Arley Hall, Cheshire

Tim Wonnacott takes a look at a virginal in Arley Hall which is a country house in the village of Arley, Cheshire, England, 3.8 miles south of Lymm and 5 miles north of Northwich. It is home to the owner, Viscount Ashbrook and his family. The house is a Grade II listed building, as is its adjacent chapel. Formal gardens to the southwest of the hall are also listed at Grade II on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens; they have been described as "some of the finest in Britain". A more informal garden, The Grove, lies to the northwest of the house. The hall was built for Rowland Egerton-Warburton in the 1830s, to replace an earlier house on the site. Local architect George Latham designed the house in a style which has become known as Jacobethan, copying elements of Elizabethan architecture.