Cheshire, Tony
Little Moreton Hall's south wing, constructed c.1570. The weight of the third storey glazed gallery, possibly added at a late stage of the construction, has caused the lower floors to bow and warp under the weight of glass, timber and gritstone slatesLittle Moreton Hall is a moated 15th-century half-timbered manor house 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Congleton, Cheshire.[1] It is one of the finest examples of timber-framed domestic architecture in England.[2] The house is today owned by the National Trust. It is a Grade I listed building and protected as a Scheduled Monument.[3][1] So picturesque is the house that it has been described as "a ginger bread house lifted straight from a fairy story".[4] The earliest parts of the house were built for the prosperous Cheshire landowner Sir Richard de Moreton circa 1450, the remainder was constructed in various campaigns by three successive generations of the family until c.1580. The house subsequently remained in the ownership of the Moreton family for almost five centuries.
The building is highly irregular, with asymmetrical façades which ramble around three sides of a small cobbled courtyard, with "bays and porches jostling each other for space
