A black-and-white Tudor manor near Congleton so loaded with timber and glass that its walls lean like a ship in a swell
Open to visitorsa National Trust place — check opening times and admission before you go
The Moreton family built this in stages across a century, roughly from 1504 to 1610, each generation adding to the last until the courtyard closed in around them. The showpiece came late. In the 1560s a long glazed gallery was set right along the top floor, and its weight pressed down on the older frame below, bowing floors and buckling walls into the drunken lean the place is loved for now. A steel cradle hidden behind the panelling has held it steady since the 1990s, so the wonkiness is safe to walk through. A moat still rings the house, crossed by a bridge, and there is a knot garden laid out in the old style. Up in the gallery, look for the plaster figures of Destiny and Fortune at the gable ends. The family kept the hall until 1937, by which point they could no longer afford to live in it, and gave it to the National Trust; there is admission and set opening hours. It sits in quiet farmland close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire border. The village of Astbury and its handsome church are a short drive north, and the Macclesfield Canal passes within a mile or so if you fancy a towpath walk.
