SALFORD HUNDRED 



MANCHESTER 



to invest j^7,ooo in land for the eldest son, Nicholas, 

 within five years.'^ The obligation was not fulfilled 

 and litigation followed, resulting in a compromise 

 which defeated Sir Edward Mosley's desire to preserve 

 the lands in the male line of the family." Edward 

 Mosley, the beneficiary under the will, was made a 

 knight in 1689 ; he left a daughter and heir, Ann, 

 wife of Sir John Bland,*' and her son, also Sir John 

 Bland," sold all the Mosley estates that descended to 

 him, including the Withington 

 manors. 



The purchaser was William 

 Egerton,'" from whom they 

 have descended to the present 

 lord. Earl Egerton of Tatton." 



Hough End Hall is said to 

 have been built by Sir Nicholas 

 Mosley shortly after he bought 

 the manor of Manchester in 



Egerton, Earl Eger- 

 ton of TattoQ. Argent 

 a lion rampant gules be- 

 fween three pheons sable. 



1596, on the site of an older 

 house which is known to have 

 existed in the middle of the 

 1 5th century. The house faces 

 south-west and stands about a quarter of a mile to the 

 north-east of Barlow Moor Road, near to Chorlton- 

 with-Hardy. Its back faces the Midland Railway, and 

 Chorlton Brook runs past it on the north side. It is 

 a picturesque brick building of three stories on a 

 stone base 3 ft. high, consisting of a centre portion 

 with a wing at each end. The principal doorway is 

 central, under a porch, opening to a central passage 

 with a door, formerly external, on the north. The 

 total length of the chief or south front is about 94 ft., 

 the central or recessed portion of which measures 

 42 ft., and the wings project 6 ft. 9 in. On the 

 north face the western half of the space between the 

 projecting wings is filled by a contemporary square 

 staircase, of equal projection with the wings. The 

 detail is rather rough, and the front elevation very 

 plain, but the general effect is extremely good, owing 

 largely, no doubt, to the colour of the bricks and the 

 grey stone slates, which have weathered a beautiful 

 hue, and also to the fact that the house is partly 

 covered with creepers and set off by a well-kept front 

 garden and rural surroundings. The windows are 

 all square-headed and with stone muUions, those to 

 the top floor, however, being built up across the 

 whole length of the front. The wings are gabled and 

 ornamented with balls, and the centre portion is sur- 

 mounted with a parapet in the form of three smaller 



gables with similar finials. The chimneys are square 

 shafts set diagonally on square bases. The bricks are 

 2^ in. in thickness, laid in alternate courses of headers 

 and stretchers, and there are no string-courses and no 

 quoins at the angles. A very restful effect has been 

 produced by the simplest means, but principally by 

 the judicious spacing of the windows and a plentiful 

 amount of plain brick walling. The entrance is in 

 the centre of the main front, and was originally 

 through a square-headed door flush with the wall. 

 A projecting porch has since been added. The 

 windows retain their ancient diamond quarries and 

 in the internal angles of the front are two lead rain- 

 water pipes with ornament in relief all down the 

 front of the pipes. The back of the house has been 

 a good deal altered and the windows modernized. 

 It has four gables without copings on the same face, 

 but was originally more broken up and picturesque, 

 a recessed portion or court between the east wing and 

 the staircase having been built upon. The original 

 outer doorway at the back, with the oak nail studded 

 door which opened on to this space, is now inside 

 the house, and a five-light window on the return of 

 the staircase bay is built up and can only be seen 

 from inside. Other additions have been built in 

 later times at the back of the house at both ends. 

 The east wing consists, on the ground floor, of two 

 rooms now used as a toolhouse and blacksmith's shop. 

 A five-light window has been built up on the east 

 side of the front room, and a break in the plinth in 

 another part of the outer wall at the east end, toge- 

 ther with a large external cavity which is evidently 

 a former fireplace, suggests considerable alterations at 

 this end of the house. The projection of this now 

 outside fireplace goes up the whole height of the 

 building and finishes in a gable. Lower down, at 

 the level of the first floor, are the marks of a small 

 gable roof, and similar indications are to be seen over 

 what was apparently either a bay window or entrance 

 to the back room. The fireplace may have belonged 

 to a small wing which has been pulled down, or it 

 may have been intended for a purpose to which it 

 was never afterwards put. The interior of the build- 

 ing, which is now used as a farm-house, has few points 

 of interest, having been a good deal modernized and 

 stripped of its old oak, including a handsome staircase 

 at the east end, which was removed by Lord Egerton 

 to Tatton Lodge. 



Waltheof de Withington and some others made 

 grants to Cockersand Abbey." 



i*^ See Mosley Fam. Mem. 19-21 ; an 

 earlier will (cancelled) is printed by 

 BookeT, Didsbury, 158. 



^ Mosley Fam. Mem. 40, 41. Anotlier 

 reason of the dispute was that Mary, the 

 sister, was quite disinherited by the later 

 will. The compromise resulted in the 

 Leicestershire property going to Joseph 

 Maynard in right of his wife ; the Staf- 

 fordshire estates after the death of Lady 

 North (Sir Edward's widow) reverted to 

 Oswald Mosley of Ancoats, to whom the 

 manor of Manchester was also to be 

 bequeathed in default of male issue to 

 Edward Mosley of Hulme ; the remainder 

 of the estates were at the free disposal of 

 the last-named ; Booker, op. cit. 161, 

 162. 



In a fine in 1680 relating to the Mos- 

 ley manors and lands, including a free 

 fishery in the Mersey and views of frank- 



pledge in Manchester and Withington, 

 the deforciants were Edward Mosley, 

 Mericl his wife, Oswald Mosley and Mary 

 his wife ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 

 204, m. 66. 



^ Axon, op. cit. 17. His will is printed 

 in Booker's Didsbury, 162—5 i ^7 *^^^ ^^ 

 gave the manors of Withington and Hea- 

 ton Norris to Sir John Bland and his 

 wife, with remainders to their sons, with 

 further remainders to sons of Dame Bland 

 by a possible later marriage, and to Oswald 

 Mosley of Ancoats. He had sold a tene- 

 ment in Withington to William Alcock, 

 and in compensation gave Sir John Bland 

 tenements near Bury. 



^' For the Blands see Booker, loc. cit. 

 The will of Dame Bland is there printed. 

 By it she charged her manor of Withing- 

 ton and lands there with the payment of 

 her funeral expenses, debts, and legacies, 



291 



and her husband's debts. She died in 



1734- 



In a recovery of the manors of Hulme, 

 Withington, and Heaton Norris in 1712, 

 Sir John Bland, Ann his wife, and John 

 Bland were the vouchees ; and in a later 

 one (1717) Ann Bland, widow, and Sir 

 John Bland so acted ; Pal. of Lane. Plea 

 R. 496, m. 5 ; 507, m. 5. 



'" Mosley Fam. Mem. 29. 



"^ Wilbraham Egerton was vouchee ia 

 a recovery of the manors of Withington, 

 Heaton Norris, &c., in 1806 ; Pal. of 

 Lane. Aug. Assizes, 46 Geo. HI, R. 8. 



82 Waldeve or Waltheof de Withington 

 son of Hutred granted the land of Whit- 

 croft within bounds starting from Tele- 

 brook ; also the land of Alrebarrow, in 

 the bounds of which are mentioned Sal- 

 tersgate and Aldehulme ; Cockersand Chart, 

 (Chet. Soc), ii, 730. Odo son of In- 



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