Portal:Cheshire/Selected article/24

Eaton Hall, the country house of the Duke of Westminster, stands near the village of Eccleston. A 17th-century house designed by William Samwell was replaced in the early 19th century by a much larger house by William Porden in the Gothic style, described by the future Queen Victoria as "magnificent". This in turn was replaced in 1870 by an even larger house by Alfred Waterhouse. Nikolaus Pevsner called this "the most ambitious instance of Gothic Revival domestic architecture anywhere in the country". By 1960 the fabric of the house had deteriorated and it was demolished, although the chapel and many of the outbuildings were retained. The new house by John Dennys was considered unsympathetic to the local landscape, and was recased in the late 1980s to give the appearance of a French château.

The house has been surrounded by formal gardens since the 17th century, designed and redesigned by Lancelot "Capability" Brown, John Webb and William Andrews Nesfield, among others. They are open to the public on three days a year. The estate also includes parkland, farmland and woodland, with a total area of around 10872 acre.

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