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Charles Fairey
This is a poem about the fortified tower house in the park of Doddington Hall, near Bridgemere.
Doddington Tower
Within the countryside of South Cheshire,
Where once grew an ancient forest,
Stands a tower of medieval construction,
Stonewalls with later alteration.
The tower of the Delves family,
In Doddington Park with woods and pool,
Off the London to Chester road,
Stood the Knight’s country abode.
Sir John Delves of Doddington,
Robert Dutton of Dutton,
Robert Fowleshurst of Crewe,
And Sir John Hawkstone of Wrinehill,
The four knights, the squires of Audley
Carved out of Elizabethan stone,
In full battle dress they stand
On guard looking out across the land.
The four knights who triumphed over the Frogs,
Now with parks for hunting deer and hogs,
Bought from the plundered spoils,
Now able to brush shoulders with the royals.
The royalists took the tower and fortified house,
As an encampment in the English civil war,
The Lord Delves Broughton’s home taken
Now ruled by the enemy, his rural haven.
The tower still stands in the park,
Deteriorating ruins, romantic scene,
With crawling ivy fingers and knarled tree,
This monument listed, kept for the future to see.
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