Hough End Hall ............. what we have lost and what we can save

Cover from Hough End Hall The Story

Hough End Hall was all that a rich and influential Elizabethan merchant and politician could want of a country home.

Sir Nicholas Mosley built it in 1596 to replace an older family mansion and it stayed in the possession of the Mosley’s well into the 18th century.

Form then right the way through till modern times it has been a farmhouse, restaurant and suite of offices and during those centuries has been much knocked about.

In 1888 Mrs Williamson in her book on Fallowfield  wrote that “the mansion itself has been little altered outwardly since its erection by Sir Nicolas Mosley, excepting that the large entrance porch, which was formerly at the end now occupied by the tool house, is removed and several antique windows have been replaced by modern ones.

Internally everything is changed; in fact, the only trace of former grandeur is the ornamentation of the tool house.  A handsome carved oak staircase, which until quite recently led from the tool house to an upper chamber, has been taken by Lord Egerton to Tatton, and there certainly shows to more advantage.”

It was now she concluded “a comfortable substantial farm house.”

On the ground floor the central part of the building along with the north wing had become small rooms including a dining room, sitting room, kitchen and bathroom to the left of the entrance and a drawing room to the right.

Most remarkable of all was the conversion of the south wing into a smithy which remained in use well into the 1950s.

During the later 20th century it underwent massive internal renovation and today there is little that Sir Nicholas would recognise.

The Hall today

So with all that in mind it is time for a new book on the history of the building.

I say new but in fact there has not been a book entirely devoted to its history and so anyone wanting to find out about Sir Nichola's home has to trawl through a series of books and newspaper articles most of which use as their source a book written in 1858.

Hough End Hall the story aims to address that by describing the building, along with the people who lived, worked and played there over its 400 years and covers everything from when it was built to the uncertain decades when it was nearly demolished.

The Hall, circa 1910

And it is richly illustrated with a collection of images including pictures and photographs from the last two centuries with paintings by Peter Topping.

There will be those who might well agree that here in this book  there is “all you ever wanted to know, but never knew where to look.”

It will be on sale later in the year and the money raised from each copy sold will go to the campaign to buy the hall and save it for community use.

I am not sure what Sir Nicholas would make of that but I am pretty sure Mrs Williamson would approve.

Pictures; cover of Hough End Hall the story by Andrew Simpson and Peter Topping, and the interior of the hall in 2014 from the collection of Nigel Anderson

* Williamson, Mrs C, Sketches of Fallowfield, John Heywood, 1888, page 48

**Hough End Hall the story by Andrew Simpson and Peter Topping will be published later in the year