The forests and plains of Lancashire and Cheshire, for so long the hunting ground of royalty, are still dotted with timber-framed halls and manor houses that delight the eye: Little Moreton, famous as the quintessential Tudor hall, immediately springs to mind. But our tour also pays homage to several less well-known northern jewels, with private visits to Dorfold Hall, Martholme and Browsholme, as well as lunch at Smithills Hall.

Sixteenth century Rufford is dominated by its spectacular great hall, under whose dramatic hammer-beam roof a young Shakespeare is said to have performed. Older still is Smithills, truly mediaeval but boasting a 16th century parlour cloaked with intricate oak panelling and housing a family rebus. Pride in family can also be seen at Bramall, where, if the early Tudor painted solar is the most outstanding survival, the Elizabethan great chamber comes a close second.

Bramall introduces that great innovation in Tudor domestic interiors: the pendentive plasterwork ceiling. We will see further superlative examples both at Little Moreton and at Dorfold, where the great chamber has a Jacobean vault of rare accomplishment. Astely Hall’s ceiling, however, steals the thunder with its fantastical creations of Stuart technology and theatricality.

Tudor oak furniture is everywhere to be seen with the most impressive collections at Turton Tower and Hall i‘ th’ Wood. Earlier misericords are wonderfully preserved at Nantwich and Whalley churches, the latter adorned with a mesmerising carving of the wild man of the woods.

We stay in the heart of the Cheshire countryside at Cranage Hall in the village of Holmes Chapel. Cranage is set in 20 acres of landscaped grounds and has its own indoor swimming pool.