House & Garden 
SMITHELLS HALL 
LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND 
BY F. H. CHEETHAM 
A MONGST the old halls of Lancashire, 
Smithells may claim to be at once the 
oldest and the newest. Tradition speaks of 
a house on this site as far back as the year 
680, but the oldest part of the present 
structure dates from the fourteenth century, 
and the western wing has been added during 
the last thirty years. 
Smithells is situated about three miles to 
the north of Bolton-le-Moors, a busy indus¬ 
trial town of over 100,000 inhabitants. The 
town has extended itself so far during the last 
century that an electric car now takes you to 
within ten minutes’ walk of the old house. 
Nevertheless the situation is very pleasant, 
and although the chimneys of Bolton are too 
plainly visible from the terrace walks, the 
place has lost none of its characteristics of an 
old English country residence. The house 
is surrounded by an extensive and beautiful 
park, and behind it on the north side rise the 
moors from which Bolton takes its name. 
So much rebuilding and so many altera¬ 
tions have taken place at Smithells, at one 
time or another, that it is very difficult to 
disentangle the architectural history of the 
old hall. The most ancient portion of the 
building is that on the east, which is built 
round three sides of a quadrangle, the fourth 
side, to the south, being open. The court¬ 
yard measures about sixty feet square, and its 
north side is occupied by what was formerly 
the great hall of the mansion. Towards the 
end of the eighteenth century the great hall 
was used as a brew-house, when the walls 
were raised and a floor inserted. The apart- 
' 
THE NORTH ENTRANCE 
The Portion constructed by the late George Dcvcy, Architect 
SMITHELLS HALL 
