Hall i' th' Wood is an early 16th-century manor house in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

, England. It is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

and is currently used as a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council Bolton Council, also called Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. It is a Metropolitan Borough Council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in ...

. It was the manor house for the

moiety Moiety may refer to: Chemistry * Moiety (chemistry), a part or functional group of a molecule ** Moiety conservation, conservation of a subgroup in a chemical species Anthropology * Moiety (kinship), either of two groups into which a society is ...

of the

Tonge with Haulgh Tonge with Haulgh was a township of the civil and ecclesiastical parish of Bolton le Moors in the Salford hundred of Lancashire, England. History Toponymy The first part of the township, Tonge, as its name implies, is located on the tongu ...

township held by the Brownlows in the 16th century. The original building is

timber framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

and has a stone flagged roof; there were later additions to the house, built from stone, in 1591 and 1648. The name represents "Hall in the Wood' spoken in the local regional

English dialect Dialects are linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. For the classification of varieties of English only in terms of pronunciation, see regional accents of English. Overview Dialects can be ...

and is pronounced . The house was not used as a gentry house but rather given over to multiple occupation by families engaged in industry. Four (previously five) separate dwellings can be identified, each with its own entrance and staircase. One part was let to

Samuel Crompton Samuel Crompton (3 December 1753 – 26 June 1827) was an English inventor and pioneer of the spinning industry. Building on the work of James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright he invented the spinning mule, a machine that revolutionised th ...

during the 18th century, where he designed and built the first

spinning mule The spinning mule is a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres. They were used extensively from the late 18th to the early 20th century in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of tw ...

. About 1779, Crompton succeeded in producing a mule-jenny, a machine which spun yarn suitable for use in the manufacture of

muslin Muslin () is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq, where it was first manufactured. Muslin of uncommonly delicate hands ...

. It was known as the ''muslin wheel'' or the ''Hall i' th' Wood wheel'' from the name of the house. Hall i' th' Wood was bought by

William Lever William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme , (, ; 19 September 1851 – 7 May 1925) was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician. Having been educated at a small private school until the age of nine, then at church schools ...

(later Lord Leverhulme) in 1899 and was restored by Jonathan Simpson and Edward Ould. Lever gave the house to the Corporation of Bolton in 1900. An episode of the television programme ''

Most Haunted ''Most Haunted'' is a British paranormal reality television series. Following complaints, the broadcast regulator, Ofcom, ruled that it was an entertainment show, not a legitimate investigation into the paranormal, and "should not be taken s ...

'' was filmed in the hall in 2008. In Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833, is a poetical illustration by

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...

to an engraving of a painting of the hall by William Linton. This dwells on the changes the hall has seen over the centuries.

References

External links

Hall i' th' Wood
- history and visitor information, Bolton Museums and Archive Service

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall I' Th' Wood Country houses in Greater Manchester Buildings and structures in Bolton Historic house museums in Greater Manchester Timber framed buildings in England Grade I listed buildings in Greater Manchester Grade I listed houses Grade I listed museum buildings History of Bolton Tourist attractions in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton

See also

References

External links