Giving Back
Shenton Group
Shenton House, 3 Oxford Court, Manchester, M2 3WQ
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Giving Back
Shenton Group has been active in restoring heritage buildings since our first projects in the late 1980s at the Grade I Listed Tabley House, Knutsford, and the Grade II St Georges House, Manchester. We have restored more than 20. However, these were, frankly, for profit. Some listed buildings require so much restoration that they will never be profitable but that doesn't mean they don't deserve to be saved.
Buildings of great historical significance deserve to be saved for their current contribution to our culture and for what they can teach us about the past as well as aesthetic and national pride reasons. More than 1,000 country house were demolished between 1945 and 1975, we have an obligation to save the rest and make them relevant to the 21st century.
It is in this spirit that we chose to take on the restoration of Cuerden Hall in Lancashire. An enormous delapidated house of 75,000sq ft set in 17 acres of gardens and a wider park of 650 acres. It was owned by some of the County’s most prominent families and a house has been on the site since 1199. Being listed Grade II* it is of national importance architecturally, largely because of 19th Century additions to the core 18th Century house designed by Lewis Wyatt of the famous Wyatt family of architects. Lewis also worked on Tatton Hall, Lyme Park and Wythenshawe Hall among many others.
We are working with a large team of experts lead by Purcell and Tom Stuart-Smith OBE and including Curtins, Paul Butler Associates, GTA, Axis, Clayton Construction, Traditional & Bespoke Joinery, Carvetii, Christies, Sothebys and many others. The project involves a ful restoration back to the brick and timber and has revealed so much about how the house was built and has changed over 300 years.
These historical finds are being recorded in a special book by Jeremy Musson, the architectural historian and David Valinsky, heritage photographer. It is also creating learning and apprenticeship opportunities across many areas of restoration investing in the timeless crafts which have contributed so much to our enormous architectural and landscaping heritage.
The first phase, the Main House, will be completed by the end of 2025 and the following two phases of the Servants Court and Stable Block by Summer 2028. These buildings will be surrounded by a glorious new garden by Tom Stuart-Smith, truly a once in a hundred year restoration and, regardless of cost, a worthwhile investment in our past and it’s future. Below are some rendered images of future plans, as well as real time photographs of Cuerden Hall.
