Property history of Alkrington Hall West, Alkrington Hall Road North, Middleton, Manchester M24 1WD, 3rd Oct 2010
Previously listed for sale on
3rd Oct 2010
£795,000
- 6 bedroom property
Property info
Property description
There are few properties that offer the chance to live in stately grandeur on a manageable scale, but Alkrington Hall West at Middleton, just north of Manchester, delivers the perfect combination.
It is a family home full of lavish original features that has been cleverly and stylishly brought right up to date by the current owners.
Grand rooms with beautiful windows and fine detail are mixed with sociable family spaces and the offer of six bedrooms.
The couple who live here now with their baby daughter bought it 11 years ago and have loved living in their own stately home.
They said: “We knew we wanted to live here as soon as we saw it. It’s a magnificent building and you feel you are living in the middle of the countryside, but in fact it’s incredibly close to everywhere and convenient for the city and the motorways.”
But to fully appreciate the special atmosphere of this house you have to sweep through the original estate gates, take in the unexpected and breathtaking view and then step through a modest oak doorway into a magnificent hallway.
This soaring space sets the tone for the house, with its original York stone paved flooring setting off the ornately carved staircase that winds up past a beautiful tall glass window.
This is a place for muddy boots and outdoor coats, but just as easily it can be transformed into a magical place for a candlelit drinks reception, which the couple did when they held their own wedding reception in the house.
To the left of the hall is the library, with two walls lined with floor to ceiling bookcases and the other lined with tall windows giving glorious views out over the parkland. The original features hide 21st century technology and the room is wired for a home cinema with a screen that can be pulled down from behind the panelling.
Across the hallway is the formal living room. It’s a grand but charming room with large sofas classically arranged in front of an original stone fireplace. Three sets of windows, each with their original shutters in full working order, flood the room with light and include French doors that lead out onto the garden.
On historic houses like this, it is the detail that matters, like the original dark wood flooring that has mellowed with age and the period doors with their original fittings. They help give a house character and soul.
The spacious kitchen is unrecognisable from when the couple first bought the house and now offers the perfect place to cook, eat and socialise, while remaining in total harmony with the rest of the house.
The vendor explained: “The kitchen was originally fairly small with a jumble of other rooms around it so we knocked down walls to create one large space. It has three windows overlooking the garden and we wanted it to be more of a sociable space than just somewhere to cook.”
So as well as a range of stylish, granite-topped units and top quality appliances, they found room for a sofa and a large dining table for leisurely meals and entertaining.
“With the light and the views of the garden, it’s a very relaxing room and guests happily gravitate between the living room and the kitchen. The flow of the house works really well.”
The couple’s ingenuity and flair are also in evidence in the changes to the first floor where they have created a truly stunning master suite, as well as a luxuriously stylish guest suite.
The master bedroom itself is little altered and its splendid proportions comfortably accommodate the large four-poster bed and its extravagant hangings as well as a vast wardrobe unit. The master bathroom is a glorious room, mixing the practicalities of a state-of-the-art multi-jet shower with the decadence of a roll-top bath and ornate mirrors.
The vendor explained: “Again, this was a mess of little rooms that we opened up and we wanted to create a comfortable, decadent sort of room, where you could sit and gossip rather than something purely functional.”
Linking the two is a dressing room with a wall of wardrobes cleverly created by stealing a foot of space from the bathroom area. This novel solution means that the symmetry of the window is not compromised and the wardrobe doors, papered in the same turquoise and taupe paper, disappear.
A similar device is used in the guest suite where they have built a partition behind the bedstead to hide a shower, bath, washbasin and toilet without compromising the shape of the room.
“The great joy of this house is the scale of the rooms and we didn’t want to interfere with that. By building a partition we created privacy but still kept the symmetry. Happily, guests love it and we never have a shortage of people wanting to stay!”
Up on the second floor are three more large double bedrooms, one with its own sink and loo, a separate shower room, and a single bedroom that the current owners currently use as a study.
Outside there is a private walled garden and a gravelled courtyard providing ample parking behind secure electric gates, as well as a separate woodland garden and double garage.
And beyond the gates is the parkland playground of the great Lever Estate.
It is one of the most marvellous period packages currently available on the market, a property that manages to combine history and grandeur with practicality and personality.
The current owners are only leaving because of a job move to the other end of England but have loved their historic home so much they are looking for a similar period property in the south.
The local Area:
Alkrington Hall is just four easy miles from Manchester city centre, and perfectly placed for the regional motorway network, being just a mile from the M60 and two miles from the M62.
Middleton lies half a mile away, a lovely ten minute stroll through the beautiful wooded parkland in which the house is set. Middleton has an eclectic mix of high street brands and individual shops, including the renowned Lords’ Butchers, (which is one of Rick Stein’s Food Heroes). It is also home to the brand new and beautiful Middleton Arena, with its state-of-the art pool and gym complex and theatre.
Alkrington Hall is close to Middleton Technology School. ‘Middy Tech’, as it is affectionately known, has some of the very best state school academic results in Greater Manchester, and is rated ‘outstanding’ by ofsted. In addition, there is a dedicated bus service to the main private schools in Manchester (Manchester Grammar School, Manchester High School for Girls, Withington Girls’ School, etc).
