Crewe Hall : The UK.

   Crewe Hall Weston Road, Crewe CW1 6UA, England

Crewe Hall is a Jacobean mansion located near Crewe Green, east of Crewe, in Cheshire, England. Described by Nikolaus Pevsner as one of the two finest Jacobean houses in Cheshire, it is listed at grade I. Built in 1615–36 for Sir Randolph Crewe, it was one of the county's largest houses in the 17th century, and was said to have "brought London into Cheshire".

The hall was extended in the late 18th century and altered by Edward Blore in the early Victorian era. It was extensively restored by E. M. Barry after a fire in 1866, and is considered among his best works.Other artists and craftsmen employed during the restoration include J. Birnie Philip, J. G. Crace, Henry Weekes and the firm of Clayton and Bell. The interior is elaborately decorated and contains many fine examples of wood carving, chimneypieces and plasterwork, some of which are Jacobean in date.

The park was landscaped during the 18th century by Lancelot Brown, William Emes, John Webb and Humphry Repton, and formal gardens were designed by W. A. Nesfield in the 19th century. On the estate are cottages designed by Nesfield's son, William Eden Nesfield, which Pevsner considered to have introduced features such as tile hanging and pargetting into Cheshire. The stables quadrangle is contemporary with the hall and is listed at grade II*.

The hall remained the seat of various branches of the Crewe family until 1936, when the land was sold to the Duchy of Lancaster. It was used as offices after the Second World War, serving as the headquarters for the Wellcome Foundation for nearly thirty years. As of 2013, it is used as a hotel, restaurant and health club.

                                     

The History of Crewe Hall

by Katie Martin

In 1612, Sir Ranulph Crewe was so taken with the area a few miles South-East of Crewe Railway Station, he chose to spend a fortune, and 24 years, building a manor fit for a King.

Crewe Hall is a plush hotel and popular venue for weddings and conferences, but in the 17th Century, it was home to one of the country's most powerful families.

The house was originally built between 1616 and 1636 by Ranulph Crewe, and was the first brick built town house in the North of England.

Hanging on an interior wall is a wooden tablet with details of the family's lineage, and illustrations of their coats of arms.

The Crewe family were awarded their title by William the Conqueror for services rendered in the Battle of Hastings.

Crewe Hall in South Cheshire

Crewe Hall in South Cheshire

Powerful position

Over the centuries they were promoted and Ranulph Crewe who built Crewe Hall held the powerful position of Lord Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

According to Nick Garnett who works at Crewe Hall, Ranulph Crewe was a man of the people, he expected his staff to work hard, but he was a generous and caring Landlord and Master.

Sent to the Tower

His support of those beneath him was unwavering when Monarch James I sent him to the Tower of London when he objected to an increase in taxation.

Jacobean staircase in Crewe Hall

The interior of Crewe Hall screams wealth and opulence, with vast marble fireplaces in every room, and an ornate Jacobean staircase in its centre.

From the front entrance, you walk into the Hall of Pillars, originally an open courtyard, the area has been enclosed with a large barrel roof to protect it from the weather.

Family mottos

Above the fireplace you can see the family's two mottos; Quid Retribuam Domino, What shall I render unto the Lord, and Secerna Inferior, I shall follow but not feel inferior.

During its heyday, the Crewe family had a team of 50 chefs, and scores of gardeners and household staff to care for them.

There's also a legend that the family had their own train line, that linked Platform 13 with Crewe Arms, and the basement of Crewe Hall, although evidence of the line has long been covered over as the Hall has been renovated over the years.

The ornate bookshelves in Crewe Hall's library

Famous and influential people

Apart from the Chapel, the most ornate room in the house is the Library, where sculptures and wood carvings of famous and influential people like Francis Bacon, William Shakespeare and Queen Victoria I adorn the bookshelves.

It was next door in the Long Gallery that a fireplace was over-stocked by a fire boy, resulting in a raging inferno that gutted the entire building in December 1866.

Champagne with afternoon tea

Architectural history

Crewe Hall from a painting of c. 1710

The Jacobean hall was built for Sir Randolph Crewe between 1615 and 1636. The architect of the original building is unknown, although some historians have concluded that its design was based on drawings by Inigo Jones. Although of a relatively conservative design, similar to that of Longleat from half a century earlier, the hall seems to have been considered progressive in provincial Cheshire. The historian Thomas Fuller wrote in 1662:

Sir Randal first brought the model of excellent building into these remoter parts; yea, brought London into Cheshire, in the loftiness, sightliness, and pleasantness of their structures.

Crewe Hall from an early engraving

Hearth-tax assessments of 1674 show the original hall to have been one of the largest houses in Cheshire, its 42 hearths being surpassed only by Cholmondeley House and Rocksavage, neither of which have survived. As depicted in a painting of around 1710, the original building was square with sides of around 100 feet (30 m), and featured gabled projecting bays and groups of octagonal chimney stacks. Built around a central open courtyard, the interior had a great hall and long gallery; the main entrance led to a screens passage and the main staircase was in a small east hall.Externally, there was a walled forecourt and formal walled gardens; a range of separate service buildings was located to the west.

