Read Hall and Park

Read Hall
Location of Read Hall in Lancashire
Location: Read, Lancashire
Coordinates:
Listed Building – Grade II*

Read Hall and Park is a Manor House and ornamental grounds of about 450 acres (180 ha) in Read, Lancashire, England. The Hall dates from the early 18th century and is a grade II* listed building. Neither are open to the public.

Contents

Location

The house and grounds are in Whalley Road, Read, a few miles west of Padiham.

History

The house dates from ca. 1800–1810.[1] The current hall was built for John Fort, a wealthy partner in a Sabden Calico textile printing firm by the architect George Webster of Kendal when he was only 21[2][3] The landscaped grounds date from around the same time and features a waterfall, two lakes and woodland. There is also a rockery, rose garden and terrace and is a fountain and gardens near the house of about 25 acres (10 ha).

The current hall building is not the original structure. The old hall was the home of the Nowell family of which Roger Nowell held the estate in the 17th century. He was a magistrate at the time of the Lancashire Witches in 1612 and sent them to Lancaster for trial and eventual execution.[2] George Webster also built Underley Hall, Westmorland between 1825-1828 for Alexander Nowell.

Alexander Nowell was an English theologian in the Elizabethan age and also the inventor of bottled beer. Izaak Walton describes the story in the "Complete Angler".[2]

The rest of the park includes Home Farm and Lodge in Whalley Road, both by Webster at the same time. Home Farm was built as a model farm, and converted into living accommodation in the 20th century.

References

  1. ^ Parks and Gardens UK – based on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest
  2. ^ a b c Burnley Express 12 January 2010 Victorian history of Read Hall – includes picture and gives the date of the hall as 1818–1825
  3. ^ Pevsner, Nikolaus; Hartwell, Clare (revision) (2009). The Buildings of England – Lancashire: North. London and New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 569. ISBN 978-0-300-12667-9. 

External links