Friday 17 April 2015

Walking four hundred years of Chorlton’s history

Just over four hundred years ago the Mosley family finished their grand new family home at Hough End Hall.

And to celebrate that event along with the launch of  Hough End Hall The Story* which is the first serious book on the hall and the people who lived and worked there you are invited to walk a bit of our history.

In 1596 the Mosley’s could look out west across open land to Barlow Moor Lane and if they were minded ride over to the small chapel by Chorlton Green.

Of course in the four centuries since then the place has changed but until relatively recently much of what was familiar to old Sir Nicholas Mosley was still pretty much the same.

In the summer of 1848 the Brook still meandered on its lazy course out towards the Mersey helping supply the needs of the small community that lived around St Clements church and the majority of the people in the township continued to earn their living from farming.

By then the Hall had become home to the Lomas family who farmed over 200 acres and employed ten agricultural labourers.  Many of these are known to us by name and most lived with the family.

Of the ten living there in 1841 six were 15 or younger, another three were twenty and only Michael Rustage was in his mid 30s.

All of them would have been familiar with the route we shall take which will start at the hall and move on through Chorlton Park and Barlow Moor Road, down Beech Road and then by degree north to Manchester Road, Ash Tree Cottage and the old finger post ending at the Lloyds Hotel.

Along the way we will learn about who lived here what they did above all who in that summer of 1848 we would have to be polite to.

And my old friend David Bishop has agreed to join us.

David is a botanist and he will talk about the plant life we might have encountered back then and will reveal at least one surprise flower which may have once been grown by Sarah Sutton who lived in a wattle and daub cottage on Beech Road in the 1850s.

Having started at the Hall in 1596 we will finish at the Lloyd’s Hotel built in 1870 and a fine place to reflect on those 400 years and to view the exhibition on its history and the campaign to buy the building and transform it into a place for the community to use.

So that is pretty much it.

The events are part of Chorlton Arts Festival and there will be two walks, the first on Sunday May 17 and the second on May 24 and both start at 1pm and both  are free

Nor is that all because for those that want a tad more history you are also invited to the book launch of Hough End Hall The Story which will be at the Lloyds on Saturday May 16 starting at 7.30, where you can meet the authors, buy a signed copy of the book and enjoy a performance of the music and songs familiar to our farm labourers in the 1840s.

Pictures; Chorlton Park in 2009 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, cover of the book, Hough End Hall The Story


*Hough End Hall .......... the book.......... coming soon, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/hough-end-hall-book-coming-soon.html


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