Delamere Park

Delamere Park

Delamere Park Logo
Address	Chester, England
Location	Cuddington,
Type	Private housing estate
Capacity	400 houses est.
Opened	1971
Years active	1971-
Website
www.delamerepark.co.uk

Delamere Park is an English housing estate with parkland situated in Cuddington, near Northwich, Cheshire.

Delamere Park estate is situated on land which once was part of the Wilbraham family estate. The Wilbraham family owned the manor there from 1784-1939. In 1784 the extremely wealthy and powerful Wilbrahams moved the family seat from Nantwich to Cuddington building in the process one of the largest houses in the district, Delamere Lodge. It is believed that George Wilbraham, the head of the family, favoured Cuddington because it was in the midst of excellent hunting country and close to Tarporley where he was a founder member of the Tarporley Hunt Club.

Delamere Lodge (later retitled Delamere House), with its 100-acre (0.40 km²) parkland, was built of Devon granite and became a symbol of the almost baronial power in the district of the Wilbrahams. During almost two centuries the family owned and controlled thousands of acres of land and farms around Cuddington and neighbouring villages. They also employed a veritable army of staff and built numerous workers' cottages and farmhouses, most of which survive to this day. Delamere House survived until just before the Second World War when the last George Wilbraham built Delamere Manor nearby. During the late 1990s to mid-2000s Delamere Manor was occupied by the British pop musician Gary Barlow.

During World War II, Delamere Park became an army transit camp providing accommodation not only for British soldiers but also for thousands of Americans who had arrived in preparation for the forthcoming D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. General George Patton even visited 'Camp Delamere' and gave a speech to the American 3rd Army troops. After the war, the army huts used to accommodate the soldiers were transformed into houses for the use of many local residents awaiting council houses from Northwich Rural District Council. These included people who were relatives of serving Polish soldiers. The presence of local people housed in temporary accommodation in what was a green belt area enabled the development of the current housing estate to take place. The estate as it currently exists was built during the 1970s, spearheaded by Tom Baron, a director of Whelmar Limited. Delamere Park was voted North West's Best Development of the 1970s by the National House Building Council.