Hawthorn Hall

{{Short description|Wlimslow, Cheshire, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}

File:Hawthorn Hall, Wilmslow c.1900.jpg

Hawthorn Hall is a former country house in Hall Road, Wilmslow, Cheshire, England. It originated in about 1610 as a timber-framed yeoman house for John Chavman of mnc. It was improved and encased in brick for John Leigh in 1698.{{Citation | last1 = de Figueiredo | first1 = Peter | last2 = Treuherz | first2 = Julian | year = 1988 | title = Cheshire Country Houses | publication-place = Chichester | publisher = Phillimore | page = [https://archive.org/details/cheshirecountryh0000defi/page/239 239] | isbn = 0-85033-655-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/cheshirecountryh0000defi/page/239 }} Its use changed in the 19th century, and in 1835 it opened as a homeless shelter school.{{Citation | url = http://www.wilmslow.org.uk/wilmslow/schools/schools.html| title = Schools in Wilmslow| access-date = 19 June 2011| publisher = The Wilmslow Website}} During the 1960s the house served as a private residence. The building has since been used as offices.{{NHLE |num= 1237621|desc= Hawthorn Hall and part of front garden walls|access-date= 18 August 2013|mode=cs2}} It is constructed in plum-coloured brick, with a Kerridge stone-slate roof, a stone ridge, and three brick chimneys. Parts of the timber-framing can still be seen in the roof gables, and in an internal wall. The plan consists of a long rectangle. The house is in 2½ storeys, and has a near-symmetrical north front. There are four gables with bargeboards and mace finials. Each gable contains a pair of wooden mullioned and transomed windows. In the centre is a doorway, flanked by plain pilasters, and surmounted by a segmental hood framing a cartouche containing the date 1698. At the top of the hall, above the door, is a small balustrade, behind which is a half-glazed lantern with a cupola and a weathervane. The south front is similar to the north front, although the door is not central. This door is flanked by fluted pilasters, and surmounted by a plaque with a lion rampant. The east front has two gables. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner comments that the house is "good to look at, though conservative for its date".{{Citation | last1 =Pevsner | first1 =Nikolaus | author-link1 =Nikolaus Pevsner | last2 = Hubbard | first2 = Edward | author2-link = Edward Hubbard (architectural historian) | series= The Buildings of England| title = Cheshire | publisher =Yale University Press| year =2003| orig-year=1971| location =New Haven and London| page = 385| isbn =0-300-09588-0 }} The house, together with parts of the garden walls, is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.