Hough End Hall continues to be a puzzle.
Given that it has stood on the edge of Chorlton since 1596 there is very little about the place other than photographs of the exterior and some anecdotal evidence dating from the mid 20th century.
To my knowledge the only floor plan of the place from before the 1960s was that made by the Egerton Estate in 1938.
And for reasons I do not understand it cannot be copied or photographed.
It sits with much older documents from the Egerton Papers in the Archive at Central Ref, some dating back to the 18th century and all available to be reproduced.
One day I will find out why. But for now I have had to turn to my old friend Oliver whose family had taken possession of the hall and the surrounding buildings and land at the outbreak of the Second World War.
I asked him to describe the hall as he remembered it during the 1950s and it is both a fascinating record of the place and an invaluable piece of its history.
It includes a plan of the hall and outlying buildings, along with what will be the most detailed account I have come across of the place before it was taken over by developers.
“Along the side of the plot that borders Mauldeth Rd there was a field and in front of that a line of what had been loose boxes where my father kept pigs and the ones nearest Nell Lane were used for horses for a while – as kids we kept ours there, Silver, Nils and Betty when they weren’t out in the fields.
Later on there was a pair of Russian Wolfhounds Michael and Heather and after they went, two Irish wolfhounds Terry and Fergus that later moved to Park Brow Farm
At the far end of the same building (nearer the Hall) in one of the lofts a man called Jimmy Ryan bred rabbits for show as a hobby; he worked at MetroVick as a day job and later joined Boeing in the US.
At the other end – nearer Nell Lane – one of the corner stones was inscribed with the bar and arrow as an Ordnance Survey Bench Mark
On the corner of Nell Lane and Mauldeth Rd there was an L-shaped building and on the lower level my father kept pigs and on the upper level he had about 200 deep litter hens.
When there were no pigs it created a severe problem of frost as the pipes kept freezing up in winter and one of my jobs was to use a blowlamp to thaw them out and fix the occasional burst so the hens could drink
Another problem was that from time to time the pigs got out and it was not a great deal of fun rounding them up.
It was in that same yard we finally captured the St Kilda ram that had led us and the police a merry dance from the field near Chorlton Station, along Wilbraham Rd and St Werburgh’s Rd and we cornered it in a pen we put together from the show jumps from Didsbury Show that were stored there.
A treasured memory of that morning was me on a bike following a police van with a policeman leaning out of the door trying to lasso the errant ram we were both chasing.
According to one policeman a colleague thought he had it cornered in an alley near the old telephone exchange but it butted him in the chest then trotted away – he was laughing like hell when he told the story but I never knew if he was winding me up.”
© Oliver Bailey, 2014
Pictures; the Hall in 1924 from a watercolour by E A Phipson m80206, the hall from the south east, 1945 T Baddeley, m47846, and in 1952, T Baddeley m47851, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
Next, a bomb and a riding school
 |
| The Hall in 1924 |
To my knowledge the only floor plan of the place from before the 1960s was that made by the Egerton Estate in 1938.
And for reasons I do not understand it cannot be copied or photographed.
It sits with much older documents from the Egerton Papers in the Archive at Central Ref, some dating back to the 18th century and all available to be reproduced.
One day I will find out why. But for now I have had to turn to my old friend Oliver whose family had taken possession of the hall and the surrounding buildings and land at the outbreak of the Second World War.
 |
| The Hall in 1945 with one of the Bailey horses |
It includes a plan of the hall and outlying buildings, along with what will be the most detailed account I have come across of the place before it was taken over by developers.
“Along the side of the plot that borders Mauldeth Rd there was a field and in front of that a line of what had been loose boxes where my father kept pigs and the ones nearest Nell Lane were used for horses for a while – as kids we kept ours there, Silver, Nils and Betty when they weren’t out in the fields.
Later on there was a pair of Russian Wolfhounds Michael and Heather and after they went, two Irish wolfhounds Terry and Fergus that later moved to Park Brow Farm
At the far end of the same building (nearer the Hall) in one of the lofts a man called Jimmy Ryan bred rabbits for show as a hobby; he worked at MetroVick as a day job and later joined Boeing in the US.
At the other end – nearer Nell Lane – one of the corner stones was inscribed with the bar and arrow as an Ordnance Survey Bench Mark
On the corner of Nell Lane and Mauldeth Rd there was an L-shaped building and on the lower level my father kept pigs and on the upper level he had about 200 deep litter hens.
 |
| The Hall in 1954 |
Another problem was that from time to time the pigs got out and it was not a great deal of fun rounding them up.
It was in that same yard we finally captured the St Kilda ram that had led us and the police a merry dance from the field near Chorlton Station, along Wilbraham Rd and St Werburgh’s Rd and we cornered it in a pen we put together from the show jumps from Didsbury Show that were stored there.
A treasured memory of that morning was me on a bike following a police van with a policeman leaning out of the door trying to lasso the errant ram we were both chasing.
According to one policeman a colleague thought he had it cornered in an alley near the old telephone exchange but it butted him in the chest then trotted away – he was laughing like hell when he told the story but I never knew if he was winding me up.”
© Oliver Bailey, 2014
Pictures; the Hall in 1924 from a watercolour by E A Phipson m80206, the hall from the south east, 1945 T Baddeley, m47846, and in 1952, T Baddeley m47851, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
Next, a bomb and a riding school
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