430 years of history …. 30 appreciative listeners ….. and one more talk

Hough End Hall, that Elizabethan pile on the edge of Chorlton has been in and out of history for centuries and yesterday its story was unveiled to an audience at Chorlton Good Neighbours.*

Awaiting an audience, 2025

Four hundred years and a bit is not a wink in time and there was much to discover about the families that occupied it along with the stories of those who played in it in the 1960s as well as the fond memories of many who wined and dined there and finally to the campaign to save it as a venue for community use.

Added to which we explored the life of the chap who built it in 1596.

This was Sir Nicholas Mosley a Manchester man who did “gooder” in London, walked with the people of power and was rewarded not only by a fine fortune but gifts from the first Elizabeth which included the marriage bed of her grandparents, Henry V111 and Elizabeth of York.

All you ever wanted to know ... 2025

The story is not all happy, because during the Civil War Mosley’s chose the wrong side in the Civil War and were eventually forced to sell the hall and land to the Egerton estate in the 18th century to allay gambling debts.

The story unfolds, 2025  .....

What followed were the “sleeping years” when for 250 years the hall was a farmhouse and its occupants were tenant farmers. 

In the 20th century it was nearly demolished to make way for Mauldeth Road West, was proposed as a museum cum art gallery, before being sold off to a succession of developers who hid it from view by two giant office blocks.

Even given this the Hall still shone for decades as a restaurant and briefly as a suite of offices before going up for sale in around 2012.

A local campaign to buy the building and convert it into a community centre was pipped at the post by a faith group.

.......to an appreciative audience

All and more wasrevealed in the hour and a bit, followed as ever by a heap of questions.

Leaving me just to thank Helen and Chorlton Good Neighbours for the invite, Bernard who did the technical stuff and Angela who stood guardian at the door.

And as unaccustomed as I am to self-promotion I will just close with a comment from Helen who wrote “Thank you again Andrew for your talk yesterday ; I hear people say what a brilliant speaker you are and Bernard said it was an excellent talk 

The Hall, 1849

Many thanks again - I'll ask you again next year if you could do another one (or two) as I know people will turn out for you !”

Location; Chorlton Good Neighbours

Pictures; awaiting an audience and screen shot from the power point talk, 2024-25, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and an appreciative audience, 2025, courtesy of Helen from Chorlton Good Neighbours and the Hall in 1849, from Mosley, Sir Oswald, Family Memoirs, 1849, Printed for Private Circulation

*Chorlton Good Neighbours, https://chorltongoodneighbours.org/