Alkrington Hall is situated right at the top of the Alkrington Woods conservation area. This comprises 120 acres of beautiful parkland, woods and lakes and the delightfully-named River Irk. Rochdale council (and the ‘Friends of Alkrington Woods’) take real pride in this facility, and keep it beautiful year-round. There are miles of lovely pathways to walk, and rumour has it that there are deer in there, somewhere…
It is a family home full of lavish original features that has been cleverly and stylishly brought right up to date by the current owners.
Grand rooms with beautiful windows and fine detail are mixed with sociable family spaces and the offer of six bedrooms.
The couple who live here now with their baby daughter bought it 11 years ago and have loved living in their own stately home.
They said: “We knew we wanted to live here as soon as we saw it. It’s a magnificent building and you feel you are living in the middle of the countryside, but in fact it’s incredibly close to everywhere and convenient for the city and the motorways.”
But to fully appreciate the special atmosphere of this house you have to sweep through the original estate gates, take in the unexpected and breathtaking view and then step through a modest oak doorway into a magnificent hallway.
This soaring space sets the tone for the house, with its original York stone paved flooring setting off the ornately carved staircase that winds up past a beautiful tall glass window.
This is a place for muddy boots and outdoor coats, but just as easily it can be transformed into a magical place for a candlelit drinks reception, which the couple did when they held their own wedding reception in the house.
To the left of the hall is the library, with two walls lined with floor to ceiling bookcases and the other lined with tall windows giving glorious views out over the parkland. The original features hide 21st century technology and the room is wired for a home cinema with a screen that can be pulled down from behind the panelling.
Across the hallway is the formal living room. It’s a grand but charming room with large sofas classically arranged in front of an original stone fireplace. Three sets of windows, each with their original shutters in full working order, flood the room with light and include French doors that lead out onto the garden.
On historic houses like this, it is the detail that matters, like the original dark wood flooring that has mellowed with age and the period doors with their original fittings. They help give a house character and soul.
The spacious kitchen is unrecognisable from when the couple first bought the house and now offers the perfect place to cook, eat and socialise, while remaining in total harmony with the rest of the house.
The vendor explained: “The kitchen was originally fairly small with a jumble of other rooms around it so we knocked down walls to create one large space. It has three windows overlooking the garden and we wanted it to be more of a sociable space than just somewhere to cook.”
So as well as a range of stylish, granite-topped units and top quality appliances, they found room for a sofa and a large dining table for leisurely meals and entertaining.
“With the light and the views of the garden, it’s a very relaxing room and guests happily gravitate between the living room and the kitchen. The flow of the house works really well.”
The couple’s ingenuity and flair are also in evidence in the changes to the first floor where they have created a truly stunning master suite, as well as a luxuriously stylish guest suite.
The master bedroom itself is little altered and its splendid proportions comfortably accommodate the large four-poster bed and its extravagant hangings as well as a vast wardrobe unit. The master bathroom is a glorious room, mixing the practicalities of a state-of-the-art multi-jet shower with the decadence of a roll-top bath and ornate mirrors.
The vendor explained: “Again, this was a mess of little rooms that we opened up and we wanted to create a comfortable, decadent sort of room, where you could sit and gossip rather than something purely functional.”
Linking the two is a dressing room with a wall of wardrobes cleverly created by stealing a foot of space from the bathroom area. This novel solution means that the symmetry of the window is not compromised and the wardrobe doors, papered in the same turquoise and taupe paper, disappear.
A similar device is used in the guest suite where they have built a partition behind the bedstead to hide a shower, bath, washbasin and toilet without compromising the shape of the room.
“The great joy of this house is the scale of the rooms and we didn’t want to interfere with that. By building a partition we created privacy but still kept the symmetry. Happily, guests love it and we never have a shortage of people wanting to stay!”
Up on the second floor are three more large double bedrooms, one with its own sink and loo, a separate shower room, and a single bedroom that the current owners currently use as a study.
Outside there is a private walled garden and a gravelled courtyard providing ample parking behind secure electric gates, as well as a separate woodland garden and double garage.
And beyond the gates is the parkland playground of the great Lever Estate.
It is one of the most marvellous period packages currently available on the market, a property that manages to combine history and grandeur with practicality and personality.
The current owners are only leaving because of a job move to the other end of England but have loved their historic home so much they are looking for a similar period property in the south.
The local Area:
Alkrington Hall is just four easy miles from Manchester city centre, and perfectly placed for the regional motorway network, being just a mile from the M60 and two miles from the M62.
Middleton lies half a mile away, a lovely ten minute stroll through the beautiful wooded parkland in which the house is set. Middleton has an eclectic mix of high street brands and individual shops, including the renowned Lords’ Butchers, (which is one of Rick Stein’s Food Heroes). It is also home to the brand new and beautiful Middleton Arena, with its state-of-the art pool and gym complex and theatre.
Alkrington Hall is close to Middleton Technology School. ‘Middy Tech’, as it is affectionately known, has some of the very best state school academic results in Greater Manchester, and is rated ‘outstanding’ by ofsted. In addition, there is a dedicated bus service to the main private schools in Manchester (Manchester Grammar School, Manchester High School for Girls, Withington Girls’ School, etc).
Alkrington Hall is situated right at the top of the Alkrington Woods conservation area. This comprises 120 acres of beautiful parkland, woods and lakes and the delightfully-named River Irk. Rochdale council (and the ‘Friends of Alkrington Woods’) take real pride in this facility, and keep it beautiful year-round. There are miles of lovely pathways to walk, and rumour has it that there are deer in there, somewhere…