Editing Gawsworth Old Hall (section)

===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/>