A guide to the stunning Dunham Massey Hall and what to see and do
All you need to know about Dunham Massey Hall, a spectacular stately home near Greater Manchester
Where is Dunham Massey Hall?
Dunham Massey Hall is near Altrincham, Greater Manchester
When was Dunham Massey Hall built?
This moated Georgian house is the result of a substantial rebuild by the 2nd Earl of Warrington in the early 17th century. Its later history reveals the prejudices of Victorian England.
The 7th Earl of Stamford, for example, was married twice – to a shoemaker’s daughter (who died) and a circus performer. This made him deeply unpopular with the snooty local gentry. He eventually moved out of Dunham Massey, never to return. The title and house passed to a distant cousin who was a farm labourer in South Africa married to the daughter of an emancipated slave. However, their eldest son, John, who was of mixed race, was barred from becoming the 9th Earl because he had been born before his parents married.
What to see at Dunham Massey Hall
While most grand houses concentrate on life ‘above stairs’, a visit to Dunham Massey begins where many of the servants spent their days: in the kitchen, laundry and dairy. All three have been wonderfully restored to give a real sense of the hard work carried out by those of humbler birth.
Heading outside, fallow deer still roam a 300-acre park that has existed since at least 1362. There’s all-year-round colour to be enjoyed in the gardens, which include one of Britain’s largest winter gardens. And visitors can also take a tour of the estate’s 400-year-old water mill.
Also nearby: Rostherne Mere National Nature Reserve – an observatory by a lake full of birds and, allegedly, a mermaid.
More day out ideas
- Spectacular National Trust walks
- Spectacular royal palaces, castles and houses to visit
- Best gardens to visit in the UK
- Britain’s most impressive castles
Photograph by Mike Peel , CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons