Samlesbury Hall dates from 1325 and was the the home of the Southworth family for over 300 years.
It is now open to the public and is a popular wedding venue with accommodation in the gatehouse and shepherd’s huts in the extensive grounds.
It has Tudor priest holes, ghosts and witches. It has been described as one of the most haunted houses in the North West of England.
The first recorded lord of Samlesbury manor was Cospatric de Samlesbury, who held it from the Norman over-lord, Ilbert de Lacy. In the absence of a male heir, the manor passed to Cospatric’s great-granddaughters – Margaret, Cecily and Elizabeth de Samlesbury. Margaret died childless. The manor was split into two halves. Elizabeth received the Lower Hall division, whilst Cecily who married John d’Ewyas inherited the other half.
Gilbert de Southworth acquired half of the manor by his marriage to Alice d'Ewyas and was responsible for building the present hall in 1325, probably on the site of an earlier building destroyed during a raids by Robert The Bruce in 1322.
Sir Thomas Southworth who played a prominent role in the wars against Scotland and was High Sheriff of Lancashire, built the south-west wing in 1530, transforming the Hall into a comfortable family home rather than a fortress. This was one of the first buildings in Lancashire to be built from brick. He added the entrance hall parlour and long gallery, linking the chapel to the rest of the building.
Sir John Southworth was a staunch Catholic and practiced his faith secretly during the reign of Elizabeth I. There are three known priest holes in the house and his activities led to fines and imprisonment.
In 1612, Jane Southworth, wife of Sir John’s grandson, along with Jennet Bierley and her daughter-in-law, Ellen Bierley, were accused of witchcraft by Grace Sowerbutts, the teenage granddaughter of Jennet. They were incarcerated at Lancaster Castle and tried at the Summer Assizes, but acquitted after Grace’s evidence
Edward Southworth who was bankrupt and had no direct heirs, sold the hall and estate in 1677/8 to Thomas Bradyll. Bradyll never lived at the hall but stripped much of its interior features to use at his main house at Ulverston. In the early C18th he rented the hall out to handloom weavers and their families. In 1834 it was converted into the Bradyll Arms Inn. Stables and a coach house were added as this was a convenient place to exchange horses between Preston and Blackburn.
The next owner was John Cooper, who bought the building in 1850 and leased it to Mrs Mary Ann Harrison as a co-educational boarding school. She established a Pestolozzian Institution at the hall, based on the ideas of the 18th-century Swiss educational reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. The school was well ahead of its time and in some ways anticipated the better-known Montessori system by about fifty years.
Joseph Harrison, a prominent Blackburn industrialist who owned a foundry and cotton mills and made his fortune by inventing a power loom, bought the hall in 1862 making it his main home He spent vast amounts of money on restoring the house to its former glory.
Charles Dickens visited in 1867 and Samlesbury Hall is thought to be the inspiration for many of his novels.
William Harrison, Joseph's eldest son, lived at the hall until his death in 1879. He had fallen on ice at the start of the year, causing a serious head injury and fractured knee cap, which caused him a lot of pain. He shot himself, although there is some disagreement whether it was suicide or whether an accident when loading his revolver to shoot his dog who had been bitten by a rabid dog and was beginning to exhibit hydrophobic symptoms.
His father, Joseph Harrison, died the next year "after a prolonged illness". Ownership of the hall then passed to Joseph's youngest son, Henry, who lived in Blackburn.
The hall was tenanted for a number of years by Frederick Baynes and his family. When Henry Harrison died in 1914, the estate passed to his nephew.
The hall had been left empty since 1909 and was in a very poor state when it was bought in 1924 by a building firm who intended to demolish it and build a housing estate. Money was raised by public subscription to save the hall and in 1925 ownership was placed in the hands of the hands of the Samlesbury Hall Trust, who have managed it since then. All the furniture and furnishings have been acquired since then.
Samelsbury Hall is a wonderful black and white timber frame building built round a courtyard.
The construction of the individual panels can be seen in the corner between the great hall and parlour where the timber has rotted and the framework can be seen.
