page_title: Dorfold Hall
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Dorfold Hall / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Dorfold Hall from the South Lawns
context_page_description: Dorfold Hall is a Grade I listed Jacobean mansion in Acton, Cheshire, England, considered by Nikolaus Pevsner to be one of the two finest Jacobean houses in the county. The present owners are the Roundells.
context_section_description: Dorfold or Deofold means "cattle enclosure" or "deer park". It does not appear in the Domesday survey, but according to some sources Edwin, Earl of Mercia, elder brother of Earl Morcar and brother-in-law to Harold II, had a hall there before the Conquest. A manor at Dorfold is recorded in Henry III's reign (1216–1272); early landowners were the Wettenhall, Arderne, Davenport and Bromley families.
  The estate was purchased in 1602 by Sir Roger Wilbraham, a prominent lawyer who served as Solicitor-General for Ireland under Elizabeth I and held positions at court under James I. Dorfold Hall was constructed in 1616–1621 for his younger brother and heir, Ralph Wilbraham, on the site of the earlier hall. In 1754, the estate was sold to Nantwich lawyer James Tomkinson, originally from Bostock. The Dorfold Estate passed back to descendants of the Wilbraham family in 1861 on inheritance by Anne Tollemache, the wife of Wilbraham Spencer Tollemache, who became High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1865. The grounds of the hall were remodelled in 1861–1862, with the construction of several buildings including the gate lodge. In August 1896, the hall received a royal visit from Princess Louise.
  During the Second World War, refugees, mainly from Liverpool, were housed at the hall until November 1940, when the park became a camp for American soldiers.
caption: Rear façade
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