The Cholmondeleys of Cholmondeley, near Malpas in rolling Cheshire countryside, came to Cheshire with the Norman Conquest and descended, on the male side, from the Norman Marcher Barons of Malpas and, on the female side, from the half-sister of William the Conqueror himself.

Originally holding their estates in return for defensive services on the Welsh border, the Cholmondeleys were always prominent in the military affairs of the County. Hugh Cholmondeley was rewarded with a peerage as Baron of Nantwich in 1689 and was given the Earldom of Cholmondeley in 1706. He re-built the half-timbered Elizabethan mansion by the Chapel and laid out magnificent formal gardens around 1700. The 4th Earl’s marriage to Lady Georgiana Charlotte Bertie in 1791 had brought the hereditary office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England to future generations of the family and he was created 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley in 1816. He moved the family seat to the more elevated and picturesque site when he built the current Castle between 1801 and 1804 when it became the first of Cheshire's picturesque Gothic revival castles.

The Castle is now home to Lavinia, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, mother of the current 7th Marquess, and is not open to the public. The truly splendid gardens, however, are open from the beginning of April to the end of September every year and guests at the Lodge will receive complimentary entry tickets if their stay is within these times.

Somerset Lodge South is one of a pair of archway lodges at the boundary of the Park and the Castle gardens at the centre of Cholmondeley’s 7,500 acres. Its position makes it a uniquely peaceful holiday destination as most such archways are built at the entrance to large estates, that is to say near a road. The Lodge overlooks the rolling Park with its population of cattle grazing among magnificent mature trees.