Ordsall Hall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ordsall Hall is a historic house and a former stately home in Salford, Greater Manchester, in the north west of England. It dates back over 820 years. Throughout history it has been put to many uses - a family home, working men's club and church hall. The most important period of its life is undoubtedly as the family seat of the Radclyffe family who resided here for over 300 of those years.
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[edit] History of Ordsall Hall
[edit] A Brief History
It is an 800-year-old [Tudor architecture|Tudor]] mansion, formerly moated and owned by the Radcliffe family. The manor passed into the hands of the Radclyffe family of Radclyffe Tower, near Bury, about 1335 on the death of the childless Richard de Hulton. The first twenty years of Radclyffe ownership were very confused because there were several claimants, but in 1354 Sir John Radclyffe finally established his right to inherit the manor on his return from the French wars. During these he was granted the right to use one of the earliest mottoes for services in the battlefield, ‘Caen, Crecy, Calais’. Sir John inherited a manor described in 1351 as a messuage, 120 acres of land, 12 acres of meadow and 12 acres of wood.
Ten years later he had enlarged his house which included a new chapel for which he received a licence in 1361. When his son Richard died in 1380 the Hall was described as having a hall, five chambers, a kitchen and a chapel. It was associated with two stables, three granges, two shippons, a garner, a dovecote, an orchard and a windmill, together with 80 acres of arable land and 6 acres of meadow.
Its associated cruck hall, which could have been similar to the one still existing at Samlesbury, near Preston, was replaced by the present Great Hall in 1512 when Sir Alexander Radclyffe (d. 1549) became High Sheriff of Lancashire for the first time. The new hall is typical of others built at that time in the North West, for example at Rufford Old Hall, and is certainly one of the largest, although the absence of a wall fireplace is unusual at this date. As at Rufford, the hall is distinguished by an elaborate roof structure clearly displaying the skills of the carpenter who built the hall. The large oriel bay with the slightly later small private room above, may be an early addition: a similar bay was added to Samlesbury Hall in the 1530s.
Further alterations and additions were made to the hall in the 17th century. A modest brick house was built in 1639 by Sir Alexander Radclyffe (d. 1654) at the west end and at right angles to the timber framed building which may have been the home of his bailiff since by then Ordsall was no longer his main residence. Later the house was joined to the main building.
Sir Alexander was apparently already in financial difficulties and this expenditure, followed immediately by the Civil War during which, as a Royalist, he suffered imprisonment and financial hardship, left his son and heir John in such straitened circumstances that in 1662 he had to sell the hall to Colonel John Birch.
At the end of the seventeenth century the estate was sold to the Oldfield family of Leftwich, near Northwich, and again in 1704 to John Stock, a trustee of Cross Street Chapel. His son’s executors sold the property in 1756 to Samuel Hill of Shenstone, Staffordshire, on whose death two years later it passed to his nephew, Samuel Egerton of Tatton. The Stocks were almost certainly the last owners to live in the hall for the two wings were probably occupied by tenants by 1700, the Stocks retaining for their own use the central section consisting of ‘a large hall, lounge dining room, a chapel, six rooms on a floor, with brewhouse, large courts, stable, etc’.
The hall was finally purchased by Salford Corporation from the Executors of the Baron Egerton of Tatton in 1959 and, following major restoration work, was finally opened to the public in April 1972 as a period house and local history museum.
[edit] Origins of the name 'Ordsall'
The name Ordsall has Old English origins being the personal name ‘Ord’ and the word ‘halh’, meaning a corner or nook, which has become the modern dialect word ‘haugh’. This, indeed, describes the position of the manor for its boundary on the south side is a large bend in the river Irwell which later became the site of the docks for the Manchester Ship Canal.
[edit] First mention of Ordsall Hall
The name first appears in print in 1177 when ‘Ordeshala’ paid two marks towards an aid, a feudal due or tax. There was probably a house at Ordsall by 1251 when William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, exchanged the manor for land in Pendleton which belonged to David de Hulton.
[edit] Alterations
It is likely that alterations took place during the early years of Egerton ownership: the canopy at the dais end of the Great Hall, for instance, was destroyed when a floor was inserted and rooms formed with lath and plaster partitions on both floors. One rib of this canopy can be seen in the north wall of the dais. Probably at the same time, and certainly before the earliest estate map of 1812, the east wing of the hall was demolished.
[edit] Other Residents
Various families of substance continued to occupy the hall until 1871. In 1780 Joseph Ryder, a cotton merchant and former Boroughreeve of Manchester, shared the building with Richard Alsop who was innkeeper of the famous ‘Bulls Head’ inn in Manchester for about 12 years from 1770, and later became a cotton manufacturer. The land was occupied for many years by the Mather family who were cowkeepers and butchers. After Richard Alsop’s death in 1814, the lease was taken over by John Markendale whose descendants continued to live in the hall until 1871. They were well-known locally as butchers and Richard Markendale’s skin and hide business still survives.
[edit] Other Uses of the Hall
The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw the hall, once moated and surrounded by fields and woods, engulfed in industrial housing and factories. Its future was uncertain until 1875 when it was let to Haworth’s Mill for use as a Working Men’s Club. The Great Hall was cleared of the inserted floor and later partitions and became a gymnasium, while provision was made elsewhere for billiards, a skittle alley and bowling green.
When the lease ran out, Earl Egerton of Tatton decided to promote the opening of a Clergy Training School in the hall and to this end he arranged for the Manchester architect, Alfred Darbyshire (1839-1908) to carry out a major restoration at a cost of six thousand pounds. At the same time St Cyprian’s church (demolished in 1967) was built in the north forecourt and a rectory formed out of the east end of the hall where a new servants’ wing was added on the south side (demolished in 1962). The clergy School transferred to Egerton Hall in 1908 as Manchester Theological College, but an associated men’s social club survived until 1940 when the building was put to various uses connected with the war effort.
[edit] Ghosts and other spiritual phenomena
The building is rumoured to be haunted by "The White Lady", who threw herself off the balcony overlooking the Great Hall, and is also rumoured to be haunted by a child that was drowned in a well outside the house, which is now the kitchen [after the extention of the house in the 1800's]. The house is believed to be so haunted that an episode of Most Haunted was filmed there in 2002.
On the Salford City Council website, there are several webcams overseeing the parts of the house rumoured to be the moust haunted. These cameras are called the GhostCams and are very popular amongst supernatural enthusiasts and sceptics alike.
In the 1600's Guy Fawkes and his colleagues planned the Gunpowder Plot in the Great Hall of Ordsall Hall.
