Rocksavage
Encyclopedia
Elizabethan architecture
Elizabethan architecture is the term given to early Renaissance architecture in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historically, the period corresponds to the Cinquecento in Italy, the Early Renaissance in France, and the Plateresque style in Spain...
mansion, now in ruins, at in Clifton (now a district of Runcorn
Runcorn
Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port within the borough of Halton in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. In 2009, its population was estimated to be 61,500. The town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form Runcorn Gap. Directly to the north...
), Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England. Built for Sir John Savage, MP in 1565–8, Rocksavage was one of the great Elizabethan houses of the county; in 1674, it was the second largest house in Cheshire. James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
visited in 1617. The house was abandoned when it passed into the Cholmondeley family early in the 18th century, and by 1782 only ruins remained.
Rocksavage was a sandstone quadrangle
Quadrangle (architecture)
In architecture, a quadrangle is a space or courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. The word is probably most closely associated with college or university campus architecture, but quadrangles may be found in other...
around a central courtyard, with paired octagonal towers flanking the main entrance. Only fragments of its garden and orchard walls are still standing; they are listed at grade II.
History
The Savage family were important CheshireCheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
landowners from the late 1370s, when the family acquired lands at Clifton
Runcorn
Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port within the borough of Halton in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. In 2009, its population was estimated to be 61,500. The town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form Runcorn Gap. Directly to the north...
by the marriage of John Savage (d. 1386) to Margaret Danyers. Sir John Savage (d. 1597/8) was the seneschal
Seneschal
A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...
of Halton Castle
Halton Castle
Halton Castle is in the former village of Halton which is now part of the town of Runcorn, Cheshire, England. The castle is situated on the top of Halton Hill, a sandstone prominence overlooking the village...
, and also served at various times as a member of parliament for Cheshire
Cheshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Cheshire is a former United Kingdom Parliamentiary constituency for the county of Cheshire. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832.As a county...
, mayor of Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
and High Sheriff of Cheshire
High Sheriff of Cheshire
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions...
. Rocksavage was built for him on a hillside overlooking the River Weaver
River Weaver
The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included eleven locks, was completed in 1732...
. Started in around 1565, the house was completed in 1568. Rocksavage was one of the great Elizabethan
Elizabethan architecture
Elizabethan architecture is the term given to early Renaissance architecture in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historically, the period corresponds to the Cinquecento in Italy, the Early Renaissance in France, and the Plateresque style in Spain...
"prodigy houses" of Cheshire. Hearth-tax assessments of 1674 show that it was the second largest house in the county, its fifty hearths being surpassed only by Cholmondeley House
Cholmondeley Castle
Cholmondeley Castle is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building. It is surrounded by a estate.-House:...
. An early 17th century description praised the mansion's "magnificent fabric". The medieval family seat of Clifton Hall stood nearby, and was retained as farm and service buildings.
James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
dined at Rocksavage with his retinue on 21 August 1617 on his way to Vale Royal Abbey
Vale Royal Abbey
Vale Royal Abbey is a medieval abbey, and later country house, located in Whitegate, between Northwich and Winsford in Cheshire, England.The abbey was founded in 1270 by Edward I for monks of the austere Cistercian order...
and Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
. During the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, John Savage, Earl Rivers
John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers
-Family:Savage was the first son of Thomas Savage, 1st Viscount Savage and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Darcy, 1st Earl Rivers. He succeeded to the Savage viscountcy in 1635 on the death of his father, and succeeded to the Rivers earldom on the death of his grandfather in 1640, by a...
, declared for the royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
side. Rocksavage was ransacked by parliamentarian
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
forces, and the roof and part of the walls were destroyed. The first Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC , was an English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter...
stayed at Rocksavage on 13 September 1682 as a guest of Thomas Savage, Earl Rivers
Earl Rivers
Earl Rivers was an English title held in succession by the families of Woodville or Wydeville, Darcy and Savage. The first creation was made for Richard Woodville, 1st Baron Rivers in 1466 and remained in this family until 1491...
, while touring Cheshire to assess support for a faction opposed to Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
.
