SALFORD HUNDRED ashtonunder-lyne 



to George Harry Grey, seventh Earl of Stamford and town published in 1824 shows it possessing a 

 Warrington, who died in 1883." Under his will, it short east wing running northward from the south- 

 is stated, the Lancashire estates 

 are to pass to his wife's grand- 

 niece, Katherine Sarah, wife 

 of Sir Henry Foley Lambert, 

 baronet.'* Trustees are in 

 possession. 



Ashton Old Hall stood on 

 the south side of the church 

 on elevated ground about 

 200 yds. north of the River 

 Tame and overlooking its val- 

 ley. Dr. Aikin described it 

 in 179s" *5 ^ building of 

 great antiquity, and attributed 

 its erection to about the year 

 1483, but there seems to have 

 been no particular reason for 

 his assigning this date to the 

 structure. 



Adjoining to it (he wrote) is an 

 edifice which has the appearance of 

 a prison, and till of late years has 

 been used as such. It is a strong 

 rather sntall building with two round 

 towers overgrown with ivy, called 

 the dungeons. The prison is now 

 occupied by different poor families. 



It has two courtyards, an inner and an outer, with strong walls. 

 Over the outer gate was a square room ascended to from the 

 inside by a flight of stone steps and very ancient. It has always 

 gone by the name of the Gaoler's Chapel . . . [but] was taken 

 <lown in 1793. The house to the inner court is still standing, 

 and in tolerable repair. . . . The front of the old hall adjoining 

 the prison overlooking the gardens and the River Tame [has] 

 a beautiful prospect. On this side 

 of the building are strong parts of 

 immense thickness with numbers of 

 loopholes.*" 



Ashton-under-Lyne Old Hall 



The main building was re- 

 paired and modernized in 1838 

 for the occasional residence of 

 the Earl of Stamford, thereby 

 no doubt losing a good deal 

 of its ancient appearance. By 

 the middle of the last cen- 

 tury it was l_-shaped on plan, 

 but an earlier plan of the 



Grey, Earl of Stam- 

 ford. Barry of six ar- 

 gent and av.ure. 



east corner. This, however, must have disappeared 

 before 1862, when an account of the building was 

 written by John Higson, a local antiquary.*' The 

 long west wing overlooking the valley had then two 

 small bays and projecting chimney-shafts in its west 

 front, but was covered with rough-cast coloured 

 black. On its east side the greater part was also 

 rough-cast, but a portion at the south end near the 

 ' dungeons ' was of timber and plaster. The roofs 

 were covered with stone slates. The east inner 

 elevation had doors and windows with semicircular 

 heads, and over the door was an escutcheon with the 

 arms, crest, and supporters of the Earl of Stamford, 

 all this work being probably part of the 1838 recon- 

 struction. Before that date the hall had long been 

 divided into several tenements with separate entrances, 

 having passed into non-resident possession as far back 

 as the 1 6th century, at which time probably a floor 

 was introduced into the great hall. A portion of the 



George Latham had recently inclosed 

 divers parcels of waste on the moor called 

 ' Odenshawe,' and had alleged that John 

 ^unt was joint lord of the wastes and 

 commons of the manor. The other 

 ■* wastes' were Luzley Moor, Mossley, and 

 Little Moss. Robert Lees, a defendant, 

 <aid that he was tenant to Richard Shaw- 

 cross (in right of Katherine Shawcross, 

 lis wife, widow of Richard Hunt, grand- 

 father of John), and had inclosed no waste 

 grounds ; Duchy of Lane. Plead. Eliz. 

 clxxix, B 7. 



In 1606 a settlement of the manor and 

 advowson was made by Sir George Booth 

 and Katherine his wife ; Pal. of. Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 70, no. 23. A similar 

 «ettlement was made in 1 648 by Sir 

 George Booth and George Booth ; ibid, 

 bdle. 143, m. 5. George Lord Delamere 

 and Elizabeth his wife were in possession 

 in 1671 ; ibid. bdle. 186, m. 12. For 

 later recoveries, &c., see Pal. of Lane. 

 Plea R. 464 (1696), m. 6; August 

 Assizes, 37 Geo. Ill (i797); R- 9- 



*" The pedigree of the Booths and their 

 successors is thus given in Ormerod's 

 Chei. (ed. Helsby), i, 523-3S : Sir 

 William Booth of Dunham (d. 1519) 

 married Margaret daughter and coheir of 

 Sir Thomas Ashton of Ashton-under-Lyne 

 — 5. George, d. 1531 — s. George, d. 1543 

 — s. Sir William, d. 1579 — s. Sir George, 

 baronet (1611), d. 1652 — s. William, 

 d. 1636 — 5. Sir George, cr. Lord Dela- 

 mere (i66i), d. 1684 — s. Henry, cr. 

 Earl of Warrington (1690), d. 1693 

 — s. George, d. 1758 — da. Mary (d. 

 1772), married Harry Grey, fourth Earl 

 of Stamford — s. George Harry, cr. Earl 

 of Warrington (1796), d. 181 9 — s. 

 George Harry, d. 1845 — s. George Harry 

 Booth, Lord Grey of Groby (1832), d. 

 1835 — s. George Harry, d. 1883, s.p. 

 The heir male, who succeeded as eighth 

 Earl of Stamford, was Harry Grey, 

 descended from a younger son of Mary 

 Booth and the fourth Earl thus : John 

 Grey, d. 1802 — s. Harry, d. i860 — s. 

 Harry, eighth earl, d. 1890, who has been 



343 



followed by his nephew William (s. of 

 William), ninth Earl of Stamford. See 

 also G. E. C. Complete Baronetage^ i, 14 ; 

 Complete Peerage, under Delamer, War- 

 rington and Stamford. The following 

 have places in Diet. Nat. Biog. : — Sir 

 George Booth, Lord Delamere, who 

 espoused the Parliamentary side in the 

 Civil War, but in 1659 unsuccessfully 

 attempted an insurrection in favour of 

 Charles II ; his son, Henry, Earl of 

 Warrington, also a Presbyterian and 

 Whig, suspected of various plots in the 

 time of Charles II and James II ; and 

 his son George, second carl. The seventh 

 earl was a benefactor of the town. 



™ G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vii, 232. 



*9 A Description of the Countryfrom Thirty 

 to Forty Miles round Manchester. Views 

 of the old hall, with the adjoining build- 

 ing, known as the Dungeon, and the 

 Gaoler's Chapel, are given, p. 226. 



'" Aikin, op. cit. 



51 Quoted in W. Glover, Hist, of Ashton- 

 under-Lyne (1884). 



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