Churche's Mansion
Encyclopedia
Churche's Mansion is a timber-framed
, black-and-white Elizabethan
mansion house at the eastern end of Hospital Street in Nantwich
, Cheshire
, England . The Grade I listed building dates from 1577, and is one of the very few to have survived the Great Fire of Nantwich in 1583.
Built for Richard Churche, a wealthy Nantwich merchant, and his wife, it remained in their family until the 20th century. In 1930, it was rescued from being shipped to the USA by Edgar Myott and his wife, who began restoration work. As well as a dwelling, the mansion has been used as a school, restaurant, shop, and granary and hay store.
The building has four gables to the front; the upper storey and the attics all overhang with jetties. The upper storeys feature decorative panels, and the exterior has many gilded carvings. The principal rooms have oak panelling, some of which is Elizabethan in date. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner
considered Churche's Mansion to be among the best timber-framed Elizabethan buildings in Cheshire, describing it as "an outstanding piece of decorated half-timber architecture."
The only other remaining work signed by craftsman Thomas Clease (also Cleese) is the Queen's Aid House
on Nantwich High Street, known for its inscription thanking Elizabeth I
for her aid in the town's rebuilding after the Great Fire.
The land in "Hospitull Strete" on which the mansion was built had been granted to John and Nicolas Churchehouse of Grayste (Gresty) in 1474/5 by John Marchomley and his son John, Richard and William Cholmondeley, and John Bromley. By the late 16th century, the Churche family (known variously as Church, Chirche, Kyrke and Churchehouse) was a prominent one in Nantwich. Richard Churche was a wealthy local merchant who, at his death in 1592, owned "one wiche-house of six leads in Wich Malbank", as well as considerable land holdings both locally and in Shropshire and Stafford. His wife, Margerye or Margaret Churche, daughter of Roger Wright, came from another significant Nantwich family; she survived her husband, living until 1599.
Standing on the edge of the old town, the recently completed Churche's Mansion survived the fire of 1583 which destroyed almost all of Nantwich east of the River Weaver
. The only other buildings known to have survived were Sweetbriar Hall, also on Hospital Street, and the parish church
. Richard Churche willed "the house ... wherein I now dwell on the Ospell Street" to his second son, Rondull, Randol or Randle Church(e). The house is mentioned among the principal houses of the town in a 1622/3 account by William Webb, who describes the mansion as "a fair timber-house of Mr. Randol Church, a gentleman of singular integrity." Randle Church survived until 1648, outliving his son and grandson, and Churche's Mansion then passed to the Shropshire branch of the family, descended from Richard Churche's eldest son, William. The Churche family inhabited the house until at least 1691, when a rate book records Saboth Church as the resident and gives the rates as 2 shillings 8½ pence.
Although Saboth Church (also Sabbath or Sabboth) was the last Churche family member to live in the mansion (he died in 1717), it remained in the family's possession until the 20th century, with a succession of tenants. In the early 19th century, the mansion was tenanted by a tanner and later by an attorney-at-law. In 1858–68, it was untenanted, and was used as a granary and hay store by a local cowkeeper. From 1869 until at least 1883, it housed the ladies' boarding and day school of Mrs E.H. Rhodes. The mansion later fell into disrepair, and in 1930, it was saved from dismantling to ship to the USA by local resident Edgar Myott and his wife, who purchased the building and began restoration work. During much of the 20th century it was used as a restaurant, and it has been an antiques shop since 2001. In 2007 the mansion was featured on Most Haunted: Midsummer Murders
.
s to the front and a two-gabled wing to the left-hand side; its plan resembles the nearby Dorfold Hall
. The roof is tiled, with two prominent brick chimney stacks. There are two storeys with an attic, with both the first and second floors overhanging the floor beneath to form jetties
, a typical feature of timber-framed town houses of this date. The protruding floor joists are concealed by plaster coving built up over shaped brackets and laths, in a fashion described by Pevsner
as a "speciality of Cheshire".
The upper storeys have ornamental panels featuring several different decorative motifs, including roundels and diagonal ogee
braces. The eaves have corbel
brackets with carvings including human faces and animals. These include a lion, ape and devil, as well as a salamander
, supposed to give protection against fire. Gilded carvings of Richard and Margerye Churche are located above the main entrance, on either side. The timbers bear carpenters' marks with both Roman and Arabic numerals, some being unusually long. The highly decorated style is typical of the timber-framed buildings of the Elizabethan period.
