Peover Hall facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Peover Hall
Peover Hall
Location	Peover Superior, Cheshire, England
OS grid reference	SJ 772 735
Built for	Sir Ralph Mainwaring
Listed Building – Grade II*
Designated	5 March 1959
Reference no.	1329813
Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).

Peover Hall (pronounced PEE-ver) is a historic country house. You can find it in a place called Peover Superior in Cheshire, England. It's a very special building. It is officially listed as a Grade II* building, which means it's an important part of England's history.

History of Peover Hall

Peover Hall was built in 1585 for a person named Sir Ralph Mainwaring. Over the years, the house has been changed and added to many times. These changes happened around 1653–56, 1764, 1944, and 1966.

Early Plans and Changes

The original plan for the house was to make it look like the letter "H". However, this idea was changed around 1590. In 1654, a stable block was built next to the house.

More big changes happened in the 1760s. A new part was added to the house around 1764. This made the house look more like the letter "T". A new stable block and a coach house were also built at this time.

New Owners and War Time

In 1919, the Mainwaring family sold Peover Hall to John Graham Peel. Then, in 1940, it was sold again to Harry Brooks.

During the Second World War, the house was used by the military. It was even used by General George Patton and his team. The hall also served as a place for prisoners of war. Later, it helped allied prisoners and English people return home after the war.

The Brooks family got their house back in 1950. In 1964, a wing from the 1760s was taken down because it was in bad shape. This reduced the house from 21 bedrooms to 11. Other changes were made too, including a new main entrance.

What Peover Hall Looks Like

The house is made of red bricks with stone details and a tiled roof. Some parts of the house have two floors with pointed roofs called gables. Other parts have three floors with flat roofs. The windows have stone bars, called mullions and transoms, that divide them.

Inside the House

The house is mostly rectangular. When you enter, there's a long hallway. To the left of this hallway is a small sitting room. This room has beautiful old wooden furniture and decorations from the 1500s.

In the middle of the ground floor is the dining room. It has wooden pillars that used to be in another old hall. This room also has paintings and furniture from the 1700s. The morning room is also on the ground floor. It has bookcases that came from Oteley, another old home of the Mainwaring family.

On the first floor, you'll find the drawing room and five bedrooms. The drawing room is in the center of the building. It has wooden panels from the early 1700s. You can also see furniture from the 1600s and 1700s, and more bookcases from Oteley.

The top floor has six more bedrooms. It also has a long gallery, which is a long room. This gallery is filled with old furniture and antique toys. Down in the basement, the kitchen has two large fireplaces. It also displays old weapons and armor.

Buildings and Gardens Around the Hall

The stable block at Peover Hall was built in 1654. It is considered a very important building, listed as Grade I. Inside, you can see columns in the Tuscan style at the end of each horse stall. The ceiling is also decorated with panels. The stable block is made of red brick on a stone base, with stone details and a slate roof. It has two floors and nine sections. On its roof, there is a small tower with a clock face, called a cupola.

The coach house is also a listed building, at Grade II. Other interesting features include stone gateposts and fancy iron gates. These gates came from another place called Alderley Park. There is also a stone block from the mid-1700s that was used to help people get onto horses.

The Gardens

Peover Hall has both a formal garden and a larger landscape park. The landscape park was likely designed by William Emes after the house was changed in 1764. The formal gardens were created between 1890 and 1905 for Sir Philip Tatton Mainwaring.

Later, the gardens were redesigned by Hubert Worthington in the 1920s. The Brooks family continued to develop them from the 1960s onwards. These gardens are also listed as important historic sites in England. You can visit the gardens at certain times, and tours of the house are also available.

See also

• Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire East
• Listed buildings in Peover Superior
• St Lawrence's Church, Over Peover