Cliffe Park Hall
Cliffe Park Hall, at the north end of the lake, was built by John Haworth and his cousin, the Reverend James Bostock, in 1811 at a cost said to be £25,000. On the death of John Haworth in 1831, it passed to his cousin Fanny Bostock. During her ownership of the hall, she brought legal actions and obtained injunctions against the North Staffordshire Railway (brought to Rudyard in 1850) to try to prevent their popularisation of the lake and reduce the influx of visitors by rail that they encouraged. Fanny Bostock died in 1875 whereupon the Cliffe Park estate was split up. The Reverend Edward Boothman, the husband of Fanny Bostock’s niece, bought the hall and some of its land and buildings for £14,250 with the remaining land being sold off in smaller plots. These sales were largely responsible for the development of land around the lake as it is today. In 1904, the NSR purchased Cliffe Park Hall with the intent of constructing a golf course on the land between the hall and the lake. Whilst it was intended to demolish the hall and build a new club house, the money for this was not forthcoming with only changing rooms and locker rooms being added to the existing building. A new railway station to serve the course was built at the north end of the lake. The golf course, enlarged from nine holes to eighteen in 1908, closed in 1926 probably due to the general post-war conditions and reduced train services together with the availability of newer golf courses more easily accessed from the local towns. Cliffe Park Hall was then let privately until 1933 when its then current owners, London Midland and Scottish Railway (NSR’s successors), leased it to the Youth Hostels Association and was known as Rudyard Lake Hostel.
We enjoyed a sunset revisit to this dated manor on a long day trip to various places around Staffordshire. After coming to the building a year before, we were aware that there were sensors inside and how to dodge at least one. However, there are points inside where you have a fine margin to slip past the PIRs so we explored tactically to cover as much as we could before setting it off. Once triggered, the blaring siren could be heard for a mile around, so we took to the lake and patiently waited. An hour had passed with nothing doing, so we were able to enter again and this time make it to the ground floor, where we would see most of the interesting parts before triggering another alarm. upon exit. It was too dark to re-enter so we headed out.
The mansion had been boarded since previous coverage on the forums so more of it is in complete darkness.
As we started on the top floor, I'll do the same with the report. Despite being totally stripped, the architecture in here was clearly dated and a joy to see up close. Each fireplace was different but very ornate with some being marble.
Beautiful, stained glass window.
A curved room within the main tower at the front of the structure.
The stunning central staircase - luckily snapped this shortly after setting off the first alarm in the daylight. It's no surprise the staircase is the most PIR-d up part of the building with it's intricate decor.
Downstairs the sensors increased rapidly and most of the rooms were off limits. The few we captured were rather nice, even though they had to be artificially lit.
Here's the link to our documentary styled video filmed at the mansion. We cover the building's past, present and future through cinematics and narration:
https://youtu.be/OTRax1JjsSQ
Thanks for reading
Cliffe Park Hall, at the north end of the lake, was built by John Haworth and his cousin, the Reverend James Bostock, in 1811 at a cost said to be £25,000. On the death of John Haworth in 1831, it passed to his cousin Fanny Bostock. During her ownership of the hall, she brought legal actions and obtained injunctions against the North Staffordshire Railway (brought to Rudyard in 1850) to try to prevent their popularisation of the lake and reduce the influx of visitors by rail that they encouraged. Fanny Bostock died in 1875 whereupon the Cliffe Park estate was split up. The Reverend Edward Boothman, the husband of Fanny Bostock’s niece, bought the hall and some of its land and buildings for £14,250 with the remaining land being sold off in smaller plots. These sales were largely responsible for the development of land around the lake as it is today. In 1904, the NSR purchased Cliffe Park Hall with the intent of constructing a golf course on the land between the hall and the lake. Whilst it was intended to demolish the hall and build a new club house, the money for this was not forthcoming with only changing rooms and locker rooms being added to the existing building. A new railway station to serve the course was built at the north end of the lake. The golf course, enlarged from nine holes to eighteen in 1908, closed in 1926 probably due to the general post-war conditions and reduced train services together with the availability of newer golf courses more easily accessed from the local towns. Cliffe Park Hall was then let privately until 1933 when its then current owners, London Midland and Scottish Railway (NSR’s successors), leased it to the Youth Hostels Association and was known as Rudyard Lake Hostel.
We enjoyed a sunset revisit to this dated manor on a long day trip to various places around Staffordshire. After coming to the building a year before, we were aware that there were sensors inside and how to dodge at least one. However, there are points inside where you have a fine margin to slip past the PIRs so we explored tactically to cover as much as we could before setting it off. Once triggered, the blaring siren could be heard for a mile around, so we took to the lake and patiently waited. An hour had passed with nothing doing, so we were able to enter again and this time make it to the ground floor, where we would see most of the interesting parts before triggering another alarm. upon exit. It was too dark to re-enter so we headed out.
The mansion had been boarded since previous coverage on the forums so more of it is in complete darkness.
As we started on the top floor, I'll do the same with the report. Despite being totally stripped, the architecture in here was clearly dated and a joy to see up close. Each fireplace was different but very ornate with some being marble.
Beautiful, stained glass window.
A curved room within the main tower at the front of the structure.
The stunning central staircase - luckily snapped this shortly after setting off the first alarm in the daylight. It's no surprise the staircase is the most PIR-d up part of the building with it's intricate decor.
Downstairs the sensors increased rapidly and most of the rooms were off limits. The few we captured were rather nice, even though they had to be artificially lit.
Here's the link to our documentary styled video filmed at the mansion. We cover the building's past, present and future through cinematics and narration:
https://youtu.be/OTRax1JjsSQ
Thanks for reading
