BY CHARLES EVANS

Probably the most picturesque of the black-and-white houses of Cheshire and Lancashire, Little Moreton Hall owes its curious appearance to three generations of the Moreton Family.

Also known as Old Moreton Hall, Little Moreton is a moated half-timbered manor house four miles southwest of Congleton in Cheshire. It consists of a long and lofty gatehouse range built in the early sixteenth century, overlooking the moat, and providing a self-contained dwelling in itself; and, behind it, the mansion house proper.

A fashionable, long gallery was added above the gatehouse fifty years later and a whole new floor illuminated by elaborately leaded windows. Its roof structure follows the Gothic pattern – its end gables decorated with painted plaster reliefs.

The other rooms contain massively wrought woodwork and chimney-pieces.

Little Moreton – long used as a farmhouse – was donated to the National Trust after descending into the hands of the late Bishop Abraham. It remains in the hands of the Trust today and visiting comes highly recommended.