Sunday 22 April 2018

At Clayton Hall ..... yesterday, sun history and a special exhibition

Now I finally got to visit Clayton Hall yesterday, just 40 and more years after we lived off Grey Mare Lane, which is just round the corner.

Since then I would pass it on the bus and more recently on the tram as I sped through Clayton and on to Ashton-Under-Lyne.

But yesterday was a fine day for a visit and neither of us were disappointed.

We had wanted to see the exhibition on Bradford Colliery which has been available to the public on the Hall’s open days during April, leaving people just one more opportunity as the last for this exhibition will be on May 5.

Along with photographs, maps and plans, there were plenty of vivid accounts of working at the mine, and the team were busy collecting additional memories and stories from some of the visitors.

And along with that exhibition there were the permanent ones in the rooms of the Hall recreating life as it might have been for a well off family in the 19th century.

The Friends of Clayton Hall are all volunteers and their enthusiasm shone through during their explanation of the Hall’s history.

Like all such groups, they are keen to encourage people with an interest in Clayton or the Hall to join them.

All of which just leaves me to admit that my pictures are not the most showy, but as the team have promised me pictures of the front of the hall along with the Bradford exhibition I thought I would concentrate on the back.

That way, when you go you will have the stunning views, which come with a delightful garden and the stone bridge over the moat which will in the fullness of time be filled again with water.

The Friends have a packed summer ahead, with lots of school visits, and new exhibitions including one on the Great War.

Location; Clayton

Pictures; the rear of the Hall, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

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