From baroque masterpiece to the UKs most picturesque motor circuit: The tragic tale of Oulton Park and its inhabitants

Oulton Park, near Tarporley, Cheshire, is a very noisy place, attracting vast crowds of more than 30,000 to the British Touring Car Championship and International Gold Cup events.

A century ago, large crowds also gathered at Oulton Park, but not for motor racing. Led by the Bishop of Chester, they gathered to pay their respects to the five servants and volunteer firefighter who lost their lives on Valentine’s Day, trying to rescue the building from fire.

Oulton Park was begun in 1715, built for the elderly bachelor John Egerton. It is believed an earlier Tudor property on the site had, too, been destroyed by fire. Egerton, who at the age of 60, was alone and going blind, was keen to reestablish his family’s ancestral home in impressive style. And impressive, the new, vast red brick hall was. Records as to the architect are scarce, but early attributions to Sir John Vanbrugh have been continually rebuked by scholars.

The cost of rebuilding was said to have impoverished Egerton, but a remaining letter from him hinted at his reasoning: ‘…the many thousand pounds I have laid out in the house and gardens at Oulton, I need not mention the exact sum, every one that sees them will compute them for me.' Egerton was keen that his family’s legacy should continue, and continue at Oulton Park, so much so that he stipulated in his will that his nephew, Philip, was to be fined £2,000 if he and his family did not inhabit his monument for at least six months a year. He also stipulated certain items must remain within the four gigantic walls, including Chinese lacquered walls (believed to have been salvaged from the Tudor hall by being thrown in the moat), paintings and tapestries.

Philip accepted duty, and by all accounts, despite a rocky start — his wife wrote to creditors begging for extra money: '…cheese is taking no money in Cheshire’ — he managed to turn the estate around. Additionally when Country Life visited the property in 1908, more than 150 years later, the writer found and described, but sadly did not photograph, the same items that Egerton has insisted must be kept.

By 1908, the house — which was in the possession of Sir Philip Grey-Egerton‚ had begun to feel more like a museum than a family home. Grey-Egerton was married to American socialite May Carolyn Cuyler with whom he shared daughter Cecily, and twin sons Philip and Rowland. A frivolous Frontispiece from a 1900 edition of Country Life shows Cuyler and her two young sons in Regency fancy dress (a common photography trope from that era). However, their marriage was far from happy and, in 1905, Cuyler filed for divorce on the grounds of desertion — a petition Sir Philip did not contest. They both subsequently found love elsewhere.

Like so many great estates, the house was utilised as a convalescent home during the First World War and specialised in caring for officers suffering from shell shock. Grey-Egerton also took in refugees specifically from Belgium, a decision that may have been influenced by the death of Rowland during active service in Zandvoorde in 1914. His twin brother, Philip, would also die, four years later, during the Battle of the Somme.

Following the conflict, the hall was rented out, and Grey-Egerton was in France when he received a call alerting him to an unfolding tragedy. A fire had broken out on the roof. By the time Grey-Egerton returned, his ancestral home was no more. The Cheshire Observer described 'pictures of great value and enclosed in massive gold frames' falling from the walls, and bedsteads dropping through the floors. 'All within view was a sight of devastation and ruin sad to behold, and pathetic in its completeness,' they concluded. Even worse than the loss of the hall and its priceless possessions was the devastating loss of life: Mary Spann, 32; Bertha Lloyd, 30; Fred Crank, 18; Henry White, 18; George Wallace Sinclair, 48; and Joseph Hunt, 48. Unlike John Egerton, three centuries before, Grey-Egerton had no desire to rebuild anything. Leaving the ruins as they were, he built a more modestly-sized property in the grounds from which he could manage the estate.

Grey-Egerton died in 1937 and the remains of Oulton were bombed in 1940.

The land was once again handed over for war-time service. This time, it was put to use as a staging camp for more than 12,000 troops, including members of the Cheshire Regiment, and soldiers from France, Canada, and some of General Patton’s USA Army units — who were entertained by Heavyweight Champion boxer Joe Louis — ahead of the Normandy landings. Apparently, you can still see the initials of men waiting to be deployed carved into the trees on the grounds. After the War, the Grey-Egerton’s agreed to the development of the racing circuit which is still in operation to this day.

On the centenary of the tragedy that brought Oulton Park crashing down, Valentine’s Day 2026, Little Budworth Parish Council unveiled a red brick memorial to the six people killed in the catastrophe.

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