Dower House, Pownall Hall, Wilmslow

This building was originally a farm cottage but was extended and altered c1888 for Henry Boddington as part of the alterations at Pownall Hall. It is assumed the architects were Messrs Ball and Elce as they were working at the Hall at the same time. The cottage was initially the steward’s estate office and called “Gorsey Gate”. After the sale of Pownall Hall and the Boddington estate in the 1930s, it became a private house and is now called The Dower House. John Jarvis Millson did the carving for the two-storey gabled porch which included mythical beasts and the following couplet “When Gorse is out at blossom, Kissing’s out of fashion”. The latter was a reference to the original name of the house, Gorsey Gate. A drawing of the porch was featured in an article by T Raffles Davison for The British Architect. [RF]

Reference: The British Architect, 1890