Two hundred and thirty-nine Salford listed buildings …… and two pictures

 There are two hundred and thirty-nine Salford listed buildings, and they range from two 16th century ones, a heap from the 19th century and those three totem sculptures from 1966.*

Kersal Cell, circa 1950s

I toyed with writing about all of them, but it’s been done and anyway as a Londoner who has lived in Manchester for 57 years, I bet there will be a few from Salford who think me presumptuous.

So instead, I will focus on just one which I came to via Derrick Lea who in the 1950s and 60s drew pictures of many iconic Greater Manchester buildings.

And amongst the collection was this one of Kersal Cell. It was granted Grade: ll* status in 1952 and is described as “of special architectural or historic interest”.

To which Historic England adds that it was a “Manor house, later restaurant. C16 with later additions. Timber-framed with plaster infill on a sandstone base. Concluding “the house stands on the site of Lenton Priory, a C12 Cluniac house. It was the home of John Byrom, shorthand writer, and author of 'Christians Awake’". **

There is more from my trusty Wikipedia which tells me "Kersal Priory, also known as St Leonard's, is a priory in Kersal. It is classed as an alien priory or hermitage and was populated by Cluniac monks. The priory was dependent on Lenton in Nottinghamshire. Founded between 1145 and 1453, it was granted title by Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester sometime after 1143, became denizen independent from 1392, and was dissolved in 1538. One of the buildings, Kersal Cell, is still extant; a Grade II* listed building, it is now a private residence".**

I make no apologies for lifting the information from other sources and fall back on that well known justification which runs, “using one source is copying, using more is research".

Bridgewater Canal, Worsley

Added to which the historical background is merely to give context to Mr. Lea’s picture.

And having done that I will add his equally excellent drawing of the Bridgewater Canal and Worsley Old Hall leaving you to do your own research on both and discover the equally interesting Worsley Hall Icehouse, which to confuse matters belonged to the new Hall but does also have a grade II listing.

Leaving me just to say that I am a great fan of Derrick Lea’s work which extends to his wartime years with the RAF in Arica as well scenes of staff and patients from three Manchester hospitals.

He was born in 1920, lived in Chorlton and drew much of the twin cities and the places beyond.

At which point I stand corrected as Bill Sumner  has pointed out "The building you show next to the canal is the Packet House, Worsley Old Hall is a quarter mile away, presently used as a Pub and Restaurant at the side of the Golf Course. Worsley New Hall long since demolished is half a mile the other way towards Boothstown, now home to RHS Garden Bridgewater".

Location; Kersal and Worsley

Pictures; Kersal Cell, and Bridgewater Canal, courtesy of Jon and Hazel Lea

* Salford Listed Buildings, Salford City Council, https://www.salford.gov.uk/planning-building-and-regeneration/conservation-and-listed-buildings/salfords-heritage-assets/listed-buildings/ 

**Kersal Cell, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1386144

***Kersal Priory, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kersal_Priory

In search of Worsley mysteries …….. two halls….. five old pictures and …. an enigmatic clue

I am not a fan of those stories of mysterious and dark goings on in old halls, which at best leave the ghost of some tragic figure wandering the corridors or at worse stamp the place with a curse which rings down the centuries.

The Hall circa 1896-8

And on our visits to Worsley Old Hall nothing untoward has befallen us, other than the singing man in the lavatory whose mastery of the 1-minute aria from La bohème was astonishing.

The food and the service has been excellent, and Rosa from Milan always asks to go back.

Now, I must confess I only vaguely knew of the Hall’s existence until our Ben and Lindsey took us there a few years ago and since then we often drop in for a leisurely midday meal. *

My Wikipedia tells me that it is "a public house and restaurant in Worsley, Greater Manchester, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building," dates from the 16th or 17th centuries and has undergone several additions before becoming a pub in 1930.

The Hall "in the show", circa 1896-98

Added to which “the hall is of particular historical importance because it was here that Francis Egerton, the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, James Brindley and John Gilbert planned the Bridgewater Canal and supervised its building”.

And it serves up an excellent Cheshire cheese, onion and potato pie, served up with buttered greens, and redcurrant gravy.

But as far as I know there are no restless spirits or dark stories of treachery, unfilled promises and strange sudden deaths.

That said my friend Phil Portus has presented with a mystery, which comes in the form of five old images of Worsley and Wardley Hall, which he tells me .  “A while ago friends who lives in the old house opposite the Moor Allerton prep school found these somewhere in the house and gave me 5 old half plate glass negs to me as I'm a photographer. 

I'd forgotten about them and found them when clearing out stuff.  Here is a quick inverted phone shot on my light table”.

Wardley Hall, circa 1896-98

They are undated, of mixed quality but are a fascinating record of the two halls sometime in the late 19th century.

That said what I thought at first was a shot of Worsley Hall may not be so.

The connfusion arose because of a reference to the Hall on a faded typed card which offers up details of the images, how to process them, and the name J.T. Sandell along with the word Halation which a source describes as “a photographic effect that can add a sense of nostalgia and warmth to a photograph or video. 

It is often associated with the look of film and can be used to give digital images a more analog feel. 

You can achieve this type of "bloom" or halation through diffusion filters for your camera lens”***

I hadn’t expected to track Mr. Sandell’s down assuming he was a local photographer in the Salford or Manchester area.

