Biddulph Grange is a country house that was built in 1848-60 for John Bateman, and overlays an earlier farmhouse. It was virtually replaced by the present grandiloquent mansion built in 1897 by John Bower for Robert Heath. The former building is yellow brick and render with slate roofs, the latter is built of sandstone ashlar with lead roofs and brick chimneys. The style employed is a revived English Baroque. Source: (
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The Victorian garden is owned by the National Trust and open to the public. The house is privately owned and has been converted into apartments.
The garden was created by James Bateman for his collection of plants from around the world. It features collections of rhododendrons, summer bedding displays, a stunning Dahlia Walk in late summer and the oldest surviving golden larch in Britain, brought from China in the 1850s.
"The Grade 1 listed garden (
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The garden is laid out so that the visitor is led from one area to another in a journey of discovery and exploration. Each garden is separated by hedges, banks and rockwork. Paths, steps and tunnels lead from one to area to another, resulting in an intriguing journey of discovery, from Italy to the pyramids of Egypt, a Victorian vision of China and a re-creation of a Himalayan glen.
The Geological Gallery shows how Bateman's interests went beyond botany. Opened in 1862 the unique hallway is a Victorian attempt to reconcile geology and theology."
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"30 years of the Batemans
James Bateman was here for 30 years from 1842, and built the house as an Italianate villa and the garden, with the help of his friend, the famous marine artist, Edward Cook.
In 1869 Bateman left the Grange and moved to London where he lived in a house rented from Edward Cooke close to Hyde Park. Bateman left his son John to sell the property, which by the time he left in 1872, had a mortgage of £30,000 which in today’s money is close to £2 million.
The Heath family take ownership
Robert Heath then bought the property and the Heath family lived here for close to 50 years. During their residency, the original house burnt down destroying the central part of the house and the surrounding glass houses and orangey. The middle section of the house is therefore an 1897 rebuild and bears no resemblance to the original house.
Medical history
The Heath family left in 1922 selling the house to the North Staffordshire Cripples Aid Society to use as a hospital. Within 3 years the Society could no longer afford it so it went to Lancashire County Council as a hospital.
They built wooden wards on the cherry orchard and later in the 1930s, knocked down the remaining glass houses and part of the geological gallery to build new wards and a ‘modern’ hospital complex during which time the house was used as nurses quarters.
Saved by campaigners
In the mid-1970s, the estate was saved when a campaign to have the area put under a conservation order was successful. The hospital (which had been children’s, orthopaedic and geriatric) closed by 1991 and the garden was opened in May that same year.
The house remained derelict until a developer bought it and converted it into 9 apartments. The 78 acres of woodland that was part of the Grange estate was taken up by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and is now the Biddulph Country Park." Source: (
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Photographs of Biddulph Grange as a hospital can be found on Staffordshire Past Track at the following link. (
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Biddulph Grange Garden Website: (
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Wikipedia: (
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