 ′ 51.2"  W.