Evidence of human habitation at Halghton dates from the Middle Ages. To the north of the present hall is the site of a Medievalmoatedmanor house, although nothing but the platform and the moat now remain.[1] Halghton Hall dates from 1662 and is thought to have been built by a cadet branch of the Hanmer family of Hanmer, Flintshire. By the 18th century the hall had descended to the status of a farmhouse, and formed part of the estate of Lieutenant Colonel Philip Lloyd Fletcher, commander of the Royal Flint Rifles. It was later sold to the Kenyon family, local landowners.[2]
The hall was sold again in the mid-20th century and remains privately owned, the centre of an agricultural estate. It is not open to the public.[3]
Architecture and description
Halghton was intended to be built to a traditional h-plan, with a central block and two cross wings. The eastern section does not now exist, and it is likely that it was never built. Edward Hubbard, in his Clwyd volume in the Pevsner Buildings of Wales series, suggests that it was not,[4] and Cadw also thinks this probable, although it raises the possibility that the eastern section was constructed and later removed.[a][2] The house is built of brick with ashlar dressings.[4] Hubbard describes the "very large" off-set porch as "crudely Jacobean in style".[4] A partial moat remains.[5]
