Little Moreton Hall

On a day more like summer, than summer actually was, we visited Little Moreton Hall in Congleton,

Expecting to see this lovely crooked Tudor House ...

 we were so disappointed to see that the house was covered in scaffolding ...

... major restoration being undertaken. (It's funny how they don't tell you about things like this before you pay your money!)

 However, beyond the gatehouse the lovely old building was there in all it's glory.

The Moreton family started building the house in 1504, adding extensions as their family and wealth grew.
It remained in the one family for five hundred years, but passed into the hands of tenants for about two hundred years before the National Trust stepped in the 1930's. The tenants had not modernised the hall in any shape or form, so it's like a time capsule from the 16th century.

The Tudor patterns and carvings are wonderful ... the amount of wood in the frame of the house shows the wealth of the family. Many houses of this age show more wattle and daub infill than wood.

Their status was also defined by the amount of glass they could afford. The house has wonderful windows, and is quite light inside. I loved this original table standing in the bay ... it was found in the tenant's side of the house and had been used as an ironing board!

Upstairs, the long gallery measures over 20 metres, and was used as a space for leisure, where they would play indoor tennis and the like!

The house was built on marshy ground, and has been moving since it was first built. There isn't a single wall that is straight, and the floors and staircases bow and buckle quite alarmingly in some places. It's like walking inside one of those crazy fun houses at the fair... quite unnerving at times.

 Apparently the fireplace in this room is level, but the room clearly is not ... it's like an optical illusion!

 I loved the little details around the building ..

There's a lovely little chapel

 fabulous carved scrolls

Intricate patterns on the ceiling of the long gallery ...

Surrounding the house is a moat which circles the house, and is full to the brim .... lovely ....

And outside is an  Elizabethan style knot garden, all neatly clipped

This door is so low a tassel reminds visitors to duck as they cross the threshold

... and this is a dog kennel, dating from Victorian times. How sweet!

Did you know?

In Tudor times these houses were not black and white. They would have been natural wood, and an apricot sort of colour from the wattle and daub walls.

The black and white dates from much later when beams were treated with tar to preserve the timbers.

I didn't know that!