But not so, he was from South Norwood in London, pioneered a new photographic process, but died in near poverty in 1906.****

The clue, circa 1896-98

According to another source he established his own company in 1896, in Norwood Junction, South Norwood, which folded two years later, “the firm produced dry plates and later films, specialising in multi-coated plates and Cristoid films. Sandell Works Co. went into receivership in June 1898, its interests were taken over by Sandell Films & Plates Ltd (capital £10,000). J.T. Sandell (d. 1907) ended his links with the company in 1902. 

T.K. Grant worked for the company until 1901 as a sales representative.

References: Phot. Dealer Jun/1898, p. 148. Phot. Dealer Mar/1899 p. 69. Article in Phot. Dealer Jun/1902 p. 143 on Sandell. Phot. Dealer Nov/1902 p. 276. BJP 21/6/1901, p. 396.”*****

Between them the two “Sandell” sites include more information, along with a picture of our man and a poster.

So, I suppose that goes some way to explain the Worsley mystery, offering up a date range for our pictures and possible identity for the photographer, all of which means our next visit to the Worsley Old Hall will have the added bonus of knowing we are eating in a place with a bit of photographic history.

And my task will be to match the image s with the Hall thereby confirming or not that Mr. Sundell passed this way.

Another of Wardley Hall, circa 1896-98

Location, Worsley 

Pictures, Worsley Old Hall, and Wardley Hall, circa 1896-8, from the collection of Ron Marsden and Clare Debenham. courtesy of Phil Portus, http://www.philportus.co.uk/

*Worsley Old Hall, https://www.brunningandprice.co.uk/worsleyoldhall/

** Worsley Old Hall, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worsley_Old_Hall

***Fstoppers, https://fstoppers.com/guest/use-halation-624893#:~:text=Halation%20is%20a%20photographic%20effect,filters%20for%20your%20camera%20lens.

****J.T. Sandell, Historic Camera, http://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=2707

**** Sandell, Early Photography, http://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/companies4.html

Sunrise over Salford ………

So, I have yet to ask Andy what he was was doing in Worsley as the sun was waking up.

His only comment which accompanied the pictures, was “6.53 am Saturday morning waiting for the sun to come up!”

But then Andy is a keen photographer and his search for scenes of Greater Manchester takes him everywhere.

Usually he is following the story of disused buildings, which he then records as they are demolished, the land cleared, followed by the builders breaking ground and the rise of a new residential or commercial property.

He has now amounted a fine collection spanning a decade which will be invaluable for historian wanting to chart the transformation of the twin cities as well as great chunks of Greater Manchester

But not so Saturday.

On Saturday he was on the move, and thirty minutes  later “it was 7.30 and the early morning mist was still around. The Moorings pub, flanked by the Bridgewater Canal taken from a not too safe looking bridge”.

Happily, the bridge proved safe enough and later with the sun high in the sky he had moved deeper into Boothstown, but that is another story.

Leaving me just to quote my Wikipedia which tells me, "Boothstown is a suburban village in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. 

Boothstown forms part of the Boothstown and Ellenbrook ward, which had a population at the 2011 Census of 9,599. 

 The village is within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, west of the City of Salford, bordered to the north by the East Lancashire Road A580 and to the south by the Bridgewater Canal. 

Historically, it was a hamlet partly in Worsley township in the parish of Eccles, and partly in Tyldesley in the parish of Leigh.

Once known for its mining community, Boothstown is now a mainly residential area”.*

But then lots of people will know that.*

Location; Salford

Pictures early morning, Salford, 2022, from the collection of Andy Robertson

* Boothstown, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boothstown

Celebrating Salford ......... at Worsley ..... no. 3

A short series, light on history which just celebrates Salford.

For too many people, the prevailing images of Salford are of grimy terraced housing, high rise Corporation flats and more recently a forest of cranes building the new Salford.

And for some that new Salford looks little different from Manchester or any modern British city with glass and steel office blocks and des res properties inching up into the sky.

So here from the camera of Suzanne Tyldesley is another Salford.

Location; Worsley

Picture; Worsley 2018, from the collection of Suzanne Tyldesley

Celebrating Salford ......... at Worsley ..... no. 2

A short series, light on history which just celebrates Salford.

For too many people, the prevailing images of Salford are of grimy terraced housing, high rise Corporation flats and more recently a forest of cranes building the new Salford.

And for some that new Salford looks little different from Manchester or any modern British city with glass and steel office blocks and des res properties inching up into the sky.

So here from the camera of Suzanne Tyldesley is another Salford.

Location; Worsley

Picture; Worsley 2018, from the collection of Suzanne Tyldesley

Celebrating Salford ......... at Worsley ..... no. 1

A short series, light on history which just celebrates Salford.

For too many people, the prevailing images of Salford are of grimy terraced housing, high rise Corporation flats and more recently a forest of cranes building the new Salford.

And for some that new Salford looks little different from Manchester or any modern British city with glass and steel office blocks and des res properties inching up into the sky.

So, here from the camera of Suzanne Tyldesley is another Salford.

Location; Worsley

Picture; Worsley 2018, from the collection of Suzanne Tyldesley