Grace and space in Cheshire

It is one of the wealthiest counties in England, with no signs of an exodus of money, say agents. Here are three exceptional country houses for sale in a fashionable area

- Penny Churchill

ENCOURAGED by a recent flurry of sales at the upper end of the Cheshire country-house market, Charlie Kannreuther of Savills in Chester (07968 550404) seeks ‘offers over $8 million’ for Georgian, Grade II*-listed Stretton Hall in the hamlet of Stretton, 2½ miles from Malpas. This is a greatly sought-after part of south Cheshire, bounded by the Chester-Whitchurch road to the east, the Wrexham-Nantwich road to the north, the River Dee to the west and the county border with Shropshire to the south. ‘Today’s active buyers in Cheshire tend to be people who have already made their money and are looking for outstanding houses that reflect the lifestyle they enjoy,’ Mr Kannreuther suggests.

According to an article in Cheshire Life (April 1950), Stretton was owned by the Mainwarings of Ightfield, Shropshire, in the early 16th century, when most of the estate was acquired from Sir George Mainwaring and his wife, Anne, by Cheshire landowners Richard Wright, Arthur Starkey and Thomas Barnston. The estate was later divided, with most of the land passing to the Leche family of Carden, with Wright retaining the Stretton estate. In the early 18th century, the Revd Thomas Leche, rector of Tilston, acquired Stretton by marrying the heiress Catherine Wright. Their son, John, died childless, leaving Stretton to his cousin, Maj John Leche, a younger brother of William Leche of Carden. When he, too, died childless in 1815, the land passed to his nephew, William’s son John, thereby uniting the neighbouring estates.

In his book