They were taken by Andy Roberston who recorded them shortly before the place was finally demolished in 1995.
The story of the hall has been well covered elsewhere and my own interest is really in the house that it replaced. This had been the home of our Thomas Walker, who moved there from Barlow Hall and was buried in our parish churchyard.
Thomas Walker, one time pillar of Manchester society but was also a radical politician who campaigned for the abolition of the slave trade, supported the French Revolution and was indicted for treason in 1794.
The family lived at Barlow Hall from the late 18th century spending the summer there before moving back for the winter to their town house on South Parade which faces what is now Parsonage Gardens. And it was there that a mob attacked Walker who was forced to drive them off by discharging a pistol in the December of 1792.
His family continued to live at the house after his death in 1819 until they sold it to the Rylands in 1855 who demolished it for the hall.
It was that place you saw when you ventured out with the kids into Longford Park and its demolition passed me by.
So I am indebted to Andy who lent me these pictures and gave me permission to use them.
I also have to say that he has a fine collection of photographs which record bits of lost Chorlton, but also east Manchester just before the Commonwealth stadium was built and some even more powerful images of the city centre just after the 1996 bombing.
But for now I shall just leave it at these reminders of what Longford Hall was like as the demolition team got going.
Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Robertson
*Thomas Walker, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Thomas%20Walker
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