for weddings, meetings, and conferences. It is managed by a trust, which is supported by a group of Friends and by volunteers. History Old Hall The original house was built on an island in Nether Tabley Mere, known as the Moat, in about 1380 by John de Leycester. The house contained a Great Hall with a large central arch formed by two massive cruck beams, which were carved to imitate Gothic stonework. During the 16th century Adam de Leycester made alterations to the hall, and built a half-timbered gatehouse to the bridge crossing the mere. Peter Leycester (1588–1647) installed an ornate chimneypiece dated 1619 in the Great Hall. In 1671 his son, the historian Sir Peter Leycester, 1st Baronet (1614–78), enlarged the house, adding a staircase and an upper storey. He arranged for the exterior to be encased in brick in Jacobean style, with a mixture of mullioned and round windows, and a porch with statues of lions. In 1674 Sir Peter replaced the chapel adjacent to the hall, designed in a mixture of Gothic and Jacobean styles, and a tower was added to the chapel in 1724. After the new house was built in the 1760s, the Old Hall continued to be furnished, and the chapel was used for family worship. But in 1927 part of the hall collapsed because of subsidence resulting from the extraction of brine nearby. The building was abandoned, and is now a ruin. The chapel (now known as St Peter's Church) was demolished and rebuilt near to the west front of the new house. The ornate chimneypiece was moved and reinstalled in the Old Hall Room on the west side of the house. Present house The present house was built by Sir Peter Byrne Leicester. He inherited the estate through his mother's line on the death of his grandfather in 1742, at which time he was aged 10. At this time his name was Peter Byrne, and the name of Leicester was added by an Act of Parliament in 1744. One of the requirements of his inheritance was to keep the Old Hall in good condition, but Sir Peter considered it to be "old and not commodious". When he came of age in 1753 he decided to build a new house to replace the Old Hall. The provisions of his grandfather's will made it difficult for him to build a new house outside the