Strenuous Leader : Carole Distance : 11 miles
A varied and flat walk on more roads/lanes than normal for an A walk, but also wet and very muddy footpaths/fields too. As it’s 11miles, a good pace will be required to get back in time for a cuppa at the café before we leave.
From Tatton Hall we go south along Tatton Mere to Knutsford. Through Moor Park and along Sparrow Lane to Booths Hall for lunch. Then Pavement Lane to Mobberley and across fields to join the North Cheshire Way back to Knutsford where we re-enter Tatton Park. We then return to the Mansion north along the other side of Tatton Mere. With a twiddle or 2 along the way.
Moderate Leader: Distance :
No club member has volunteered for this walk. Maps and first aid kit will be supplied to the responsible person who does!!
Easy Leader: Jackie Distance: 4-5 miles
I have not been able to recce this walk, and have not been to Tatton Park for many years, but there appears to be pleasant walking through the parkland, round the mere, through a nature reserve and out into Knutsford where there is a park with picnic tables where we can have our lunch. Then back into the parkland to return to the stables area where there is a good café, toilets, etc. Tatton Mere is not a natural lake, it was made when the monks from nearby Mobberley built a dam across a river, so flooding the valley.
NOTES ON THE AREA
Tatton Park is a historic estate in Cheshire, England, north of the town of Knutsford. It contains a mansion, Tatton Hall; a medieval manor house, Tatton Old Hall; Tatton Park Gardens, a farm and a deer park of 2,000 acres (8.1 km2). It is a popular visitor attraction and hosts over a hundred events annually. The estate is owned by the National Trust and is managed under lease by Cheshire East Council. Since 1999, it has hosted North West England’s annual Royal Horticultural Society flower show.
There is evidence of human habitation in the area of the estate going back to the Iron Age. The village of Tatton existed in medieval times. The settlement is now a deserted medieval village but its buildings and roadways – which are now a Scheduled Ancient Monument – can still be seen as imprints within the estate’s parkland.
By the end of the 15th century, the land on which the estate was created was owned by the Stanley family who built and occupied what became known as the Old Hall. By the 1580s this building had been enlarged and it was owned by the Brereton family. In 1598 the estate was bought by Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Chancellor of England, from his half sister Dorothy Brereton. Sir Thomas and his children rarely visited the estate and it was loaned to tenants. The hall was originally timber-framed, which was subsequently replaced by brick. It is L-shaped, in two storeys. The floors that had been inserted into the older wing have been removed, revealing the complex wooden roof. The Old Hall stands in grounds surrounded by a wall. Within these grounds is a reconstructed cruck barn. It is timber-framed with brick infill and has a thatched roof. Most of the timber has come from a demolished barn at Clotton Hoofield. The barn has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.
At the end of the 17th century the estate was owned by John Egerton, Sir Thomas’ grandson, who built a new house on the site of the present mansion, some 0.75 miles (1 km) to the west of the Old Hall. Work was completed around 1716. From 1758 improvements were made to the house and between the 1770s and 1816 most of it was replaced by the present neoclassical mansion, designed by Samuel Wyatt and his nephew Lewis William Wyatt. Further additions to the house were made in 1861–62 and in 1884. During the late 19th century large house parties were held in the hall, some of them attended by British and foreign royalty.
The mansion contains much of the furniture made for its occupants by the family firm Gillows of Lancaster. There are over 150 provenanced or marked Gillow examples. Also in the hall is a large collection of paintings, many of them being portraits of the Egerton family, and in addition paintings by Canaletto,Poussin,Chardin,Van Dyck,Vasari and many others. The Library contains first editions of two novels by Jane Austen. One room is dedicated to a collection of items from around the world assembled by the last owner of the house, Maurice Egerton. In the family wing are the servants’ quarters. These include rooms containing much of the equipment and many of the utensils used to serve the family. The hall is a member of the Historic Houses Association.
This mansion, Tatton Hall, was extensively altered and extended between 1780 and 1813. In 1795 the estate covered 251,000 acres (1,020 km2) (392 sq.miles).