The windows are predominantly mullion
ed and transomed
, with three to five lights including some stained glass
panels. Only the window above the porch is possibly original; some casements date from the 18th century, and several are 20th century replacements. Two windows have inscriptions beneath them: one inscription gives the date of construction and is quoted previously; the other states "The roote of Wysedom is to Feare God, & the branch thereof shall too endure."
The entrance porch has a panelled ceiling with inlaid decoration and a moulded doorcase with an 18th century oak door. The hall has a spiral staircase between storeys; it also contains an original cupboard bearing the Churche's initials and crest, and the inscription "Blessed art thou that feares and walkest in His wayes for thou shalte eate and happie arte." The first floor hall features a coffin drop, a hole in the floor allowing the lowering of large items that would otherwise be difficult to manipulate on the narrow spiral staircase. Traditionally used for coffins, the coffin drop would also facilitate the movement of large pieces of furniture. Several rooms have large open fireplaces, with a brick inglenook fireplace in the kitchen. An Elizabethan well was discovered during renovation work.
The principal rooms on both ground and first floors feature oak panelling
; that in one of the upper rear rooms is Elizabethan. This room also features a fine carved overmantel with a woven love knot and central heart; the ground floor room to the right of the hall contains a further good example of a carved overmantel. One of the rooms has panels decorated with intersecting triangles.
The house has a small formal garden facing Hospital Street, and a walled garden at the rear with lawns, fruit trees and an oak.
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
, black-and-white Elizabethan
Elizabethan architecture
Elizabethan architecture is the term given to early Renaissance architecture in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historically, the period corresponds to the Cinquecento in Italy, the Early Renaissance in France, and the Plateresque style in Spain...
mansion house at the eastern end of Hospital Street in Nantwich
Nantwich
Nantwich is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The town gives its name to the parliamentary constituency of Crewe and Nantwich...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England . The Grade I listed building dates from 1577, and is one of the very few to have survived the Great Fire of Nantwich in 1583.
Built for Richard Churche, a wealthy Nantwich merchant, and his wife, it remained in their family until the 20th century. In 1930, it was rescued from being shipped to the USA by Edgar Myott and his wife, who began restoration work. As well as a dwelling, the mansion has been used as a school, restaurant, shop, and granary and hay store.
The building has four gables to the front; the upper storey and the attics all overhang with jetties. The upper storeys feature decorative panels, and the exterior has many gilded carvings. The principal rooms have oak panelling, some of which is Elizabethan in date. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
considered Churche's Mansion to be among the best timber-framed Elizabethan buildings in Cheshire, describing it as "an outstanding piece of decorated half-timber architecture."
History
Churche's Mansion was built for Richard Churche and his wife Margerye by Thomas Clease in 1577. A panel under a window to the right of the main entrance bears the inscription:The only other remaining work signed by craftsman Thomas Clease (also Cleese) is the Queen's Aid House
Queen's Aid House
The Queen's Aid House, or 41 High Street, is a timber-framed, black-and-white Elizabethan merchant's house in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It is located on the High Street immediately off the town square and opposite the junction with Castle Street . It is listed at grade II...
on Nantwich High Street, known for its inscription thanking Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
for her aid in the town's rebuilding after the Great Fire.
The land in "Hospitull Strete" on which the mansion was built had been granted to John and Nicolas Churchehouse of Grayste (Gresty) in 1474/5 by John Marchomley and his son John, Richard and William Cholmondeley, and John Bromley. By the late 16th century, the Churche family (known variously as Church, Chirche, Kyrke and Churchehouse) was a prominent one in Nantwich. Richard Churche was a wealthy local merchant who, at his death in 1592, owned "one wiche-house of six leads in Wich Malbank", as well as considerable land holdings both locally and in Shropshire and Stafford. His wife, Margerye or Margaret Churche, daughter of Roger Wright, came from another significant Nantwich family; she survived her husband, living until 1599.
Standing on the edge of the old town, the recently completed Churche's Mansion survived the fire of 1583 which destroyed almost all of Nantwich east of the River Weaver
River Weaver
The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included eleven locks, was completed in 1732...
