Just what Sir Nicholas would have seen in 1596 ………

Now, since September I have been reflecting on what has been going on down at Hough End Hall that much knocked about Elizabethan home of the Mosley family for nearly 200 years and a succession of Withington farmers till 1940.*

During the 1920s it was in danger of being demolished for a new superhighway, and after failed attempts to turn into a cultural centre it was acquired by a series of property developers who created the two big glass and concrete slabs which pretty much hid the place.

And now one of those abominations of desolation has gone, cleared away to be replaced by a low-rise supermarket.

All of which I have written about over the last couple of months as I charted the demise of the unloved office block.

And today Peter Topping was back and recorded the site minus the said abomination of desolation, allowing us to get a glance of the hall as it might have looked to Sir Nicholas Mosley in 1596, and to generations of people from Chorlton and Withington until the 1960s.

At which point I won’t rehearse the supermarket story, but just leave it at that, leaving you to visit all the past stories by following the link.

Although Picky Edna of Peverel Crescent is bound to make the observation that I am being a tad economical with history, as Sir Nicholas would not have owned a car or van or ever agreed to a school being sited behind his magnificent hall. 

Location; Mauldeth Road West

Pictures; looking at Hough End Hall, 2023, from the collection of Peter Topping

*Hough End Hall, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Hough%20End%20Hall