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| Gawsworth Hall |
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| Gawsworth Hall |
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| The approach to Gawsworth from North Rode | Church tower and the old vicarage | |
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| View from the churchyard | Gawsworth New Hall | |
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| The fountain | The Rose Garden |
One of the finest entertainments to be had in Cheshire is at
Gawsworth Hall. On a number of evenings in late Spring and Summer,
weather permitting, you can have a picnic on the lawn by the lake
before taking your seat for an open-air performance of a play,
operetta, or concert. The audience and orchestra are under cover but
when there is a play, the actors are in the open air on the splendid
lawns and gardens beside the house. In the 2020s, the
entertainment on offer has become mainly tribute bands, doubtless in an
attempt to attract a new audience as the more traditionally educated
one dies out.
In 2002, there was a concert given by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. The second half of the concert was similar to that at the Last Night of the Proms with Henry Wood's Sea Songs, Jerusalem, Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Britannia and The National Anthem. We have attended many memorable performances over the years including the best ever performance I have seen of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Rebecca, in which the house appears to catch light, Pirates of Penzance, with a magnificent ensemble of policemen, A Woman of No Importance, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Pasadena Roof Orchestra.
The house was the home of the Fitton family in the 16th and 17th century and was said to be the residence of Shakespeare's dark lady. Raymond Richards, the celebrated Cheshire historian, who wrote Old Cheshire Churches in 1947 and The Manor of Gawsworth in 1957, acquired the hall and it is was the run by his son and now his grandson. Raymond Richards restored the old vicarage in the late 1949s and lived in it while restoring the hall
On the public footpath to the left of the Gawsworth Old Hall you can see this statue of Sir Robert Peel, which was bought from Peel Park by Raymond Richards just after World War II. If you follow the path you find the remains of an old narrow-guage railway track, which runs by the moss. The path eventually reaches the bridge that crosses the main railway line and leads to the Macclesfield Canal.
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| Sir Robert Peel | The old track |
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