Rocksavage or Rock Savage was an Elizabethan mansion in Cheshire, England, which served as the primary seat of the Savage family. The house lies in ruins, at in Clifton (now a district of Runcorn). Built in the 1560s for Sir John Savage, Rocksavage was one of the great Elizabethan houses of the county, a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house; in 1674, it was the second largest house in Cheshire. James I visited in 1617. The house was abandoned after it passed into the Cholmondeley family early in the 18th century, and by 1782 only remained.
Rocksavage comprised a sandstone quadrangle around a central courtyard, with paired octagonal towers flanking the main entrance. Only fragments of its garden and orchard walls are still standing; they are Listed building.
History
The
Savage family were important
Cheshire landowners from the late 1370s, when the family acquired lands at
Runcorn by the marriage of John Savage (d. 1386) to Margaret Danyers.
[ Thornton, Tim. "Savage family (per. c.1369–1528)" in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press; 2004, 2007) (accessed 19 February 2009)] Sir John Savage (d. 1597)
built a new house at Clifton, which came to be known as Rock Savage, on a hillside overlooking the
River Weaver. Started in around 1565, the sandstone house was completed in 1568
[de Figueiredo, Peter & Treuherz, Julian (1988). Cheshire Country Houses, p. 268 (Chichester: Phillimore) ()][Nikolaus Pevsner & Hubbard, Edward (1971). The Buildings of England: Cheshire, p. 180 (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books) ()][Beck, Joan (1969). Tudor Cheshire ( A History of Cheshire, Vol. 7; series editor: J.J. Bagley), pp. 29–30 (Chester: Cheshire Community Council)] and was one of the great Elizabethan
prodigy houses of Cheshire.
[de Figueiredo & Treuherz, pp. 5, 6][ Starkey, Bert. Rocksavage Hall. Runcorn and District Historical Society (accessed 19 February 2009)] Hearth tax assessments of 1674 show that it was the second largest house in the county, its fifty hearths being surpassed only by Cholmondeley House.
An early 17th-century description praised the mansion's "magnificent fabric".
[Dore, R.N. (1966). The Civil Wars in Cheshire ( A History of Cheshire, Vol. 8; series editor: J.J. Bagley), pp. 1–2 (Chester: Cheshire Community Council)] The medieval
family seat of Clifton Hall stood nearby, and was retained as farm and service buildings.
[ Some notes on the history of Clifton (Rocksavage) near Runcorn, in Cheshire. Runcorn and District Historical Society (accessed 19 February 2009)][Hodson, J. Howard (1978). Cheshire, 1660–1780: Restoration to Industrial Revolution ( A History of Cheshire, Vol. 9; series editor: J.J. Bagley), p. 77 (Chester: Cheshire Community Council) ()]
John Savage's son, also named John (1554–1615) was the Seneschal of Halton Castle, and also served at various times as a Member of Parliament for Cheshire, Mayor of Chester and High Sheriff of Cheshire.
James I dined at Rocksavage with his retinue on 21 August 1617 on his way to Vale Royal Abbey and Chester.[Hodson, p. 11]
The estate passed by marriage to James Barry, Earl of Barrymore in the early 18th century.[Hodson, p. 79] Further buildings were constructed higher up the hill by Lord Barrymore, possibly by the architect Henry Sephton.[Robinson, John Martin (1991). A Guide to the Country Houses of the North-West, p. 60 (London: Constable) ()]
The Marquesses of Cholmondeley use the courtesy title Earl of Rocksavage,[ www.historyofparliamentonline.org] one of their , for heirs apparent to the marquessate.[ www.nytimes.com]
Description
The design of the Elizabethan mansion was a quadrangle of four bays in the local red sandstone, built around a central courtyard, and was symmetrical but not classical.
[de Figueiredo & Treuherz, p. 6] The main entrance was a gateway flanked by octagonal towers with domed tops and bridged by a
Crenellation wall.
[de Figueiredo & Treuherz, p. 45] The towers are prominent in an engraving of the ruins, after Peter de Wint, which dates from around 1818 and appears in
George Ormerod's
The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester.
, built some twenty years later by Sir John Savage's ward and son-in-law Sir William Brereton, was modelled on Rocksavage and copied its paired octagonal towers.
Unlike Brereton Hall, the
of the Rocksavage towers extended around the adjoining walls.
The last major remnant of the house fell in around 1980.
The 18th-century Clifton Hall was originally a U-shaped brick building with prominent stone . One arm of the has been demolished and the remnants are now surrounded by farm buildings.
Legacy
The house gave its name to a riverside area downstream of Clifton, now within the Weston area of
Runcorn.
In this area are Rocksavage Power Station and Rocksavage Works, a chemical plant built by ICI and now owned by
Ineos, which in its heyday employed 6,000.
See also
-
Listed buildings in Runcorn (rural area)
External links