The estate passed by marriage to James Barry, Earl of Barrymore
Earl of Barrymore
Earl of Barrymore is a title in the Peerage of Ireland created for David Barry in 1627/28. Lord Barrymore held the subsidiary titles of Baron Barry , and Viscount Buttevant in the County of Cork in Ireland...
, in the early 18th century. Further buildings were constructed higher up the hill by the Earl of Barrymore, possibly by the architect Henry Sephton
Henry Sephton
Henry Sephton was the leading mason and architect in Liverpool, England during the second quarter of the eighteenth century, the architect-builder of Ince Blundell Hall and Halton Court House, Halton, Cheshire , who worked in both classical and Gothic revival styles.-Notes:...
. Now known as Clifton Hall, these might have been intended as a replacement for Rocksavage or as service buildings for the main mansion. A few years after these buildings were erected, Rocksavage was abandoned when the Barrymore heiress married into the Cholmondeley family and the principal seat of the joint estate became Cholmondeley House
Cholmondeley Castle
Cholmondeley Castle is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building. It is surrounded by a estate.-House:...
. (The marquesses of Cholmondeley
Marquess of Cholmondeley
Marquess of Cholmondeley is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for George Cholmondeley, 4th Earl of Cholmondeley. Each Marquess of Cholmondeley is a descendant of Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain....
retain "Earl of Rocksavage" as a courtesy title
Courtesy title
A courtesy title is a form of address in systems of nobility used for children, former wives and other close relatives of a peer. These styles are used 'by courtesy' in the sense that the relatives do not themselves hold substantive titles...
for the heir.) The empty house soon decayed and was already in ruins by 1782.
Description
Elizabethan architecture
Elizabethan architecture is the term given to early Renaissance architecture in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historically, the period corresponds to the Cinquecento in Italy, the Early Renaissance in France, and the Plateresque style in Spain...
mansion was a quadrangle
Quadrangle (architecture)
In architecture, a quadrangle is a space or courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. The word is probably most closely associated with college or university campus architecture, but quadrangles may be found in other...
of four bays in the local red sandstone, built around a central courtyard, and was symmetrical but not classical. The main entrance was a gateway flanked by octagonal towers with domed tops and bridged by a crenellated wall. The towers are prominent in an engraving of the ruins, after Peter de Wint
Peter De Wint
Peter De Wint was an English landscape painter.De Wint was the son of an English physician of Dutch extraction who had come to England from New York., he was born in Stone, Staffordshire. He moved to London in 1802, and was apprenticed to John Raphael Smith, the mezzotint engraver and portrait...
, which dates from around 1818 and appears in George Ormerod
George Ormerod
George Ormerod was an English antiquary and historian. Amongst his writings was a major account of the history of Cheshire, a county in northwestern England.-Biography:...
's The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester. Brereton Hall
Brereton Hall
Brereton Hall is a country house to the north of the village of Brereton Green, adjacent to St Oswald's Church, in the civil parish of Brereton, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.-History:...
, built some twenty years later by Sir John Savage's ward and son-in-law Sir William Brereton
William Brereton, 1st Baron Brereton
William Brereton, 1st Baron Brereton was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1597 and 1622. He was created a peer in the Peerage of Ireland in 1624 as Baron Brereton....
, was modelled on Rocksavage and copied its paired octagonal towers. Unlike Brereton Hall, the string courses of the Rocksavage towers extended around the adjoining walls.
The last major remnant of the house fell in around 1980. Only the orchard gateposts and fragments of garden and orchard walls now remain near the M56
M56 motorway
The M56 Motorway, also known as the North Cheshire motorway, is in Cheshire and Greater Manchester, England. It runs from Junction 4 of the M60 to Dunkirk, Cheshire and is in length. It is often busy with long-distance commuter traffic towards North Wales...
Weaver Viaduct in Runcorn
Runcorn
Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port within the borough of Halton in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. In 2009, its population was estimated to be 61,500. The town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form Runcorn Gap. Directly to the north...
; they are listed at grade II.
The 18th-century Clifton Hall was originally a U-shaped brick building with prominent stone pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s. One arm of the U has been demolished and the remnant is now surrounded by farm buildings.