Abney Hall
Encyclopedia
Abney Hall is a substantial Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 house surrounded by a park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...

 in Cheadle
Cheadle, Greater Manchester
Cheadle is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester, England. It borders the districts of Cheadle Hulme, Gatley, Heald Green and Cheadle Heath in Stockport, and the East Didsbury area of Manchester. As of 2001 it had a population of 14,261.-Early history:There has...

, Stockport
Metropolitan Borough of Stockport
The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in north west England, centred around the town of Stockport. It has a population of about 280,600 and includes the outyling areas of Cheadle and Cheadle Hulme, Marple, Bredbury, Reddish and Romiley...

, England . The hall dates back to 1847 and is a Grade II* listed building.

Early history

The foundations of the hall were laid in 1842 on the site of Cheadle Grove Print Works, which was built in 1760 and later burnt down; the hall was completed in 1847 and underwent extensions in the 1850s and 1890s. It was originally called 'The Grove' after the print works and was the home of a mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...

, Alfred Orell, who died in the year of its completion. Abney was sold to James Watts (later Sir James Watts) who rebuilt the upper storey and added two short wings in the early 1850s. The architects for the alterations were Travis and Magnall, the Manchester firm which designed the Watts Warehouse
Watts Warehouse
Watts Warehouse is a large, ornate Victorian Grade II* listed building which stands on Portland Street in the centre of Manchester, United Kingdom. It opened in 1856 as a textile warehouse for the wholesale drapery business S & J Watts, and at the time it was the largest single-occupancy textile...

 on Portland Street in Manchester. Towards the rear of the building beside the landing is a miniature octagonal roof-light – modelled on a similar structure in Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral is the principal church of the Diocese of Ely, in Cambridgeshire, England, and is the seat of the Bishop of Ely and a suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon...

.

James Watts was responsible for renaming it 'Abney Hall' after, in the words of his son, "Sir Thomas Abney
Thomas Abney
Sir Thomas Abney was Lord Mayor of London.Abney was born in Willesley, which at the time was in Derbyshire but is now in Leicestershire. He was educated at Loughborough Grammar School, where a house is named after him....

 who entertained Sir Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...

 for thirty years" [In reality Rev. Dr. Isaac Watts, rather than Sir Isaac.].

In the 1890s Abney Hall was altered and extended by the architect and interior designer George Faulkner Armitage.

In 1912, a valuation and inventory was taken for insurance purposes by Waring & Gillow Ltd who valued the contents of Abney Hall and Buckley Hall (a detached stone and lime building within the grounds that was demolished in 1963) at £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

13,150 5s 0d.

Later history

Abney Hall was sold 1958 for £14,000 to Cheadle and Gatley Urban District Council which adapted it and opened it as Cheadle Town Hall in 1959. Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority for the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. The council is currently in no overall control since the 2011 local elections when the Liberal Democrats lost their majority. The Liberal Democrats now have 31...

 took it over in 1974 and moved much of the remaining historical furniture from the hall to Bramall Hall
Bramall Hall
Bramall Hall is a Tudor manor house in Bramhall, within the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It is a timber-framed building, the oldest parts of which date from the 14th century, with later additions from the 16th and 19th centuries...

 and Lyme Hall. Parts of the grounds were sold until about a tenth of the original area remains. The hall is used as offices, though it has been opened to the public under the auspices of the Civic Trust
Civic Trust
The Civic Trust of England was a charitable organisation founded in 1957. It ceased operations in 2009 and went into administration due to lack of funds/...

's Heritage Open Days scheme in September, and the grounds are open to the public all year round.

Grounds

The park was originally part of the Mersey
River Mersey
The River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....

 flood plain, and much of the land is still very damp. This land has now formed wet meadows, which are becoming increasingly rare in Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...

 as land is drained for development. Abney Hall is one of the few places in Stockport to feature such wetlands.

Agatha Christie

The last private owner of Abney Hall, another James Watts, was Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

's brother-in-law. Mrs. Christie often visited the Hall and wrote two stories from there: the novel After the Funeral
After the Funeral
After the Funeral is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in March 1953 under the title of Funerals are Fatal and in UK by the Collins Crime Club on May 18 of the same year under Christie's original title...

and the short story The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and a Selection of Entrées is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on October 24 1960. It is the only Christie first edition published in the UK that contains stories with both Hercule...

, which is part of a collection of short stories of the same name. The Hall was also used as a basis for Chimneys, a country house and seat of the fictional Marquesses of Caterham, in The Secret of Chimneys
The Secret of Chimneys
The Secret of Chimneys is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in June 1925 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It introduces the characters of, among others, Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent...

and The Seven Dials Mystery
The Seven Dials Mystery
The Seven Dials Mystery is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on January 24, 1929 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year...

. Many references to various places around Cheadle can be found in her books. Vanessa Wagstaff writes, "Abney became Agatha's greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all the servants and grandeur which have been woven into her plots. The descriptions of the fictional Styles, Chimneys, Stoneygates and the other houses in her stories are mostly Abney in various forms."

Visitors

Abney Hall has had numerous famous visitors, some of whom are listed below:
  • In 1857, Prince Albert
    Prince Albert
    Prince Albert was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria.Prince Albert may also refer to:-Royalty:*Prince Albert Edward or Edward VII of the United Kingdom , son of Albert and Victoria...

    visited the Hall during a two-day visit to Manchester and described it as 'one of the most princely mansions in the neighbourhood'.
  • Agatha Christie
    Agatha Christie
    Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

    's brother-in-law, James Watts, was the last private owner of the Hall and Mrs. Christie often spent time there.
  • Benjamin Disraeli
  • E.M. Forster
  • William Ewart Gladstone
    William Ewart Gladstone
    William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...


Current Uses

In April 2011, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council granted Bioticfit, a health and fitness club in Cheadle, a licence for the park to be used for outdoor fitness classes and personal training for local residents. Bioticfit has currently attracted 700 residents as a fitness and health alternative to leisure centres and gyms and continues to run boot camps at the park.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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