Editing Gawsworth Old Hall (section)

==Grounds==
[[File:Gawsworth Old Hall2.jpg|thumb|Gawsworth Old Hall from the north]]

===Gardens===
Associated with the house is an inner garden of about {{convert|30|acre}} surrounded by a parkland of about {{convert|600|acre}};<ref name=anon15>{{Harvnb|Anon.|1992|p=15.}}</ref> both are enclosed by walls. To the south of the hall the inner garden comprises a modern formal garden occupying the site of the original 16th-century formal garden. Beyond this, in the parkland, are the [[Earthwork (archaeology)|earthworks]] of an earlier garden.<ref name=pag>{{Citation |url=http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,1409/tab,summary/Itemid,292/ |title=Gawsworth Old Hall, Macclesfield, England: Summary |access-date=5 March 2011 |publisher=Parks & Gardens Data Services |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326033809/http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,1409/tab,summary/Itemid,292/ |archive-date=26 March 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The parkland is almost square in shape, with a section curving out from the south border. It consists of "one huge grassed area" with "lumps and bumps".<ref name=groves>{{Harvnb|Groves|2004|pp=10–17.}}</ref> The Cheshire historian [[George Ormerod]], writing in 1819, considered that this area contained a tilting ground for [[jousting]].<ref>Quoted in Groves (2004).</ref> That claim is repeated in the hall's official guidebook, which goes on to suggest that it was created in the hope that [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth&nbsp;I]] would visit the hall on her [[Royal Entry|royal progress]], but she never did so.<ref name=anon15/> There is some doubt regarding the dating of the creation of the garden,<ref name=groves/> but it is generally accepted that it comprised an Elizabethan [[pleasure garden]].<ref name=fig/><ref name=anon15/><ref name=groves/> A raised mound of earth in the southwest corner of the garden would have been used to view the garden from an elevated position. A corresponding mound at the southeast corner was removed during the [[Second World War]]. To the west of the hall a wooded area known as the Rookery contains mature [[Tilia|lime]] trees.<ref name=groves/> Limited excavation work carried out in 1989–90 discovered, ''inter alia'', a filled-in canal running north–south down the centre of the garden.<ref name=groves/><ref>{{Harvnb|Anon.|1992|pp=16–17.}}</ref> The excavations provided "a tremendous insight into the past, although not enough to date it with certainty".<ref name=groves/> To the north of the hall are four fish ponds.<ref name=pag/>

===Structures===
Four structures in the grounds around the hall are recorded in the [[National Heritage List for England]] as a designated Grade&nbsp;II [[Listed building#England and Wales|listed buildings]]; Grade&nbsp;II listing means that a building or structure is considered to be "of special interest".<ref name=list>{{Citation |url=http://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/what-is-designation/listed-buildings/ |title=Listed Buildings |access-date=25 March 2015 |publisher=Historic England}}</ref> The 17th-century gatehouse is constructed in brick with [[ashlar]] dressings and a stone slate roof, in two storeys and three bays.<ref>{{National Heritage List for England |num=1311100 |desc=The Gatehouse, Gawsworth Old Hall |access-date=1 August 2012 |mode=cs2}}</ref> The gate [[pier (architecture)|piers]] date from the late 17th or early 18th&nbsp;century. They are in painted ashlar surmounted by 20th-century ball [[finial]]s.<ref>{{National Heritage List for England |num=1159298 |desc=Gatepiers approximately 20 yards to northeast of Gawsworth Old Hall |access-date=1 August 2012 |mode=cs2|fewer-links=x}}</ref> The garden walls were built in the 16th&nbsp;century, with later additions and alterations. They are constructed in brick with ashlar dressings. At the southern end is a large rectangular enclosure.<ref>{{National Heritage List for England |num=1139501 |desc=Garden walls at Gawsworth Old Hall |access-date=1 August 2012 |mode=cs2|fewer-links=x}}</ref> In nearby woodland are the grave and memorial to Samuel "Maggoty" Johnson,<ref name=magg/> a playwright said to have been the last professional jester in England,<ref name=anon1/> who lived in the hall and died in 1773 aged 82.<ref name=magg>{{National Heritage List for England |num=1329714 |desc=Maggoty Johnson's Grave, Gawsworth |access-date=1 August 2012 |mode=cs2|fewer-links=x}}</ref> A table tomb over the grave consists of an inscribed stone slab on a brick [[plinth]]. Adjacent to it is another inscribed stone slab, dating from the 19th&nbsp;century.<ref name=magg/>