CREWE HALL
17th Century Manor Hotel in Cheshire
Arriving
at Crewe Hall in Cheshire is an experience that will impress. A short
drive
from the West England market city of Crewe takes you back
a few hundred years. Now operated as a luxury hotel by the QHotels group,
Crewe Hall is even more stunningly evocative of an earlier era on the
inside than suggested by the stately red brick 17th Century façade.
It’s evident that modern times have caught up with Crewe Hall.
The once great green park is truncated on one side, with land once the
province water fowl and woods now the Crewe Business Park, and newer
modern wing of rooms added to the older structure, but the main part
of the manor house remains a monument to its heritage. A step into the
entrance hall is a revelation, a hotel lobby encased in parti-colored
marble, sculpted wood and heraldic symbols.
Built in
the Jacobean period between 1615 and 1636 by Ranulph (Randolph) Crewe,
then Lord
Chief Justice under King James I, was at the time reckoned
the largest mansion in Cheshire, counted against its competition by the
number of its fireplace hearths - 14 of them - noted at the time of its
construction that “London had come to Cheshire”. The original
designer of the mansion is unknown, but the design is believed to be
based on
drawings by the influential Inigo Jones. The house survived a significant
battle in the first English Civil War shortly after being completed,
but following a devastating fire in 1866, the manor house was rebuilt
with Georgian and Victorian influences by designer Edward Barry.
The
interior of Crewe Hall is an empressive display of elaborate decoration,
retaining
some
of the original Jacobean elements fused with the Victorian
revival - parquet floors, complex wood carving, stained glass
and ornate plasterwork. The chimneys of the fireplace hearths of marble
and oak are ornamented with a profusion of intricate scroll work. In
the room called the Carved Parlour for its decorated frieze carved wainscotting,
a bust of the original occupant Sir Ranulph Crewe joins the relief statuary
of the Victorian Virtures. The Great Library, one of the mansion’s
loveliest rooms, under strapwork cielings with a Wedgewood centerpiece
of winged cherubs escorting Dawn in her chariot, are shelves which once
held 32,000 books of the Marquess of Crewe, and during the Second World
War served as a headquarters for British and American divisions. The
largest room of the old mansion, the Long Gallery, once used in Jacobean
times for games and dancing is capped at the end with a bay window alcove
where King George V and Queen Mary breakfasted on a visit in 1913, just
before the events leading to WWI. Even Queen Elizabeth II came to visit
in 1955 shortly after her coronation.
Crewe Hall QHotel
The Crewe Hall Hotel
is worthy of a tourist visit on its own, but for a romantic castle
lodging, its 117 bedrooms in both the old house and
purpose built addition combine historic surroundings with modern indulgences,
including 2-AA-Rosette awarded Ranulph Restaurant,. Newly added to the
hotel are an Events Centre and the luxurious “Reflections” Spa
and Fitness Center equipped with the most up to date Technogym machines,
6 treatment rooms, steam room, sauna, Jacuzzi and an 18-metre indoor
pool.
The Crewe Hall QHotel offers a few special packages ideal for a weekend break or romantic escape. A Fine Dining Break including a one night accommodation in an upgraded room with a three course dinner in the Ranulph Restaurant. A Spa getaway package and a Family Fun Accomodation including tickets to the Chester Zoo or Alton Towers amusement park. For weddings, Crewe Hall provides a magnificent backdrop for wedding photos and an on-site wedding planner, with a choice of 12 different rooms for Civil Ceremonies.
Crewe Hall is in easy reach of Manchester and Liverpool, 3 miles from the rail station of Crewe, the historic steam rail works of Crewe, the Shropshire Union Canal and the canal boat center of Nantwich (see Nantwich Canal Boats) and 40 minutes by car cfrom historic Chester with its famed Chester Rows shops, Cathedral, Medieval Walls and second most photographed clock in England (see Historic Walled Chester). © Bargain Travel Europe
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Crewe
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See Also:
BODELWYDDAN CASTLE HOTEL - WALES
