Lost Tudor home found in Chorlton ..............

Now there are many myths, and half-truths about both Hough End Hall and Barlow Hall which circulate and pop up for debate from time to time.

The young Henry VIII, 1530-35

The most persistent are the tunnels which are supposed to connect the two, along with another which runs from the Horse and Jockey on the Green to the site of the old church.

So, the story goes they were dug during the Reformation and Counter Reformation as an escape route during religious persecution, while the pub tunnel allowed expensive and illegal casks of French brandy to be stored in the vaults of the church during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Of course, they are total tosh.  The residents of Barlow Hall were Catholics and those of Hough End Hall were Protestants and so hardly likely to conspire in challenging which ever form of Christianity was official during the 1540s into the 1590s, and neither the old St Clements nor its later replacement had a vault.

But it now turns out that there maybe more than a little truth in the story that Henry VIII had a hunting lodge somewhere close to the western side of Chorlton Park.

A chance find in the Royal Library of a book listing where the King visited during his Royal Progresses suggests that in 1539 on a trip to the North he commissioned the construction of a grand lodge close to an unnamed stream near what is thought to be Barlow Moor Road.

The building predates the second Hough End Hall which was built just over fifty years later and may have used some of the timbers and glass from the King’s house.

Sadly, nothing now remains of the lodge according to Eric Thistlewaite who was a superintendent at Manchester Parks and Recreational Grounds [retired]. He confirmed that prior to the laying out of Chorlton Park in the 1920s an extensive programme of digging in the location had found nothing.

Hough End Hall, 1849, all that is left of Henry's hunting lodge?

The most plausible explanation for the lack of any evidence is the simple one, that the lodge would have been made of prefabricated units which were assembled on site, and sometime in the mid-1590s Queen Elizabeth sold off everything including the fittings, furniture, and the fabric of the building to recoup losses made during the costly battle to defeat the Spanish Armada.

But the presence of the lodge has led  Mrs Trellis of Sandy Lane to call a meeting to petition King Charles to honour the township with the prefix Royal.  “I think” she said “it would be a great honour to live in the Royal Township of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and who knows one day we may even be able to find out who the King entertained in his lodge, which I believe would have been just before his ill-fated fourth marriage”.

The exact location and time of tonight’s meeting has yet to be announced.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Henry VIII, circa, 1530-37, by Joos van Cleve,   Royal Collection RCIN 403368, and Hough End Hall in 1849, from The Family Memoirs, Sir Oswald Mosley, 1849

The Romans really were in Well Hall .... 1,900 years ago

The discovery of what could be the remains of a Roman hypocaust system has been uncovered in an archaeological dig in the back garden of a house in Well Hall.

Federica Balzano of the 'Istituto di antichità classica di Napoli, announced this morning that "the find is very significant and raises the possibility that this was part of a villa complex or even the bathhouse of a previously unknown Roman military establishment".

BREAKING NEWS

It can now be revealed in advance of the press conference to be held in Naples at the offices of the Istituto di antichità classica di Napoli at midday, that the remains discovered in the garden of a Well Hall house are not Roman.

A saddened Federica Balzano, will announce that his team were a little hasty in their conclusions.  "I think we were all too excited by a metal box inscribed with an advert in Latin for 'Mario's take away fish paste', and in retrospect concede the remains appear to be an early 20th century  black pudding mine, which were known to be extensive in the Well Hall area at the time."

It is also believed he has withdrawn the souvenir plastic models of Roman soldiers carrying the inscription. "Visit Well Hall and take a break from all that conquering" which were found at the dig site.

Location; Well Hall

Picture; the remains, 2019 courtesy, Istituto di antichità classica di Napoli

Catch it before it goes ….. Manchester’s past in pictures

Now here is an exciting project which has been launched to record all those heaps of street art which pop up and vanish almost as suddenly as they appear.

New Wakefield Street, 2002

They range from the thoughtful and artistic to the scrawl of someone who has just discovered a spray can or a paint by numbers box set.

Spear Street, 2016

You can find them on the sides of buildings, bridges and even pavements.

Most have short lives, either because they are painted over, or removed.  Worse still some linger on neglected and as the paint peels and the image fades, they become a ghostly and forlorn reminder of their former self.

Over the years some of those I count as favourites have gone, like the one on New Wakefield Street I photographed back in 2002.

Or the one of the reclining lady on Spear Street.  She appeared in all her glory in 2016 and was obliterated two years later by a series of sprayed tags which can claim no artistic skill and say little about the artist other than a narcistic need to paint their name.

Salmon Street, 2023

And they deserve to be remembered, partly because many make a statement of what was going on in the city at the time, and because some are humorous and well executed.

Radium Street, 2023

All of which is a lead into the project which is seeking funding and will rely on volunteers to record the pictures with a date, location and description of the condition of the image.

The eventual aim will be to display the collection at a suitable venue, possibly in the Northern Quarter or in the restored Town Hall.

The original idea came from a group of art students and Manchester historians who saw the importance of the project and the potential for a series of “historic walks”.

The scheme has now been endorsed by "Manchester 69" which has a long track record of sponsoring similar projects 

It was established as a centre for the contemporary arts in the late 1960s and mounted campaigns to save some of our 19th century buildings from demolition. 

More recently it has engaged with the London born photographer Richard Bux on a history of tripe shops in the city.

Roman fort, 2002

The launch of this new street art project will be at 10 am today in its studio on Sugar Lane off Withy Grove.

The centre piece will be a collection of recovered graffiti found on the wall of the Roman fort at Castlefield and include a series of comments on the Roman Governor and Emperor along with the enigmatic Latin tag "Aprilis stultus es fuerat".

So it should be a good morning.

Location; Manchester

Pictures, New Wakefield Street, 2002, Spear Street, 2016, Salmon Street, 2023, Radium Street, 2023, and the Roman fort at Castlefield, 2002, from the collection of Andrew Simpson