place

Whitegate, Cheshire

Cheshire West and ChesterVillages in Cheshire
Old coach house, now a village hall geograph.org.uk 994017
Old coach house, now a village hall geograph.org.uk 994017

Whitegate is a small village in Cheshire, England, located near the towns of Northwich and Winsford. It is situated in the civil parish of Whitegate and Marton, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester. At its centre is an ancient Anglican church. Nearby Vale Royal Abbey was once the largest Cistercian abbey church in Britain.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Whitegate, Cheshire (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Whitegate, Cheshire
Whitegate Lane,

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Whitegate, CheshireContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 53.219988 ° E -2.556943 °
placeShow on map

Address

Whitegate Lane
CW8 2BH , Whitegate and Marton
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Old coach house, now a village hall geograph.org.uk 994017
Old coach house, now a village hall geograph.org.uk 994017
Share experience

Nearby Places

Vale Royal Abbey

Vale Royal Abbey is a former medieval abbey and later country house in Whitegate, England. The precise location and boundaries of the abbey are difficult to determine in today's landscape. The original building was founded c. 1270 by the Lord Edward, later Edward I, for Cistercian monks. Edward had supposedly taken a vow during a rough sea crossing in the 1260s. Civil wars and political upheaval delayed the build until 1272, the year he inherited the throne. The original site at Darnhall was unsatisfactory, so was moved a few miles north to the Delamere Forest. Edward intended the structure to be on a grand scale—had it been completed it would have been the largest Cistercian monastery in the country—but his ambitions were frustrated by recurring financial difficulties. Early during construction, England became involved in war with Wales. As the treasury was thus in need of resources, Vale Royal lost all of its grants, skilled masons and builders. When work resumed in the late 13th century, the building was considerably smaller than originally planned. The project encountered other problems. The abbey was mismanaged and poor relations with the local population sparked outbreaks of violence on a number of occasions. In one such episode in 1336, the abbot was killed by a mob. Internal discipline was also frequently bad; in the 14th century the monks were often accused of serious crimes including rape, and the abbots were seen as protecting them. The abbey was devastated at least twice: in the early 1300s a fire destroyed the entire monastic grange, and in 1359—soon after building work had recommenced under the patronage of Edward the Black Prince—a great storm caused the collapse of the massive nave. Vale Royal was closed in 1538 by Henry VIII during his dissolution of the Monasteries campaign, although not without controversy. In the course of the proceedings, the abbot was accused of treason and murder, and he in turn accused the King's men of fraudulently forging the abbot's signature on essential legal documents but the abbey's closure was inevitable, and its estates were sold to a member of the local Cheshire gentry, Thomas Holcroft. Holcroft pulled much of it down (including the church), although he incorporated some of the cloister buildings into the new mansion he built on the site in the 1540s. This was subsequently considerably altered and extended by successive generations of Holcrofts. Vale Royal came into the possession of the Cholmondeley family during the early 1600s, and remained the family seat for more than 300 years. The Cholmondeley family remodelled the exterior during the 18th century, and Thomas Cholmondeley carried out extensive work in the early 1800s. Substantial alterations were carried out under the auspices of Edward Blore in 1833 and by John Douglas from 1860. Sold soon after the Second World War, it was turned into a private golf club. The building remains habitable and contains parts of the medieval abbey, including its refectory and kitchen. The foundations of the church and cloister have been excavated; Vale Royal Abbey, a scheduled monument, is listed in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II* listed building.

The Grange School, Northwich

The Grange School is an independent day school near Northwich, Cheshire, England, a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Founded in 1933 as a preparatory school, in 1978 the school made the unusual progression to the opening of a secondary school and now teaches pupils of all school ages.The school is divided across two sites; the Junior School and the Senior School and Sixth Form. The Junior school has six forms, for National Curriculum Years 1 to 6, as well as a Reception class. The senior school has First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Forms, for Years 7 to 11, plus a Lower and Upper Sixth Form for Years 12 and 13.The Junior School is in Beechwood Avenue, Hartford, near Northwich, the Senior School in Bradburns Lane, Hartford. The school has its own theatre, built in 2005 as part of the Senior School campus and named the Grange Theatre. It can be hired for community and conference use. The school also has a £6m purpose-built Sport Centre that is used by the school and the Hartford community.Extra-curricular activities include music, drama, rowing with the Grange School Rowing Club, and a Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme. There is also a Community Service programme and the school has had a link with a school in the Gambia for many years.In 2023 there were 157 pupils in the school's Sixth Form. Almost all school leavers progress to higher education. Former pupils are called Old Roburians, from the school's Latin motto, E Glande Robur, meaning "from an acorn, an oak".

Round Tower Lodge
Round Tower Lodge

The Round Tower Lodge, also known simply as the Round Tower, is situated in the central reservation of the A556 road in Sandiway, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.The tower is all that survives of a gate lodge to the house of Vale Royal Abbey. The lodge was built on the main Chester to Manchester road as an entrance to Vale Royal's New Park and was linked to the house by a driveway containing a second lodge building, Monkey Lodge. The tower is a circular, two-storey building constructed of sandstone. On top of the tower is a crenellated parapet. On the south-west elevation is a planked and studded oak door built into a Gothic-style arch. There are also three Gothic-style windows. Above the door and windows are four unglazed crossloops. To the east of the tower is a short stub wall which used to be part of a square single-storey room which was integral with the tower's construction. It was built in the early 19th century but the exact date of its construction has not been recorded. Also the name of the architect is unknown.The gate to the house lay to the west of the tower the posts of which were connected to the lodge by a low boundary wall surmounted by iron railings. In late 19th and early 20th century additions were made to the eastern room. There was an extension consisting of another square stone structure and there is evidence of yet a further extension which was probably a lean-to shed-like structure. In 1871 the lodge was tenanted by a shepherd named William Ree who lived there with his family. The last occupants, in the 1920s, were Hughie Preston and his wife. The tower itself provided the main living quarters, the first extension was the bedroom and the extension beyond that was the kitchen.Towards the end of the 19th century New Park was renamed Pettypool Park and after World War I it became Sandiway Golf Course. Other than the tower, the lodge buildings were demolished when the main road was converted into a four-lane dual carriageway in the 1930s, the tower becoming stranded in the central reservation when the southern end of the Northwich by-pass was completed in 1958. The old road was retained as the eastbound carriageway and the westbound carriageway was added to the south of the tower. It was owned by the Highways Agency who carried out repairs which were completed in 2002. It was a Grade II listed building and is included in the Sandiway Conservation Area.On 14 November 2013, the Round Tower Lodge was badly damaged when a car collided with it. The tower was declared to be unsafe, and was demolished. A social media campaign to rebuild the tower was subsequently started by local residents. In response, Cheshire West and Chester Council stated that the tower materials had been stored and a reconstruction was already planned; costs were to be pursued from the driver's insurance company. After renovation, rebuilding of the tower was completed in 2015.