Summary

A Grade II* listed Jacobethan country house in Arley, Cheshire, built between 1832 and 1845 for Rowland Egerton-Warburton to designs by George Latham, home of Viscount Ashbrook, whose gardens contain what is claimed to be the first herbaceous border in England, used as a filming location for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (ITV, 1984), The Forsyte Saga (ITV, 2002), Peaky Blinders (BBC, 2016), and Fool Me Once (Netflix, 2024).

About this location

Arley Hall stands in the village of Arley in Cheshire, roughly four miles south of Lymm and five miles north of Northwich. The Warburton family have held the Arley estate since the end of the 12th century. The present house replaced an earlier structure that had deteriorated significantly by the early 19th century. When Rowland Egerton-Warburton came of age in 1826, he decided to build an entirely new house that would reflect the antiquity of his family’s tenure while using modern construction techniques. He commissioned George Latham, then a relatively unknown architect practising in Nantwich, who drew up plans in what he called “Queen Elizabethan” style — every feature was required to have a precise model in an existing Elizabethan building. Egerton-Warburton and Latham visited 16th-century houses across the country to verify their sources. The first building phase ran from 1832 to 1835; a second phase from 1840 to 1845 completed the south front. The final cost came to nearly £30,000.

The hall is built of red brick with blue diaper patterning and stone dressings, in an L-shape, with two principal floors, attics and a basement. The south front is symmetrical with seven bays and a pierced parapet, and a single-storey porch extends from the central bay. Latham’s finest interior work is considered to be the Grand Staircase, built of oak with plasterwork and strapwork decoration beneath a glass-walled domed ceiling. The Library has an elaborate ceiling and French stained glass designed and made in Paris by Lusson. A Gothic Revival chapel designed by Anthony Salvin, consecrated in 1845, stands adjacent to the hall; a north aisle and entrance porch by George Street were added in 1856 to 1857.

The gardens, created from the 1830s onwards, contain a herbaceous border that is among the earliest known surviving examples of its type in England. The formal gardens are listed Grade II* on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Among the earlier residents of Arley was Elizabeth Raffald, who worked as housekeeper between 1760 and 1763 and later published one of the 18th century’s most successful cookery books, The Experienced English Housekeeper. Prince Louis Napoleon, later Napoleon III, stayed at the hall during the winter of 1847 to 1848.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (ITV, 1984 onwards, starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes and David Burke as Watson) used Arley Hall as a backdrop in several episodes. The Forsyte Saga (ITV/Granada, 2002, starring Damian Lewis as Soames Forsyte) used the hall to double as Soames’ house. In 2016, Peaky Blinders (BBC Two, starring Cillian Murphy as Thomas Shelby) filmed at Arley Hall to represent Shelby’s mansion at Arrow in Warwickshire. Fool Me Once (Netflix, 2024, written by Daniel Abt from Harlan Coben’s novel, starring Michelle Keegan) was also filmed at Arley Hall. The game show Cluedo (ITV, 1989 to 1994) used the hall as Arlington Grange. Two Coronation Street weddings have also been filmed here.