Has Hough Hall in Moston a future?

Now I have gone looking for news on the plight of Hough Hall in Moston.

It was not a building I knew much about and only briefly came across it while doing some research on another story.

It is a listed Grade II building and dates back to the 16th century beginning life as a farmhouse and more recently was used for commercial purposes.*

And judging by Andy Robinson’s pictures it has not fared well in the last few years.

Back in 2005 there was a flurry of interest when the then owners signalled they wanted to sell the property for £200,000, and there was a push by the Friends of the Hall to raise the cash.

But today it is still sitting forlorn and empty and I suspect even more in need of tender care and attention.

It had been according to the Manchester Evening News “scheduled for demolition in the late 60 or early 70s under a Compulsory Purchase Order but was saved.”**

So I went looking for news of the place.

The same article had reported that there had been a one off Hough Hall Festival held around 1972 and in 2005 there had been quite a bit of local activity focusing on raining awareness for the campaign to buy the Hall.

Since then I could only come across references in the Corporation’s online planning site for temporary car parks in 2009 and the erection of alley gates four years earlier.

All of which is a shame because as early as 1999 research posted on ancestry revealed a rich history

“It is thought it may have been built by George Halgh (sometimes spelt
Haugh). George lived there.

It was owned by several people over the years. Sometime in the early 1880s it was bought by Robert & John Ward who were two brothers who had both been born in a cottage off Kenyon Lane, Moston, Manchester. Robert & John had a successful textiles business in Manchester.

It was described as a black and white half timbered house.

In 1961 an article was written which stated that the house had been put to all kinds of use in recent years and had become run-down.

It had been a doctors surgery, used for the manufacture of lipsticks, and at the time the article was written in 1961 it was being used as a sanitary-ware storehouse and the gardens as a coal and builders yard
combined.

In 1968 another article states that the hall was in Hough Hall Road and in very bad repair. It also says that in front of it at that time stood the Moston Lane Infants School and behind the Hall was the recently
built Moston College of Technology."***

So Hough Hall has slowly been neglected for a more than a century and it is a wonder it is still with us.

Which just begs the question of for how much longer do we have this rare piece of Tudor history in Moston?

Pictures; Hough Hall 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson

* British Listed Buildings, http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/,  Hough Hall, Manchester, http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/

** Save Hough Hall MEN may 28 2005, http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/save-hough-hall-1147451

***Hough Hall, Moston,  Delwyn McKenzie, rootswebb ancestry.co.uk, http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/LANCSGEN/1999-01/0917753427