. The only other buildings known to have survived were Sweetbriar Hall, also on Hospital Street, and the parish church
St Mary's Church, Nantwich
St Mary's Church, Nantwich, is in the centre of the market town of Nantwich, Cheshire, England. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. It has been called the "Cathedral of South Cheshire" and it is considered by some to be one of the finest medieval...
. Richard Churche willed "the house ... wherein I now dwell on the Ospell Street" to his second son, Rondull, Randol or Randle Church(e). The house is mentioned among the principal houses of the town in a 1622/3 account by William Webb, who describes the mansion as "a fair timber-house of Mr. Randol Church, a gentleman of singular integrity." Randle Church survived until 1648, outliving his son and grandson, and Churche's Mansion then passed to the Shropshire branch of the family, descended from Richard Churche's eldest son, William. The Churche family inhabited the house until at least 1691, when a rate book records Saboth Church as the resident and gives the rates as 2 shillings 8½ pence.
Although Saboth Church (also Sabbath or Sabboth) was the last Churche family member to live in the mansion (he died in 1717), it remained in the family's possession until the 20th century, with a succession of tenants. In the early 19th century, the mansion was tenanted by a tanner and later by an attorney-at-law. In 1858–68, it was untenanted, and was used as a granary and hay store by a local cowkeeper. From 1869 until at least 1883, it housed the ladies' boarding and day school of Mrs E.H. Rhodes. The mansion later fell into disrepair, and in 1930, it was saved from dismantling to ship to the USA by local resident Edgar Myott and his wife, who purchased the building and began restoration work. During much of the 20th century it was used as a restaurant, and it has been an antiques shop since 2001. In 2007 the mansion was featured on Most Haunted: Midsummer Murders
Most Haunted: Midsummer Murders
Most Haunted: Midsummer Murders is a spin-off series of the paranormal television series, Most Haunted. It ran on LivingTV between 19 June 2007 and 7 August 2007.- Idea :...
.
Architecture
The mansion house has four gableGable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
s to the front and a two-gabled wing to the left-hand side; its plan resembles the nearby Dorfold Hall
Dorfold Hall
Dorfold Hall is a Jacobean mansion in Acton, near Nantwich, in Cheshire, UK. It is listed at grade I. It was considered by Nikolaus Pevsner to be one of the two finest Jacobean houses in Cheshire.The present owners are the Roundells.-History:...
. The roof is tiled, with two prominent brick chimney stacks. There are two storeys with an attic, with both the first and second floors overhanging the floor beneath to form jetties
Jettying
Jettying is a building technique used in medieval timber frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the available space in the building without obstructing the street...
, a typical feature of timber-framed town houses of this date. The protruding floor joists are concealed by plaster coving built up over shaped brackets and laths, in a fashion described by Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
as a "speciality of Cheshire".
The upper storeys have ornamental panels featuring several different decorative motifs, including roundels and diagonal ogee
Ogee
An ogee is a curve , shaped somewhat like an S, consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite senses, so that the ends are parallel....
braces. The eaves have corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
brackets with carvings including human faces and animals. These include a lion, ape and devil, as well as a salamander
Salamander
Salamander is a common name of approximately 500 species of amphibians. They are typically characterized by a superficially lizard-like appearance, with their slender bodies, short noses, and long tails. All known fossils and extinct species fall under the order Caudata, while sometimes the extant...
, supposed to give protection against fire. Gilded carvings of Richard and Margerye Churche are located above the main entrance, on either side. The timbers bear carpenters' marks with both Roman and Arabic numerals, some being unusually long. The highly decorated style is typical of the timber-framed buildings of the Elizabethan period.
The windows are predominantly mullion
Mullion
A mullion is a vertical structural element which divides adjacent window units. The primary purpose of the mullion is as a structural support to an arch or lintel above the window opening. Its secondary purpose may be as a rigid support to the glazing of the window...
ed and transomed
Transom (architectural)
In architecture, a transom is the term given to a transverse beam or bar in a frame, or to the crosspiece separating a door or the like from a window or fanlight above it. Transom is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece...
