A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The plan, as will be gathered from the foregoing 

 description, follows no precedent ; the original peel 

 tower, having been retained and altered to suit later 

 requirements, now contains the principal rooms of the 

 house, the dining-room occupying the ground floor, 

 and the drawing-room the floor above. The floor of 

 the dining-room is about 2 ft. below the present level 

 of the ground outside, and the room is entered from 

 a lobby on the south side of the hall by a descent of 

 three steps. It is 25 ft. long by 1 9 ft. in width, and 

 1 1 ft. 6 in. in height, and is lighted by a large five- 

 light window at the south end containing some good 

 Swiss 1 6 th-century painted glass in its upper lights. The 

 walls are panelled their full height with 1 8 th-century 

 panelling brought here from Middleton Hall, near 

 Manchester, on its demolition in 1845. The mantel- 

 piece and ceiling are modern. Behind the panelling at 

 the south end of the room are two small original two- 

 light windows facing east and west, probably blocked 

 up when the panelling was inserted, but retaining 

 their glass and showing from the outside. 38 There is 

 a blocked-up opening on the west wall. The dining- 

 room does not extend the whole length of the tower, 

 a flagged passage 8 ft. wide being taken across the 

 north end at the level of the entrance hall, and 

 separated from the room by a thin modern wall. 

 From this passage steps go down to the cellar, and two 

 doors on the north side open respectively into what 

 was originally the bottom of the garderobe at the 

 north-west corner, and through the thickness of the 

 wall into a small room now called a pantry in the 

 space between the outside of the tower north wall 

 and the later morning-room, occasioned by the pro- 

 jection of the vice. The drawing-room occupies the 

 whole of the first floor, being 36ft. in length, and in 

 addition to a five-light window on the south side has 

 three windows of two, three, and four lights respec- 

 tively on the west side, all of 16th-century date. 

 The walls are panelled in oak to within 4 ft. of the 

 ceiling, which is an elaborate restored Elizabethan 

 one of plaster with panels and pendants. The oak 

 wainscot is old, but adapted to the room, and some 

 respect has been had for the old 15th-century win- 

 dow on the east side, which with its ancient shutters 

 can be examined by withdrawing one of the panels. 

 The fireplace and small vestibule in the north-east 

 corner are modern. The second floor of the tower is 

 divided into two rooms, one of which is used as a 

 billiard-room, and a passage ; but the original arrange- 

 ment is not clear, the division walls being modern, 

 and a fireplace in the present passage showing that 

 alterations have taken place. The upper part of the 

 single-light window of the original third story can 

 still be seen at the floor level behind modern shutters. 

 Access is now gained to the roof by means of a ladder 

 and trap-door in the upper part of the garderobe turret. 

 The roof is hipped from the angles, and covered, like 

 all the roofs to the house, with stone slates. The top 

 part of the vice is covered by a trap-door in the floor 

 of the upper story, ten steps being quite perfect. 

 The upper walls, which probably formed a turret, were 

 destroyed in the raising of the tower and not rebuilt, 

 the later battlements stopping short on each side, and 

 the roof of the tower being continued over. 



On the ground floor a passage runs north from the 



entrance-hall to the morning-room and kitchen wing. 

 On the right is the staircase loft, square, built within 

 walls with an open well, and a door opposite opening 

 into the bottom of the vice. Beyond the stairs is a 

 modern pantry filling up the irregular space between. 

 the old narrow staircase gable and the north wing. 

 The morning-room is panelled all round with wains- 

 cot, for the most part old, but made up with grained 

 and varnished deal, and adapted to the walls. The 

 mantelpiece is entirely so made up, and the shields 

 have no antiquity. The room is lit on the north side 

 by a new three-light window, and there is a small 

 original window on the west side to the north of the 

 fireplace. On the other side, in the thickness of the 

 chimney, is a deep recess. Great changes seem to 

 have taken place in this room, the north wall appa- 

 rently being later than the rest, and perhaps not in 

 its original position, while on the floor above it is 

 entirely modern. The room over, known as the 

 Tapestry Room, or sometimes Humphrey Chetham's 

 room, is of the same dimensions, the walls being 

 covered with original tapestry. This portion of the 

 house being only of two stories, with the higher three- 

 story buildings on two sides of it, is very much dwarfed 

 in elevation, and this has necessitated the carrying 

 up of the chimney-shaft to a great height (30 ft.) 

 above the eaves of the gabled roof. The north wing 

 contains the kitchen in the centre, with scullery and 

 larder opening from it to the west, and the servants' 

 hall at the east end, approached by a corridor along 

 the south side, and from the outside by a one-story 

 stone porch, apparently of 16th-century date, at the 

 end. Old drawings, however, show the porch to have 

 been two-storied at the beginning of the ipth century, 

 and it is probable that in the rebuilding of 1835-44 

 it was pulled down and the present one erected from 

 the old materials. The lower portion of the north 

 elevation of the kitchen wing is little altered, preserv- 

 ing its original low mullioned windows, though the 

 grotesque label terminations are modern. The new 

 upper story, however, is of half-timber work like that 

 in the front, and the gables facing west are slate 

 hung. On the first floor of this wing great changes 

 have taken place, the relative level of the rooms and 

 passages has been falsified, and blind windows intro- 

 duced, glazed on the outside. The house still contains 

 some of the original lyth-century furniture, but the 

 greater part was sold in 1890, and a bed belonging to 

 Humphrey Chetham is now in the South Kensington 

 Museum. A bell which used to hang on the exterior 

 of the north-west corner of the tower was taken 

 down in 1879, and is now at Westwood, Pendlebury. 

 It bears the arms of Orrell with the initials w N, R O, 

 and the date 1587. The initials are clearly those of 

 members of the Orrell family : William Orrell and 

 his wife, and perhaps Richard Orrell. 



At a short distance from the house to the east, on a 

 prominence called Dove Hill, is a 17th-century watch 

 tower or summer house of good design, 1 3 ft. by 

 1 3 ft. 8 in. square outside, with four stone gables with 

 ornamental ball finials and central weather-vane, and 

 to the south-east is a fine 17th-century barn with 

 stone-slated roof. 



Birtenshaw at one time gave a name to the fa- 

 mily which occupied it, 39 but Walmsley and Eger- 



88 The mullions of these two windows 

 are square chamfered, those to the later 

 windows having hollow chamfers. 



89 The old spelling is Birkenshaw. 

 Adam de Birkenshaw in 1277 success- 

 fully claimed a messuage and half an ox- 



278 



gang of land against Alan de Birkenshaw ; 

 Assize R. 1235, m. 12 d. In the follow- 

 ing year Richard son of Alan de Birken- 



