page_title: Cholmondeley Castle
section_title: Later history
hierarchical_section_title: Cholmondeley Castle / History / Later history
caption_attribution_description: English: Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospital, Cholmondeley Castle. 7-14 July 1942. One of the wards at the Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospital Cholmondeley Castle, Cheshire. Cholmondeley Castle was one of several naval hospitals especially set up to treat patients with severe or chronic psychiatric illness.
context_page_description: Cholmondeley Castle is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. Together with its adjacent formal gardens, it is surrounded by parkland. The site of the house has been a seat of the Cholmondeley family since the 12th century. The present house replaced a timber-framed hall nearby. It was built at the start of the 19th century for George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, who designed most of it himself in the form of a crenellated castle. After the death of the Marquess, the house was extended to designs by Robert Smirke to produce the building in its present form. The house is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.
  The first formal garden was designed in the 17th century by George London. Following neglect in the 18th century, the garden was re-ordered by William Emes, who also created the landscape park. During the 20th century the garden was further developed under the care of Lavinia, widow of the late 6th Marquess. The park and gardens are listed Grade II in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. In the park and gardens are a number of other listed buildings.
context_section_description: In common with many other country estates and stately homes, special roles were allocated to Cholmondeley during the Second World War.  Between July and October 1940 the grounds were the home of troops serving the Czechoslovak government-in-exile.  Later they were used in the preparations for Operation Anthropoid, an assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich.  Cholmondeley was also employed as a Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospital which treated serving servicemen suffering from severe nervous conditions.
  The house was designated a Grade II* listed building on 10 June 1952.  The current Marquess, David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess, does not live at Cholmondeley but at the other family seat, Houghton Hall in Norfolk.  Until her death in November 2015, Cholmondeley Castle was occupied by his mother, Lavinia.
caption: The building in use as a Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospital
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