SALFORD HUNDRED 



ECCLES 



and is lighted on the east side by the continuous 

 ranges of mullioned and transomed windows already 

 referred to, and has three similar lights in the return 

 to the lobby at the end of the corridor in the south- 

 east corner. In each of the top lights are the initials 

 R.L. with an interlacing pattern between, surmounted 

 by the cockatrice, and in the lower middle light are 

 the arms of Dauntesey with helm, crest, mantling, and 

 scrolls. The walls are mostly panelled to a height of 

 6 ft. 6 in. The hall appears to have always had a flat 

 ceiling, and there are no signs now of either dais or 

 gallery. The position of the screens is marked by the 

 vestibule and passage on the north side, and the kitchen 

 and pantry have now been made into a sitting-room 

 and smoke-room. Neither of these rooms retains any- 

 thing of its original ap- 

 pearance except the great 

 twelve-light kitchen win- 

 dow overlooking the 

 courtyard, which occu- 

 pies the whole of the east 

 side of the room. The 

 fireplace opening, now 

 modernized, is lo ft. 

 wide, the wall above 

 carried by a beam i z in. 

 square at a height of 

 5 ft. 8 in. from the floor. 



On the first floor cor- 

 ridors run round the in- 

 ner sides of the north, 

 east, and south wings, 

 opening to a series of 

 rooms which have little 

 architectural interest. In 

 the south wing the bed- 

 room over the drawing- 

 room, known as the 

 ' panelled room,' pre- 

 serves its original square 

 oak wainscot mouldings 

 worked in the solid, and 

 contains a fine oak bed- 

 stead. Other rooms also 

 contain good oak furni- 

 ture, though much has 

 been taken away, the 

 house being at present 

 ( 1 9 1 o) unoccupied. The 

 rooms in the east range 

 exhibit their timber con- 

 struction throughout, and their ceilings, together with 

 those on the south side of the house, partly follow 

 the rake of the roof. A small room at the west end 

 of the north wing has a good 17th-century angle 

 fireplace with plaster ornaments and egg-and-dart 

 moulding. 



The upper corridors on the east and south appear 

 to have been originally open to the court and carried 

 on posts, forming a kind of upper gallery. A portion 

 of what appears to have been external quatrefoil panel- 

 ling is still in position on the inner wall at the east 

 end of the south corridor. The appearance of the 

 courtyard as originally erected must have been ex- 



ceedingly picturesque, and in marked contrast to the 

 plain work of the outside elevations. 



The house contains a valuable collection of paint- 

 mgs, including a so-called portrait of Jane Shore, 

 attributed to Holbein."'' 



In a deed dated z6 June 1694, and an inventory of 

 the same year,"'' the following rooms and places at 

 Agecroft Hall are mentioned : — ' The great parlor and 

 chamber over it, the hall, the dyneinge roome, the 

 chappell, the chappell chamber, the farther chappell 

 chamber, the greene chamber, the porter's warde, the 

 kitchen, the buttery, the seller and chamber over it, 

 the seller and brewhouse and the chambers over them, 

 the great barn commonly called the new barn, the 

 stable, the garden and orchard behind the garden.' 



Plan of Agecroft Hall 



An old painting of the house preserved at Agecroft 

 shows a long building, either a stable or barn, standing 

 at right angles to the east side of the house at the 

 north end, apparently meant to be some distance 

 away, with a stone wall and gate-piers along the east 

 front. This building is said to have stood until the 

 construction of the railway. The present stables and 

 outbuildings are on the north side of the house, and 

 are all modern. 



SHORESfFORTH," though the name has long 

 been forgotten, was the detached part of Pendlebury. 

 In 1212 it was held as one oxgang of land by Ellis 

 de Pendlebury in thegnage by a rent of zs., and of 



■■2" Booker, op. cit. 199. 

 *^^ Lanes, and Ches. Antij, Soc, iv, 214. 

 ^° Chadeswrthe, I2IZ ; Schoresworth, 

 1241; Schereswortb, 1276 ; Shorswrth, 



1292. A deed quoted ia the account of 

 Little Bolton in Pendleton describes land 

 in th«t hamlet as situate between Shores- 



403 



worth Brook and the Millbrook. A cen- 

 tury ago three fields were still known as 

 Shoolsworth. 



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