Little Moreton Hall

Building began on Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire, England, between 1503 and 1508 and was completed by 1600.  

It was built and owned by the Moreton family until taken over by the National Trust in the Twentieth Century.

The courtyard.

This is a dog kennel in the courtyard.

The massive burden of the stone flagged roof has weighed down on the beams for 500 years causing buckling that means there is hardly a single floor or wall that meets at a right angle.

The gallery chamber is probably the best example of how the floor and walls have warped over time.

In a house like this the Long Gallery usually sits directly above the floor below but in this case the gallery was built narrower to make it look longer as a result of which it doesn’t sit on the beams below.

 

Most of the indoors is Tudor wooden panelling.

When this was removed in one room earlier wall paintings from 1580 were exposed.  The wording is in English not Latin showing the growth of Protestantism and the increase in making religious texts available to the masses not just to the clergy.

At a time when glass was a sign of wealth the Moreton family displayed theirs in great style.

National Trust volunteers often dress up in costume to give demonstrations to visitors and school parties.

Tudor buildings like Little Moreton Hall are generally known as Black and White buildings by virtue of their colouring today.  In fact, when they were built they were silver and buttermilk.  The oak beams quite quickly turned silver in the light and the lime wash used was a creamy buttermilk colour. In Victorian times it was thought that tarring the timbers increased their longevity and the recipe for the limewash changed to become a contrasting white.