The ornate bookshelves in Crewe Hall's library

Sir Ranulph (or Randolph or Ranulphe) Crewe (or Crew) (1558 – 3 January 1646)

 was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.

Crewe as Lord Chief Justice.

Address: Weston Rd, Haslington, Crewe CW1 6UZ, UK

Phone: +44 1270 253333

Cheshire Map. The UK.

Cheshire  archaically the County Palatine of Chester; abbreviated Ches.) is a county in

 North West England, bordering Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the 

east, Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south and Wales to the west 

bordering Wrexham and Flintshire). 

Cheshire's county town is Chester; the largest town is Warrington.

Other major towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere 

Port, Macclesfield, Northwich, Runcorn, Widnes, Wilmslow, and Winsford.

 The county covers 905 square miles (2,344 km2) and has a population of around 1 million. It is mostly 

rural, with a number of small towns and villages supporting the agricultural and other industries which 

produce Cheshire cheese, salt, chemicals and silk

Crewe /kruː/ is a railway town and civil parish within the borough of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The area has a population of 72,863. Crewe is perhaps best known as a large railway junction and home to Crewe Works, for many years a major railway engineering facility for manufacturing and overhauling locomotives, but now much reduced in size. From 1946 until 2002 it was also the home of Rolls-Royce motor car production. The Pyms Lane factory on the west of the town now produces Bentley motor cars exclusively. Crewe is 158 miles north of London and 35 miles south of Manchester.

From 1946 until 2002 it was also the home of Rolls-Royce motor car production.

History

Further information: History of Cheshire

Although the name Creu first appears in the Domesday Book, the modern urban settlement of Crewe was not formally planned out until 1843 by Joseph Locke to consolidate the "railway colony" that had grown up since around 1840–41 in the area near to the railway junction station opened in 1837, even though it was called Crewe by many, from the start. Crewe was thus named after the railway station, rather than the other way round. The name derives from an Old Welsh word 'criu', meaning 'weir'.

Crewe was founded in the township of Monks Coppenhall which, with the township of Church Coppenhall, formed the ancient parish of Coppenhall. The railway station was named after the township of Crewe (then, part of the ancient parish of Barthomley) in which it was located.[6] Eventually, the township of Crewe became a civil parish in its own right also named, rather confusingly, Crewe. This civil parish changed its name to Crewe Green in 1974 to avoid confusion with the adjacent town, which had been made a municipal borough in 1877.

The railway station remained part of the civil parish of Crewe, outside the boundary of the municipal borough until 1936.[9] So, throughout its history, the town of Crewe has neither been part of, nor has it encompassed first the township of Crewe, later the civil parish of Crewe, and later still the civil parish of Crewe Green adjacent to it, even though these places were the direct origin of the name of the town via the railway station which was also not part of the town before 1936. An old, local riddle describes the somewhat unusual states of affairs: "The place which is Crewe is not Crewe, and the place which is not Crewe is Crewe."

Until the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) company chose Crewe as the site for its locomotive works and railway station in the late 1830s, Crewe was a village with a population (c. 1831) of just 70 residents.[11] Winsford, 7 miles (11 km) to the north, had rejected an earlier proposal, as had local landowners in neighbouring Nantwich, 4 miles (6 km) away. Crewe railway station was built in fields near to Crewe Hall and was completed in 1837.

A new town grew up, in the parishes of Monks Coppenhall and Church Coppenhall, alongside the increasingly busy station, with the population expanding to reach 40,000 by 1871. GJR chief engineer Joseph Locke helped lay out the town.

The town has a large park, Queen's Park (laid out by engineer Francis Webb), the land for which was donated by the London and North Western Railway, the successor to the GJR. It has been suggested that their motivation was to prevent the rival Great Western Railway building a station on the site, but the available evidence indicates otherwise.

The railway provided an endowment towards the building and upkeep of Christ Church. Until 1897 its vicar, non-conformist ministers and schoolteachers received concessionary passes, the school having been established in 1842. The company provided a doctor's surgery with a scheme of health insurance. A gasworks was built and the works water supply was adapted to provide drinking water and a public baths. The railway also opened a cheese market in 1854 and a clothing factory for John Compton who provided the company uniforms, while McCorquodale of Liverpool set up a printing works.

During World War II the strategic presence of the railways and Rolls-Royce engineering works (turned over to producing aircraft engines) made Crewe a target for enemy air raids, and it was in the flight path to Liverpool.[13] The borough lost 35 civilians to these, the worst raid was on 29 August 1940 when some 50 houses were destroyed, close to the station.

Crewe crater on Mars is named after the town of Crewe. Crewe was described by author Alan Garner 

in his novel Red Shift as "the ultimate reality".

Thank you for all information  about Crewe.