BRADSHAW HALL AND THE BRADSILWVES. 5 



can be little doubt, for it plays no part in the later design. 

 Moreover, a portion of the top, where the plaster " parging " 

 of its flue (there tapered to about 2 ft. in diameter) can still 

 be seen, has been taken down to allow the main timbers of the 

 present roof of 1610-20 to pass over its head; it has been filled 

 in and its archway beneath built up. When the architect 

 designed the later building, he found that this old stack fell 

 into line with his plan and served as a supi)ort for the great 

 staircase which he built around it. Hence, it has survived as 

 a solitary memorial to mark the site of the structure, which has 

 almost vanished. One other memento, however, we have. The 

 staircase is supported on bearing timbers made of principals 

 from the old high-pitched roof, in which the mortices and oak 

 pins still disclose their previous use and design ; these, after 

 serving their original purpose for generations, were yet sound 

 enough to be used to sustain the heavy staircase — a remarkable 

 testimony to the quality of the oak selected for such purposes 

 some six centuries ago, and still apparently as good as ever. 



It is very possible that at the date when the chimney-stack was 

 added, the old wooden kitchens were replaced by a small single- 

 storied or low stone building on the site of the pre.sent kitchen, 

 marked " Kitchen N o. i " on the modern plan, for tradition says 

 that a wing of Bradshaw was pulled down, perhaps a hundred 

 or a hundred and fifty years ago, and its materials used to build 

 an inn at Chapel-en-le-Frith.* This is the only position from 

 which any portion of Bradshaw could then have been removed, 

 and that it was but a very small building is evidenced by the 

 fact that there are original windows in the present Hall confining 

 its breadth and height to the confines of the present kitchen, 

 and its length could not have been greater because of the falling 

 away in the level of the natural ground. There is a little con- 

 firmatory evidence, too, that these Tudor kitchens were preserved 

 in use, at least after the main hall was rebuilt, in that the 

 ] 610-20 design was not completed quite contemporaneou.sly. 



* The "Royal Oak" Inn has been mentioneil, but little reliance can be 

 placed on this. 



