Dunham Massey

In 1721 George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington began to remodel the original Tudor house at Dunham Massey.

For the next 30 years work on the exterior of the house was carried out under the guidance of the architect John Norris. Apart from the later insertion of sash windows the exterior is much as George Booth left it.

The long, low red-brick house is set round two courtyards and is still protected by the medieval moat that surrounded the earlier Tudor building. The low-ceilinged oak-lined chapel which was constructed from two rooms in 1655 and the superb collection of Huguenot silver in Queen Ann's Room is an indication of the Booth family's ardent Protestantism.

In 1736 the house came into the family of the Greys, Earls of Stamford on the marriage of George Booth's daughter to Henry Grey, the 4th Earl.

Henry did not spend much time at Dunham by the 5th Earl adorned the house with some magnificent paintings brought back from his Grand Tour of 1760.

At the beginning of the 20th century Dunham was remodelled by the architect Compton Hall. He installed the neo-Jacobean stone centrepice and dormer windows on the entrance front. During this time sympathetic redecoration was also carried out inside the house.

The Edwardian interiors were commissioned by William Grey, 9th Earl of Stamford with advice from the furniture historian and connoisseur Percy Macquoid. The work was carried out by the renowned firm of Morant & Co., decorators to Edward VII. In the long saloon Grey family portraits hang on the deep- green walls suggested by Macquoid.

The great gallery, one of the two rooms remaining from the Elizabethan building, has a series of early views of Dunham recording the gradual changes to the house. The painting by Guercino in the great gallery is representative of the splendid art works acquired by the 5th and 6th Earls of Stamford on their Grand Tours.

Dunham Massey is surrounded by 3,000 acres of ancient deer park enclosed by George Booth's high brick wall. There are some remnants of the series of radiating avenues of trees he planted.

Mature trees near the house were part of an informal Victorian and Edwardian layout that is now being re- established with rhododendrons and azaleas. Around the moat surrounding the Tudor mount are bog-loving plants, such as astilbes, ferns and irises, which reflect their colours in the water.

The Edwardian parterre is planted with bold colours in the summer.

There is also an orangery and in the grounds is a gabled, brick water mill built in 1616 and reconstructed in the early 18th century. This is the only visible survivor of the Tudor hall built by Sir George Booth, 1st Baronet. Originally designed to grind corn, it was refitted as a sawmill in 1860.