, with three to five lights including some stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
panels. Only the window above the porch is possibly original; some casements date from the 18th century, and several are 20th century replacements. Two windows have inscriptions beneath them: one inscription gives the date of construction and is quoted previously; the other states "The roote of Wysedom is to Feare God, & the branch thereof shall too endure."
Interior features
The house is laid out around a large central hall connecting the mansion's two gabled end-pieces, which was used for dining. The other major rooms on the ground floor are the withdrawing room to the right of the hall, and the buttery and kitchen to the left; there is also a small entrance porch at the main Hospital Street entrance. The first floor has five main rooms: the upper hall (never open to the roof) and four solars (private upper rooms, some of which would have contained beds), as well as a small chapel. The attic is divided into five rooms and provided servants' accommodation.The entrance porch has a panelled ceiling with inlaid decoration and a moulded doorcase with an 18th century oak door. The hall has a spiral staircase between storeys; it also contains an original cupboard bearing the Churche's initials and crest, and the inscription "Blessed art thou that feares and walkest in His wayes for thou shalte eate and happie arte." The first floor hall features a coffin drop, a hole in the floor allowing the lowering of large items that would otherwise be difficult to manipulate on the narrow spiral staircase. Traditionally used for coffins, the coffin drop would also facilitate the movement of large pieces of furniture. Several rooms have large open fireplaces, with a brick inglenook fireplace in the kitchen. An Elizabethan well was discovered during renovation work.
The principal rooms on both ground and first floors feature oak panelling
Panelling
Panelling is a wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials....
; that in one of the upper rear rooms is Elizabethan. This room also features a fine carved overmantel with a woven love knot and central heart; the ground floor room to the right of the hall contains a further good example of a carved overmantel. One of the rooms has panels decorated with intersecting triangles.
Grounds and outbuildings
Churche's Mansion was constructed on the edge of Nantwich, and in the 16th century would presumably have been surrounded by farmland. The building was originally moated, and traces of the moat remained in the late 19th century. The transfer deed of 1474/5 mentions that the plot had gardens and orchards, while Richard Churche's will of 1592 describes the property as having "gardens meadowe dovehouse stable & buyldings" and an orchard is also mentioned in the 1691 rate book. The rear garden formerly featured a sunken pond.The house has a small formal garden facing Hospital Street, and a walled garden at the rear with lawns, fruit trees and an oak.
See also
- Grade I listed buildings in CheshireGrade I listed buildings in CheshireThe Grade I listed buildings in Cheshire, excluding those in the city of Chester, total around 80, almost half of which are churches.Most Cheshire buildings are in sandstone, brick or are timber framed. The churches are mainly built in stone, while the domestic buildings are mainly in brick. ...
- Listed buildings in Nantwich
- 46 High Street, Nantwich46 High Street, Nantwich46 High Street is a timber-framed, black-and-white Elizabethan merchant's house in Nantwich, Cheshire, England, located in the town square at the corner of High Street and Castle Street . The present building dates from shortly after the fire of 1583, and is believed to have been built for Thomas...
Sources
- Bilsborough N. The Treasures of Cheshire (Environmental Institute; 1983) (ISBN 0-901347-35-3)
- Dore RN. Cheshire (BT Batsford; 1977) (ISBN 0-7134-3187-3)
- Hall J. A History of the Town and Parish of Nantwich, or Wich Malbank, in the County Palatine of Chester (2nd edn) (E. J. Morten; 1972) (ISBN 0-901598-24-0)
- Harris R. Discovering Timber-framed Buildings (Shire Publications, Princes Risborough; 2003) (ISBN 0-7478-0215-7)
- McKenna L. Timber Framed Buildings in Cheshire (Cheshire County Council; 1994) (ISBN 0-906765-16-1)
- Pevsner N.Nikolaus PevsnerSir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
, Hubbard E.Edward HubbardEdward Horton Hubbard was an English architectural historian who worked with Nikolaus Pevsner in compiling volumes of the Buildings of England...
The Buildings of England: Cheshire (Penguin Books; 1971) (ISBN 0-14-071042-6)
Further reading
- Myott EC. (1951) The Homes of Cheshire. 20: Churche's Mansion, Nantwich Cheshire Life Feb p. 21 (part 1), Mar p. 18–19 (part 2), Apr p. 18–19 (part 3)
External links
- Churches Mansion website: includes photographs and plans