Castles, Manors and Halls of Lancashire

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Castles and Fortified Houses

• Aldingham - associated with the le Fleming family of Aldingham Hall and overlooking Morcambe Bay this Motte and Bailey Castle is now a grassy mound. Aldingham was part of Lancashire until 1974.
• Arkholme
• Ashton Hall, Lancaster. - medieval tower. Charles II slept there Aug 12 1651 on his march S.
• Broughton-in-Preston - fortified house, no remains.
• Broughton Tower, Furness - incorporated into modern residence
• Bury - fortified house, no remains.
• Chetham Hospital, Manchester - 15th century restored and descended from La Warres - fortified manor house.
• Clitheroe Castle - Norman keep and fragment of a curtain wall
• Dalton Tower, Furness - 14th century restored
• Gleason Castle - 14th century near Aldingham. The consists of three towers and connecting walls and was associated with the Le Flemings and later the Duke of Suffolk who was the father of Lady Jane Grey. Aldingham was part of Lancashire until 1974.
• Greenhalgh Castle - 15th century with one ruined tower
• Halton
• Hoghton Tower - 16th century
• Hornby Castle - siege by Lord Stanley on behalf of the Lancastrian government after the King's restoration in 1471 (during the War of the Roses). Some ancient work and now a private residence.
• Lancaster Castle - Norman keep and 15th century gateway, has served as a prison from 1196 onwards and was the site of many trials including the Pendle Witches.
• Melling
• Newton-in-Makerfield
• Pennington Castle Hill, described as an octagon or square with obtuse angels and as the foundation of a square building and as a large circular enclosure situated on the edge of a steep ravine through which flows a stream called Pennington Beck, in an article by H. Swainson Cowper (The Ancient Settlements, Cemeteries, and Earthworks of Furness. Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society Publications, December 12, 1889, p. 424-426.) and according to The Reverend Dr. Jasper Green Pennington, Ypsilanti, Michigan, - it further mentions that this was the ancient seat of the Penningtons before they moved to Muncaster Castle, Ravenglass, Cumberland about 1215. The article has a line drawing of the "castle".
• Penwortham
• Piel Castle - 14th century on the island at the entrance to the Walney Channel.
  
• Radcliffe - 15th century ruin
• Rochdale Castle - few traces
• Thurland Castle near Tunstall - some ancient work - occupied by the Girlington family in the 1600's. Nicholas Girlington who died in Halifax Co. VA in 1773 left a signed paper in Halifax Court records showing a sketch of a wing of the castle. John Girlington and second wife Margaret Duckett were probably the last Girlington residents of Thurland castle.(8) Now a private residence.
• Tulketh Castle - no remains but known to exist.
• Turton Tower, Bolton - medieval
• Warrington Castle - few traces
• West Derby - few traces
• Whittington
• Wraysholme Tower, Cartmel - 15th century