The back of the building is constructed of brick with later timber frame panels added over the brick in places.
cont...
It is now open to the public and is a popular wedding venue with accommodation in the gatehouse and shepherd’s huts in the extensive grounds.
It has Tudor priest holes, ghosts and witches. It has been described as one of the most haunted houses in the North West of England.
The first recorded lord of Samlesbury manor was Cospatric de Samlesbury, who held it from the Norman over-lord, Ilbert de Lacy. In the absence of a male heir, the manor passed to Cospatric’s great-granddaughters – Margaret, Cecily and Elizabeth de Samlesbury. Margaret died childless. The manor was split into two halves. Elizabeth received the Lower Hall division, whilst Cecily who married John d’Ewyas inherited the other half.
Gilbert de Southworth acquired half of the manor by his marriage to Alice d'Ewyas and was responsible for building the present hall in 1325, probably on the site of an earlier building destroyed during a raids by Robert The Bruce in 1322.
Sir Thomas Southworth who played a prominent role in the wars against Scotland and was High Sheriff of Lancashire, built the south-west wing in 1530, transforming the Hall into a comfortable family home rather than a fortress. This was one of the first buildings in Lancashire to be built from brick. He added the entrance hall parlour and long gallery, linking the chapel to the rest of the building.
Sir John Southworth was a staunch Catholic and practiced his faith secretly during the reign of Elizabeth I. There are three known priest holes in the house and his activities led to fines and imprisonment.
In 1612, Jane Southworth, wife of Sir John’s grandson, along with Jennet Bierley and her daughter-in-law, Ellen Bierley, were accused of witchcraft by Grace Sowerbutts, the teenage granddaughter of Jennet. They were incarcerated at Lancaster Castle and tried at the Summer Assizes, but acquitted after Grace’s evidence
Edward Southworth who was bankrupt and had no direct heirs, sold the hall and estate in 1677/8 to Thomas Bradyll. Bradyll never lived at the hall but stripped much of its interior features to use at his main house at Ulverston. In the early C18th he rented the hall out to handloom weavers and their families. In 1834 it was converted into the Bradyll Arms Inn. Stables and a coach house were added as this was a convenient place to exchange horses between Preston and Blackburn.
The next owner was John Cooper, who bought the building in 1850 and leased it to Mrs Mary Ann Harrison as a co-educational boarding school. She established a Pestolozzian Institution at the hall, based on the ideas of the 18th-century Swiss educational reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. The school was well ahead of its time and in some ways anticipated the better-known Montessori system by about fifty years.
Joseph Harrison, a prominent Blackburn industrialist who owned a foundry and cotton mills and made his fortune by inventing a power loom, bought the hall in 1862 making it his main home He spent vast amounts of money on restoring the house to its former glory.
Charles Dickens visited in 1867 and Samlesbury Hall is thought to be the inspiration for many of his novels.
William Harrison, Joseph's eldest son, lived at the hall until his death in 1879. He had fallen on ice at the start of the year, causing a serious head injury and fractured knee cap, which caused him a lot of pain. He shot himself, although there is some disagreement whether it was suicide or whether an accident when loading his revolver to shoot his dog who had been bitten by a rabid dog and was beginning to exhibit hydrophobic symptoms.
His father, Joseph Harrison, died the next year "after a prolonged illness". Ownership of the hall then passed to Joseph's youngest son, Henry, who lived in Blackburn.
The hall was tenanted for a number of years by Frederick Baynes and his family. When Henry Harrison died in 1914, the estate passed to his nephew.
The hall had been left empty since 1909 and was in a very poor state when it was bought in 1924 by a building firm who intended to demolish it and build a housing estate. Money was raised by public subscription to save the hall and in 1925 ownership was placed in the hands of the hands of the Samlesbury Hall Trust, who have managed it since then. All the furniture and furnishings have been acquired since then.
Samelsbury Hall is a wonderful black and white timber frame building built round a courtyard.
The construction of the individual panels can be seen in the corner between the great hall and parlour where the timber has rotted and the framework can be seen.
The back of the building is constructed of brick with later timber frame panels added over the brick in places.
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