Rufford Old Hall
| Rufford Old Hall | |
|
National Trust | |
|---|---|
 Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire: view of the Great Hall | |
| Location: | 53°38’16"N, 2°48’49"W |
| Built 1530–1820s | |
| Information | |
| Website: | Rufford Old Hall |
Rufford Old Hall is grand country mansion near Rufford in Lancashire, now belonging to the National Trust.
The house was built in about 1530 for Sir Robert Hesketh, but of this house only the Great Hall survives.[1] A brick-built wing in the Jacobean style was added in 1661, at right angles to the Great Hall, and a third wing was added in the 1820s.
Rufford Old Hall is designated as a Grade I listed building;[2] the hall's cottage, coach house and stables to the east are designated Grade II.[3]
History
Until 1936, Rufford Old Hall was in the continuous ownership of the Hesketh family who were lords of the manor of Rufford from the 15th century. The Heskeths moved to Rufford New Hall in 1798. In 1846 Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 5th Baronet married Lady Anna Maria Arabella Fermor, sister and heiress of George Richard William Fermor, 5th and last Earl of Pomfret.
Local legend would have it that William Shakespeare performed in the Great Hall, which is based upon a note written by Alexander Hoghton of Lea Hall near Preston, of "wilim Shakeshaft nowe dwellynge with me". That the William in question bears a common Lancastrian name and not "Shakespeare" by any reading, does not put off the local pride in having the bard dwell among them.
In 1936 Rufford Old Hall, with its collection of arms and armour and 17th-century oak furniture, was donated to the National Trust by Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 1st Baron Hesketh.
Architecture
The timber-framed hall house with great hall, in a late mediæval pattern which continued in use in Tudor times, was built for Sir Robert Hesketh in about 1530. The hall, which formed the south wing, is substantially as built, 46.5 feet long and 22 feet wide, with the timbers sitting on a low stone wall. The hall has a flagged floor.[4] It has a stone chimney, five bays, and a hammerbeam roof. The five hammerbeams each terminate, at both ends, in a carved wooden angel.[5] The hall is overlooked by a quatrefoil squint in an arched doorway in the second-floor drawing room.[1]
In 1661 a Jacobean style rustic brick wing was built at right angles to the great hall which contrasts with the mediæval black and white timbering. This wing was built from small two-inch bricks similar to Bank Hall, and Carr House and St Michael's Church in Much Hoole.[6] The west wing, which housed the family apartments was possibly destroyed in a fire.[7]
In the 1820s a third wing was constructed, formed out of the mediæval domestic offices, and a castellated tower was built to join the Great Hall to the Charles II wing. In 1949 a secret chamber, used as a priest hole in the 16th century, was discovered above the Great Hall.[8]
Fixtures and fittings
A free-standing, carved wooden screen made of bog oak in the Great Hall probably dates from between 1530 and 1540. It is described by Pevsner as being "of an exuberance of decoration matched nowhere else in England"[5] and is the only known surviving example from the first half of the 16th century. It stands at the north end of the great hall, covering the entrance to the original kitchens.[9] It has three spiral finials, two outer ones carved from single lengths of timber at the sides of the screen framing eight traceried panels. On the top-rail are two angels, a male and female bearing shields with the arms of Fitton and Banastre families.[1] Two horizontal rails are morticed into the uprights. Three errors were possibly incorporated by its makers to avoid a charge of heresy, as a contemporary belief was that God alone could create perfection. One panel on the hall side is upside down, on the opposite side one panel has a different pattern and an angel has an extra finger.[9]
On the staircase is a painting by Godfrey Kneller of Thomas Hesketh,[10] who was Second Member of Parliament for Preston in 1722 and who rebuilt the east wing in the 1720s, with his wife Martha and son in 1723.[1] The sitting room displays a copy of the 1577 map of Lancashire by Christopher Saxton.
Gardens
The cottage, coach house and stables 10 yards east of the house are Grade II listed buildings.
There are gardens and pasture to the rear and side of the hall and woodland at the front. The Rufford Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, completed in 1781, passes very close to the site on the east side. A feature of the gardens is a pair of topiary squirrels.
Legends
The hall is reputedly haunted by a grey lady, Queen Elizabeth I and a man in Elizabethan clothing.[11] The figure of a man floating above the canal at the rear of the building has also been reported.[12]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Rufford Old Hall) |
- Shakespeare at Rufford BBC
- Rufford Old Hall - information at the National Trust
- RUFFORD and the HESKETHS at heskethbank.com
- "Rufford Old Hall" at nationaltrustimages.org.uk
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Dean, R., 2007, Rufford Old Hall, The National Trust, ISBN 978-1-84359-285-3
- ↑ National Heritage List 1374141: Rufford Old Hall
- ↑ National Heritage List 1361856: Cottage, Coach House and Stables Circa 10 Metres East of Wing of Rufford Old Hall
- ↑ A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Rufford Old Hall - British Listed Buildings
- ↑ Farrer, William; Brownbill, J, eds. (1911), "Bretherton", A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6 (British History Online): pp. 102–108, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53080, retrieved 21 September 2011
- ↑ Rufford Old Hall at touruk.co.uk
- ↑ Eyre, K. (1974), Lancashire Legends, Clapham, Lancaster, Dalesman. ISBN 1-85568-046-7
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 The Moveable Screen – National Trust leaflet in the Great Hall room guide
- ↑ "Thomas Hesketh (1698–1735), MP, His Wife Martha St Amand (d.1782), Mrs Thomas Hesketh, and a Son". bbc.co.uk. http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/thomas-hesketh-16981735-mp-his-wife-martha-st-amand-d-1782-mrs-. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ↑ Inside Out, BBC, 12 September 2005
- ↑ Karl, J (2006) "Haunted Places in Lancashire – Rufford Old Hall", Page 73-75