the then Tory MP for West Gloucestershire, found himself in possession of various properties including Cottles House - another manor house in West Wiltshire, built in 1775-78 for Robert Hale and inherited by his father in 1814 - as well as the two large houses in Alderley, both of which were unfashionable and dilapidated. He progressively withdrew from his official appointments in order to devote himself to "the life of a country gentleman" and in 1857 he stood down as an MP and sold Cottles House. Two years later in 1859 he then had both The Upper House and most of The Lower House demolished in order to build a new manor house in a more fashionable style: of The Lower House, the south end of the service wing built in 1844 and the original Jacobean cellars were retained, but the only surviving remnants of The Upper House are a pair of 18th century Gatepiers in the village and a restored Gothick Folly of 1779 on the summit of Winner Hill. Alderley House (as the new house was named) was built on the site of The Lower House to the designs of Lewis Vulliamy, utilising the original cellars and incorporating the retained part of the 1844 service wing as the property's west wing. Materials from the demolition of both The Upper House and The Lower House, including one of the staircases, were used in the construction. The house is built of ashlar with a Cotswold stone slate roof. It forms three sides of an entrance court, with a shallow, single storey porch in the middle of the central range making a token gesture at an E-plan. The parapet above the entrance porch features a heron's head motif (the Hale family crest) above the initials of Robert Blagden Hale. The main body of the house is a double-pile (a type of compact plan in which rooms face outwards in both directions from a central dividing wall), a style that became standard for country houses from the Restoration onwards. Alderley House was one of the earliest examples of a double-pile plan in Gloucestershire, and its entrance court range consists of 3 full storeys whereas the garden side range has 2 storeys and attics. Including the new decoration and furnishings and the architect's commission, the total cost of building the house was £16,746 15s 8d. This represents the lower end of the range