THE DARLINGTONS AT POOL HALL
When I was back in England on a brief holiday in September last year, I arranged for my sister Sue to take my on a tour of the family’s sacred sites. We were accompanied by my oldest son Matthew and his partner Marie.
After a pub lunch and a few pints at the Royal Oak we went to visit my stepfather Horace Darlington’s grave at Worleston Churchyard – and pay our respects to the many Darlingtons who are buried there.
On the way back, I suggested that we should drive back past ‘Pool Old Hall’ as this had been farmed by Horace’s great grandfather Abraham Darlington.
By then, the conversation was deteriorating – not least as a result of Matthew and I competing in telling ‘We were so poor that’ stories [for the most original and best treatment of the theme see “The Four Yorkshiremen” skit by the Monty Python team which is available on YouTube].
My story was that the Cheshire term ‘The Back End’ which refers to the autumn, originates from the custom of white-washing kids bottoms for the winter when the cow shippons / sheds were cleaned up for the impending stalling of cattle in October – and that I vividly remembered brushing up with these occasions.
This led to some tut-tutting from my sister and we sped past Pool Hall which I just glimpsed through the hedgerows and oak trees.
Anyhow, it has been up for sale recently and I have posted a picture of it above.
Pretty posh - eh?
So let’s start with the family:
Looking at my Darlington family in the 1901 UK Census, we find my stepfather’s father Herbert (17) farming with his widowed mother Esther Darlington, and 4 brothers John (29); Thomas (22); Fred (20) and Albert (14) at Pool Old Hall, Worleston.
Esther (born Acton near Nantwich) was already a widow when she married Abraham as Esther Foster. She was 55 in 1901 and the household included her 78 year old mother Ann Scragg. There was also a 35 year old servant Mary Goosey (plus if I remember right a couple of farm labourers who were living in).
Going back to the 1881 Census, we can confirm that my Darlington great grandfather was Abraham Darlington (born c1841) at Willaston, near Nantwich. At the time of the 1881 Census, he was farming with Esther on '108 acres, employing 1 man' at Outlanes, Church Minshull. Herbert's brothers John and Thomas Darlington had already been born.
So they were pretty well connected?
Well, yes and no. For starters, Abraham was a tenant - and Esther was lucky to have had the tenancy rolled over after Abraham had died in 1889.
Secondly, Abraham pulled a smart move. He married money - as Esther was a widow who brought in the proceeds of her marriage to a timber merchant from Middlewich. This fulfilled the long-standing Darlington commitment to ‘never marry for money – but love where money lies’.
Third, he wisely procreated a whole army of sons to work on the farm.
And there’s another point that is really worth remembering. Dairy farms at that time were part factories. The back rooms of the house would have provided the space for cheese making and cheese storage – and the attics would have housed some of the non-family labour needed to run the operation.
Still, it is a nice house – but one can’t help musing about how Abraham would have reacted to its current price tag!
POOL HALL (agent’s advertisment)
CHESHIRE is smart but also populous. Although just six miles from Crewe, however, Poole Hall is set in 168 acres, without a building in sight, and offers a rare degree of seclusion.
Originally known as White Poole, the estate is mentioned in the Domesday Book. It passed to the Elcockes in the 16th century and two centuries later Elizabeth Elcocke married the Rev William Massey, of Norfolk. Their son William rebuilt the house to the designs (it is said) of Lewis Wyatt. It was completed just in time for William’s marriage to Mary Goodman, of Tynewydd in Wales.
The Regency house and outbuildings form a delightful private hamlet, with the house set in spreading lawns and the stables, coach house, barns and cottages looking on to attractive paved yards. There is even a substantial stretch of moat, though this looks more like a baroque canal surviving from a formal garden.
There is also the distinction of grounds that were laid out by a landscape gardener of note, the accomplished John Webb, who lived near Lichfield. By 1805 his practice was reported to be “all over England” and in Cheshire he laid out the grounds of such major ancestral seats as Cholmondeley Hall and Tatton Park.
But the fun of this house will be the constant look of surprise on the face of your guests – the restrained exterior gives little hint of the Regency splendours that lie within.
The drawing room is Cheshire’s answer to one of the most beautiful of all London’s rooms – Robert Adam’s Library at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath, which has a similar shallow arched ceiling and screen of columns at the end. Here there are exquisitely delicate gilt palmettes in the frieze and acanthus scrolls on the vault that are pristine in their detail.
Tony Hill, who trained as a lawyer and worked as a commercial property developer, has a marvellous eye for theatrical furnishings. Any new owner should definitely buy the 15ft-long original Gillow sidetable made for the large niche at the end of the dining room.
Part of the fun of the house is that it preserves its character on both sides of the green baize door. There is an enormous old kitchen with built-in dressers and twin hearths containing vintage oven ranges and room for a billiard table at the end. Another intriguing feature is the “foothole” ladder that ascends to the attic.
“I bought the hall in 20 acres and have been able to build up the estate,” says Hill. His latest improvement has been a new drive planted as a lime avenue aligned on the front door.
“I was told if you buy a house, live in it a year before you touch it,” says Hill. The big question is whether the next owner will feel the same.
Poole Hall is being sold through Savills, 020-7016 3718; offers over £4.5 million
For more reviews of the finest country homes in Britain, go to timesonline.co.uk/marcusbinney
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