BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



BLACKBURN 



Hindley, and died early in 1676; Edward, his 

 third but eldest surviving son, succeeded and in 

 1678 sold the manor with the Over Hall to Thomas 

 Braddyll of Portfield for ^^S.iso."^ It descended 

 with other estates in the Braddyll family and was 

 sold by order of the Court of Chancery in 1850 (o 

 Mr. John Cooper of Penwortham, who sold it in 

 1862 to Joseph Harrison, then of Galligreaves Hall, 

 Blackburn, afterwards of this place.^" Since Mr. 

 Harrison's death in 1880 the manor has been vested 

 in trustees. 



SJMLESBURr OLD HALL stands on an elevated 

 site between the valleys of the Ribble and the 

 Darwen about midway between Preston and Black- 

 burn, the high road passing close by it on the south 

 side.^i The house, though much modernized, is still an 

 admirable specimen of timber construction and before 

 the restorations of the last century must have been 

 one of the most interesting domestic buildings in the 

 county. It was originally built on three sides of a 

 courtyard, following the usual type of plan of central 

 hall and projecting end wings, the hall in this case 

 being on the west and the east side remaining open. 

 Only the west and south wings, however, now 

 remain, the north wing which contained the kitchen 

 and servants' apartments having long disappeared. 

 Attempts have been made to prove the great hall to 

 be of 14th-century date,*^ but the evidence of the 

 building, so far as can be ascertained after two rather 

 drastic restorations, does not seem to point to a date 

 earlier than the 15 th century, at which period the 

 house was probably rebuilt. The north wing, how- 

 ever, seems either to have been disused or dismantled 

 by the first half of the 1 6th century, when alterations 

 were made in the hall by Sir Thomas Southworth 

 and the south wing rebuilt, the wall on the south 

 side being wholly reconstructed in brick and then 

 assuming its present aspect. All the living rooms of 

 the house appear at this time to have been concen- 

 trated in the south wing, the kitchen being at the 

 west end, the dining-room and other family apart- 

 ments in the middle and the chapel at the east end, 

 the latter being probably the arrangement before 

 existing. 



Previous to the making of the present high road 

 about 1825 the house was in a somewhat secluded 

 position, and the line of a moat by which it was formerly 

 surrounded could be traced. The moat, however, has 

 long been filled up and is now merged in the walks 

 and flower-beds of the modern gardens. After the 

 Southworths forsook the house in the latter half of 

 the 17th century (1679) the building was divided and 

 let to various tenants, the Braddylls being non-resi- 



described as a recusant — a mistake of his 

 solicitor's. In March 1652 his estate 

 was discharged ; Cal. Com. for Comp. 

 2621. 



In 165 1 Philip Rickards and William 

 Dandy begged discharge of lands here 

 sequestrated as those of John Southworth, 

 and discharged by the committee on their 

 paying his fine of ,£'370 in June 1651. 

 The petitioners lent him in all ;f 500 and 

 he conveyed his lands to them, but the 

 county committee had refused to allow 

 the discharge ; ibid. 1622. 



S3 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 202, 

 m. 105 ; Croston, op. cit. 149. Various 

 documents connected with the manor and 

 other estates are described on pp. 139-51. 

 Edward Southworth's name occurs on 



dent, and during the i 8th century it was allowed to 

 become more or less dilapidated. At the beginning 

 of the 19th century, however, it was described as 

 structurally sound and in substantial repair, but sub- 

 sequently it was allowed to fall into decay and it 

 became 'o badly dilapidated that its complete ruin 

 seemed at one time inevitable.^' It became at one 

 period a beer-house, probably at the time the high road 

 was in making, but on a full licence being obtained 

 some years later a restoration was carried out in 1835 

 by which incalculable harm was done to the great hall, 

 many of its architectural features being then completely 

 destroyed. '■'' A further and more complete restoration 

 was undertaken by Mr. Harrison, after his purchase 

 of the property in 1862, in order to fit it for its 

 original use as a residence, the south wing being then 

 lengthened at the west end."* 



Except for the south wall and the modern addition 

 at the west end the house is of timber and plaster 

 construction on a low stone base, but externally the 

 timber work is almost entirely new, only a few of the 

 original upright pieces remaining. The whole, more- 

 over, is uniformly painted dark red, and, though 

 picturesque, the building has lost a great deal of its 

 antiquarian interest, many of the original architectural 

 features of the elevations towards the courtyards 

 having totally disappeared, little or no attempt having 

 apparently been made at the last restoration to adhere 

 to the original design. The roof of the great hall, 

 which is the full height of the west wing, is covered 

 with modern blue slates and the front wall recon- 

 structed with straight and diagonal timber framing, 

 into which two large modern deal windows have been 

 introduced. The bay window has lost externally all 

 its ancient detail and is now quite plain, and treatment 

 of a similar nature has been meted out to the long 

 elevation on the north side of the south wing, in the 

 lower story of which a series of seven lofty four-light 

 windows 6 ft. wide have been inserted in place of the 

 low wooden mullioned windows high in the wall 

 which seem to have originally existed."^ The south 

 wing, which is two stories in height, has a long front 

 of 9 1 ft. 6 in. to the courtyard, the whole of which 

 is now covered with quatrefoil ornament with a 

 plaster cove below the eaves. In the upper floor 

 are three square bay windows, the undersides of which 

 retain their carved ornament, and at either side of 

 the heads of the lower modern windows are carved 

 square paterae set diagonally, some of which belong 

 to the ancient front. The general effect of the whole, 

 however, is one of extreme flatness, relieved somewhat 

 by a modern porch about midway in its length, 

 which though poor in detail breaks rather happily an 



the recusant rolls ; he died at Balderston 

 in 1694; Misc. (Cath. Rec. Soc), v, 

 157 n, Mr. Croston believed he had 

 traced his descendants as resident for 

 many generations in the neighbourhood 

 of Old Bethnal Green j Samlesbury, 

 154-60. 



6" Ibid. 201. 



" Tram. Hist. Soc. iv, 33 ; Lanes, and 

 Ches. Antiq. Soc. xiii, 155. 



«2 Whitaker, Whalley ; Croston, SamUs- 

 bury. 



^ Croston, op. cit. 



'* A drawing of the exterior by C. A. 

 Buckler showing the great hall and part 

 of the south wing made apparently before 

 the restoration of 1835 is in Parker's 

 Domestic jirciitecmre, in, 21^. It shows 



a great deal of original detail which no 

 longer exists, as well as the dilapidated 

 condition of the building at the time. 



^ There were, however, buildings under 

 separate and lower roofs at the west end 

 of the south wing before this date. They 

 are shown in an illustration in The Pic- 

 torial Hist, of Lanes. 1844, p. 233. The 

 writer refers to great changes in the man- 

 sion, stables and coach-houses having been 

 added, apparently in 1835, and the hall 

 disfigured with whitewash (p. 293). 



^^ See illustration in Parker's Domestic 

 Architecture. This shows no windows in 

 the great hall north of the bay at that 

 time, but two doors, one a late insertion, 

 but the other, probably original, at the 

 north end, with a shaped head. 



