Green light for £15m Cuerden Hall restoration

A £15m plan to fully restore the Grade II listed Cuerden Hall will now go ahead after three planning applications were approved.

Built in 1717 and extended in 1818 by Lewis Wyatt, the architect of Tatton Hall and Lyme Hall, Cuerden comprises 179 rooms across 75,000sq ft and is set in 16 acres of gardens and woodland overlooking Cuerden Valley.

Cuerden was the first house in the country to have a belvedere tower, an idea famously copied at Chatsworth and Osbourne and has an oak cantilevered staircase which was copied at Winsdor Castle.

The work, now approved by Chorley Council, will see it fully restored to its original purpose as a family home.

The project will be lead by architects Purcell, which has recently finished work on Big Ben and is restoring Manchester Town Hall, and landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith, who designed RHS Bridgewater as well as gardens at Windsor Castle, Hampton Court and Chatsworth House. The team was complemented by engineers, Curtins, M&E specialists, TGA, and heritage planning consultants Paul Butler Associates.

The applications were supported by English Heritage, the Georgian Group and Lancashire County Council’s Conservation team.

Colin Shenton and Gareth Harold, the hall’s owners, said: "Two years of consultation, heritage lead design, research and teamwork have paid off with a thoroughly well-considered proposal and attention to detail from the restoration team."