A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The original character of the passage has been altered 

 by the building of the hall chimney and the insertion 

 of a modern staircase. 



At the north-east corner of the hall is a small 

 room measuring about 9 ft. by 7 ft. which seems to 

 have been added later, constructed of timber and 

 plaster, and with a window on the south side. It 

 goes up two stories, and has a similar apartment 

 above it opening from the room over the hall. 



The plan of the first floor only differs from that of 

 the ground story by the bay window being made 

 into a separate apartment connected with the landing 

 over the passage by a corridor on the south side. 

 The room over the hall is panelled in oak all round, 

 the panelling on the south side, which is made up of odd 

 pieces, forming a partition between the room and the 

 corridor ; it has a six-light wood-mullioned window 

 on the north side, the bottom lights of which are 

 blocked. The room over the bay window extends 

 the width of the corridor over the great hall, and in 

 two upper lights of its window preserves fragments of 

 well-designed lead glazing. In the south wall up- 

 jtairs, facing the corridor, is an eight-light stone- 

 mullioned window now built up and invisible from 

 the outside, and the landing is lit by a smaller stone 



HYDE HALL : SOUTH FRONT 



window of four lights, the mullions of which (through 

 the settlement of the building) have fallen out of the 

 perpendicular. 



The floor of the room over the porch is now nearly 

 level with the side of the window, the lower lights of 

 which are made up, but was formerly much lower, 

 presumably at the level of the present porch ceiling. 63 

 It seems to have been raised to the level of the upper 

 floor at the time the present stairs were erected. 64 



There are no features of interest in the west wing. 

 It has been wholly modernized internally, but it pre- 

 serves its 1 7th-century mullioned windows on the 

 upper floor. The building is now used as a farm- 

 house, but the great hall and rooms over are un- 

 occupied, and after careful restoration are now 

 preserved in something like their original aspect. 



To the north of the house are the farm buildings, 

 forming three sides of a large quadrangle, of which 

 the house occupies the fourth side. These were 

 mostly erected about 1839, but a portion of the 

 west side is older, the initials R H M with the date 

 1687 being carved on a wood beam over the stable 

 door. 65 



The oxgang of land held by Adam de Hulton had 

 been acquired in 1319 by Adam and Avice his wife 



from Alexander son of 

 Roger de Denton and 

 Cecily his wife. 66 This 

 land, described as the 

 eighth part of the ma- 

 nor, 67 descended in the 

 Hulton family for 

 many centuries 68 and 

 being augmented by 

 the Hulton of Farn- 

 worth land, 69 Mr. 

 Hulton's tenants were 

 in 1597 called upon 

 for the second largest 

 contribution to the 

 minister's stipend. 70 

 This land seems to 

 have been sold with 

 the Hyde estate, as 

 above. 



The Denton fami- 

 ly's holding it is diffi- 

 cult to trace in the ab- 

 sence of deeds. Roger 

 de Denton in 1309 

 granted Alexander de 



63 There is now a space between the 

 porch ceiling and the floor of the room 

 above. 



64 What the former staircase arrange- 

 ment was is not very clear, but a portion of 

 what looks like a landing with flat balusters, 

 and the bottom of a newel post, may be 

 seen under the ceiling at the north end of 

 the ground floor passage near the entrance. 



65 Booker gives a view and description 

 of the hall in Denton, 35-8. 



66 Final Cone, ii, 39. In 1280 Alex- 

 ander de Denton had granted four mar- 

 cates of rent in Denton to Cecily sister 

 of Richard de Hulton 5 Lord Wilton's 

 D. These are probably the Alexander 

 and Cecily of the fine. Adam de Hulton 

 and Avice his wife in 1325 failed to 

 prosecute a claim they had made against 

 John de Hyde of Denton, Alina his wife, 



and Richard de Moston, touching tene- 

 ments in Withington (probably in Den- 

 ton) ; Assize R. 426, m. I d. 



7 Robert the Tailor of Tatton, in 

 right of his wife Alice, claimed the eighth 

 part of the manor of Denton held by 

 Adam de Hulton in 1332 ; De Banco R. 

 292, m. 109 d. The plaintiffs afterwards 

 surrendered their rights to Adam de 

 Hulton ; it appears that Alice claimed as 

 heir of her brother William de Gringley ; 

 Sir W. Hulton's D. 



In 1344 Richard son of Alexander de 

 Denton claimed the fourth part of the 

 manor of Denton against Adam son of 

 Richard de Hulton and Avice his wife ; 

 De Banco R. 338, m. I26d. 



Adam de Hulton in 1413 settled a 

 messuage and lands in Denton on his son 

 Roger and Joan his wife ; Final Cone, iii, 71. 



318 



68 William Hulton of Over Hulton, 

 who died in 1555, held messuages and 

 lands in Denton of Ralph Longford in 

 socage by a rent of %d. ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Inq. p.m. x, 40. Adam Hulton, his son 

 and successor, died in 1572 holding lands 

 there by a rent of 8$</. ; ibid, xiii, 4. See 

 also Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 267, where the tenure is de- 

 scribed as knight's service apparently 

 referring to the lands formerly Hulton's of 

 Farnworth. 



69 Hulton Fed. 42. Part of this was 

 sold to Thurstan Tyldesley, as appears by 

 a later note. 



7 Booker, Denton, 6-8. The contribu- 

 tions were : from Mr. Holland's tenants 

 2is. 6d., Mr. Hulton's 12s. 4f</., Mr. 

 Hyde's 9*. %d., and Mr. Haughton's 

 63. id. 



