In north Cheshire, there are more millionaires to the acre than anywhere else in the UK, bar London, with no sign of a major exodus. On the contrary, reveals Crispin Harris of Jackson-Stops in fashionable Alderley Edge, near Wilmslow, who has seen a recent surge in demand for houses valued at £5m-plus.
Jackson-Stops are joint agent with Knutsford-based Stuart Rushton & Co in the sale of landmark, Grade II*-listed Whirley Hall in Whirley Lane, Over Alderley, for which offers ‘in excess of £10m’ are sought.
Whirley Hall stands in five acres of mature landscaped gardens, surrounded by two cottages, numerous outbuildings and a further 56 acres of manicured parkland. The house was renovated, reinvented and extended between 2012 and 2014 by the current owners, with all brickwork, windows and fine plasterwork meticulously restored, a new brick-built kitchen/dayroom built and a timber orangery/breakfast room added in 2020.
There's also a swimming pool that looks as if it's been borrowed from a top-end hotel.
The pool is part of a transformative addition: the contemporary, glass-walled leisure wing, which as well as the 10m heated pool houses a spa, steam room, gym and changing room. It was designed to blend with the topography of its rural surroundings.
A stone terrace with a clipped box parterre connects the old with the new part of the house.
The pristine, 9,016sq ft main house offers luxurious accommodation on four floors, including seven reception rooms: front and rear entrance halls, kitchen/family room, library, dining room, drawing room and study.
There are plenty of places to lay your head, too: eight bedrooms and nine bathrooms, plus guest and staff cottages if you've a need for more sleeping space.
Outbuildings include covered parking for four cars and a steel-frame agricultural barn. The beautifully landscaped gardens feature topiary, a Grade II-listed obelisk, an all-weather tennis court, an orchard and an enchanting woodland walk.
According to its Historic England listing, Whirley Hall, built of Flemish bond orange brick with buff-sandstone dressings under a Kerridge stone-slate roof, dates from about 1670 and was an addition to an earlier timber-frame manor that was later demolished.
The Hall was extended and altered in the 18th century and again in the 1950s, when the single-storey wings were added to either side. It has been home to some of Cheshire’s leading industrialists, among them the Birtles, Hibberts, Lord Stanley of Alderley and Sir William Mather.
Whirley Hall is for sale at £10 million — see more details and pictures.
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