Manors, Halls and Towers

• Agecroft Hall, Manchester - timber framed
• Aldingham Hall - Tudor style. Aldingham was part of Lancashire until 1974.
• Alkrington Hall - Middleton, a few miles north of Manchester. The seat of the late Sir Ashton Lever. Picture of Alkrington Hall 1955
• Astley Hall, Chorley - brick and stone coated with stucco, partly timber
• Bank Hall, Bretherton - brick with tower, in West Lancashire, by the A59 and River Douglas - in need of protection.
• Barcroft Hall - stone built
• Barlow Hall - home of Sir Alexander Barlow
• Belfield Hall - stone built and in ruin
• Bewsey Hall - near Warrington. Charles II slept there Aug 16 1651 on his march S.
• Bolton Hall - Bolton by Bowland - demolished - home of the Pudsays for a long time. William Pudsay, legendary creator of the "Pudsay Shilling" escaped via Pudsay's Leap. After the Battle of Hexham, Henry the VI stayed here for several months.
• Booths Old Hall
• Booths New Hall
• Borwick Hall - stone built
• Bradshaw Hall - stone built
• Browsholme Hall - Bashall Eaves - the seat of the Parker family and dates from the reign of Henry VII - Thomas Parker was Lord Chancellor of England. The human skull in a locked closet should not be seen by anyone other that family members or disaster strikes!! The Hall is sometimes open to the public and has stained glass, armour, paintings and much to recommend a visit.
• Brynn - Charles II slept there Aug 15 1651 on his march S.
• Butterworth Hall - mentioned in Evelyn Waugh's "Lancashire Sketches" published in 1881. The Byrons were Barons of Rochdale and a licence from the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry dated 1400 gave them the right to hold services at Butterworth. An old wooden chapel is said to have existed at Butterworth Hall. The Byrons never lived there after the Wars of the Roses. James Dearden, 1798-1862, whose father was a mine owner, inherited the Manor of Rochdale, which his father had bought from Lord Byron, the poet. Butterworth Hall burned down in 1851.(9)
• Chadderton Hall - Chadderton. Pictures
• Chaddock Hall
• Chingle Hall - Goosnargh, where doors open on their own, footsteps are heard and ghosts have appeared. Sudden intense cold has been felt (4).
• Clayton Hall -
• Claughton Hall (Lonsdale) - stone built
• Clegg Hall - stone built, about 2 miles NE of Rochdale and within the parish of Whalley. Pictures
• Coniston Hall - stone built
• Darcy Lever Hall - smaller hall
• Denton Hall - smaller hall
• Entwistle Hall - The Entwistle Family History Association web site states: The original hall (Old Living) is reputed to have been built in 1200 by Robert de Entwisle, around the time that Entwistle became a township in its own right. The present day hall (illustrated here circa early 20th century) was re-built in the 15th century. In 1657 it was divided into three separate dwellings, as it remains today . Picture
• Euxton Hall - Charles II slept there Aug 14 1651 on his march south.
• Foxdenton Hall - brick, Chadderton.
• Gawthorpe Hall - stone built
• Great Lever Hall, Bolton
• Gresgarth Hall - a defended tower house in Caton, 3 miles east of Lancaster. Founded about 1330.
• Hacking Hall, Billington/Dinckley - stone built
• Haigh Hall - stone
• Hale Hall - brick
• Hall i'th'Wood, Bolton - timber framed
• Hawkshead Hall - stone built
• Heaton House - - stone
• Heskin Hall a brochure from Heskin hall states "one of the best examples of Tudor architecture left in Northern England. Antiques, memorabilia, objet d'art and collectables await visitors inside the most picturesque of settings. Panelled rooms, a great staircase, priest holes, baronial fireplaces and studded oak doors compliment the items on show and sale inside this ivy covered piece of British Heritage." There is also a restaurant. Picture
• Hope Hall - by the Eccles Old Road in Pendleton (the Salford one), Lancashire
• Hopwood Hall - brick
• Hough's End - brick
• Hulme Hall -
• Hulton Hall - 4.5 mls SSW of Bolton
• Hyde Hall - smaller hall
• Hurleston Hall - smaller hall
• Kenyon Peel Hall, Bolton - timber framed
• Knowsley Hall -
• Lathom House - Civil War, fell in 1645 to the Parliamentary forces.
• Lydiate Hall - smaller hall
• Little Mitton Hall - timber framed
• Mains Hall - built in 1536 by monks as a grange and for travellers to Cockersand Abbey. It was the home of successive generations of the Hesketh family and then the Fitzherbert-Brockholes family. Its now a fine hotel and restaurant.
• Martholme - stone built
• Myerscough Lodge - Charles II slept there Aug 13 1651 on his march S.
• Newton Hall - smaller hall
• Ordsall Hall, Salford - timber framed, brickwork, home of the Radclyffe Family and rumoured to be where Guy Fawkes hatched his Gunpowder Plot. The Ordsall Hall Museum is run by the City of Salford and has an excellent web site where you can take a virtual tour. Address Changed
• Ormerod Hall - Burnley. Built by Lawrence Ormerod in 1595 and changed extensively in 1758. Picture of Ormerod Hall 1895
• Pendle Hall - Whalley, Isabel and William Hancock appear on the Royalist Composition Papers 1643-1660 Vol I A-B 265pp, as living here.
• Pendleton Hall - at the foot of Pendle Hill. Lancashire Witch country - Old Chattox, Mistress Nutter and Old Demdike.
• Roby Hall
• Rufford Old Hall - timber framed, brickwork
• Samlesbury Hall - timber framed. haunted by the ghost of Sir John Southworth's daughter, Dorothy. Sir John forbade his daughter from marrying a local squire. They planned to elope but her brother overheard them and murdered the squire. The ghosts of the lovers walk the grounds, sighing and embracing before vanishing. Buses have stopped close to the Hall to pick her up only to find no-one there (4).
• Scarisbrick Hall
• Smithe(i)lls Hall, Bolton - has a legendary bloody footprint on the doorstep which once a year becomes red and wet. George Marsh left the footprint and his ghost has been seen.
• Speke Hall, Liverpool - timber framed
• Stonyhurst College - stone built
• Swarthmore Hall - stone built
• Towneley Hall - Burnley. A museum since 1903. Picture of Towneley Hall 1906
• Tonge Hall - smaller hall
• Wadden Hall - perhaps Peg O'Nell, a spirit associated with the River Ribble, was a servant here. She was drowned as a witch and now demands a life every seven years(4).
• Waddington House - near Clitheroe, a certain Major Waddington edited a book back in the early 1930s that lists many Waddingtons.(10)
• Walton Hall - south of Warrington, where a door with a lock and bolt opens and shuts, usually in June - attributed to the ghost of an eighteenth century old lady who died in her bath who is trying to get back to her bedroom.(4)
• Wardley Hall, Manchester - legend has it that the head of a certain Roger Downes was delivered, in a wooden box, to the Hall. He had escaped punishment for murder and then had his head cut off in a fight with a waterman on London Bridge. Downe's coffin was opened in 1779 and his head was where it should be. The skull at the Hall is that of a priest called Father Ambrose, son of a neighbour, Sir Alexander Barlow of Barlow Hall, who was hanged and quartered in 1641 for being a Roman Catholic (4).
• Wavertree Hall, Liverpool - about 2 miles E. of Liverpool near Wavertree village in the parish of Childwall. Katherine Houghton was born here in 1615 and married William Henshawe in 1630.
• Worsley Area Halls
• Worsley Old Hall, Manchester
• Worsley New Hall - there was a Worsley New Hall. Designed by the man that designed the houses of parliament. It was demolished after the end of the WW2 due to fire damage. The only remaining things are the walled gardens which is now Worsley Hall Garden Centre and the main gates. (11)
• Wycollar Hall - stone built in 1595 and now in ruins. Charlotte Bronte based Ferndean Manor on Wycollar Hall in her book Jane Eyre. Many legends are associated with the Hall including a spectral horseman who rides up to the house, climbs the old staircase and goes in a room. Screams and then groans are heard. The hall was where Cunliffe of Billington murdered his wife (4).

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