Just how did you get to Hough End Hall? ......... A debate, three maps and an insight into vaulting ambition

The Hall in 1849

Now as historical debates go it was a gentle and polite affair about the route the Mosley family would have taken to their home at Hough End Hall.

I hadn’t given it much thought and assumed that the road that still leads north up past what was Dog House farm was the main route into the hall, but on the history walk on Sunday Roger had pointed to the path that cuts directly across the park from Barlow Moor Road to Nell Lane, and Costel had sent me some pictures which seemed to confirm that idea.

Approaching the hall, 2015

But that northern route has been championed and there is a logic to it.

Sadly the earliest maps do not help.  Saxton’s map of 1577 and Ogilby’s of 1675 show the hall but do not offer up any roads, while Mercator’s of 1595 leaves off the hall as well as the roads.

That said Yate’s map of 1786 shows a tree lined road directly across what is now the park from Barlow Moor Lane, which is straight and suggests it has been deliberately engineered rather than evolved over time.

All of which seems to be supported by photographs from 1924 showing it crossing what was then open land before arriving at the front of the hall.

The tree lined route to the hall in 1786

But history is messy and I rather think our northern route was still very much connected with the hall and will predate the home of Sir Nicholas.

Long before he built his fine Elizabethan house in 1596 there was an earlier building roughly on the same spot belonging to the Mosley family.

It will have been a late medieval house probably of wattle and daub and certainly no longer suitable for Sir Nicholas who had made a fortune in London, was elected Lord Mayor and walked with royalty.

His impressive house would have had to have an equally impressive drive up which was wide enough to take a carriage and horses, was tree lined and straight as a die thus enabling visitors to get a clear view of where they were about to stay.

Arriving at the hall in 1923

By contrast our northern route twists and turns arriving at the side of the house and as such the grand Elizabethan frontage would have been lost.

But that road does start at the hall and may have delivered its medieval visitors to its front door.

Of course for some this may seem an argument about nothing but that is to miss the point that any assertion is up to be questioned and the process the debate can reveal so much more.

So by comparing the old maps it is possible to discover a tiny bit more about that medieval hall and also the vaulting ambition of Sir Nicholas.

The approach road in 1924

And in time we will discover much more, some of which will come to light in the next and last history walk from Hough End Hall to the Lloyds.

We will start at the Hall at 1pm on Sunday May 24 and make our way across Chorlton.

During the walk there will plenty of opportunities to learn about the hall’s past and find out about the people who lived here.

And for those who can’t wait the guide book can be downloaded at http://www.gladtobe.in/walk/

Pictures; Hough End Hall in 1596 from Family Memoir, by Sir Oswald Mosley, 1849, the park path 2015, from the collection of Costel Harnasz, Sir Nicholas Mosley’s drive from Yates map of Lancashire, 1786, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk and the road east to the hall, 1923, City Engineers, m47841 and in 1924, B.J m47843, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass