Manley Hall was a large house in

Whalley Range, Manchester Whalley Range is an area of Manchester, England, south-west of the Manchester city centre, city centre. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 15,430. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it was o ...

. It was a two-storey

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

building with fifty rooms, very grandly furnished and with a

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...

collection. It stood in of exotic gardens with artificial lakes and many greenhouses in which

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

s were grown. The house was built for the wealthy businessman Samuel Mendel and was completed in 1857. Mendel occupied the house from 1858. Born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

of Jewish origin he was the so-called "Merchant Prince" of Manchester's

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, who made a fortune by providing the fastest export routes round the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

to India and Australia. At the height of his commercial success he converted from

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

High Church A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...

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, and became a significant local figure as trustee of St Clement's Church, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, despite Manley Hall being outside the Parish boundary. When the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

opened in 1869 he lost his commercial advantage and in 1875 was forced to sell Manley Hall and its contents. The contents of the house were sold in an auction that lasted five days. A second sale was held on 9 July 1879 by order of the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

for the

County Palatine In England, Wales and Ireland a county palatine or palatinate was an area ruled by a hereditary nobleman enjoying special authority and autonomy from the rest of a kingdom. The name derives from the Latin adjective ''palātīnus'', "relating t ...

and was bought by Mendell for £85,000. In 1879 a company formed to buy the estate and turn the gardens into a public pleasure park which failed after two years. Its most famous visitor was "

Buffalo Bill William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), better known as Buffalo Bill, was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. One of the most famous figures of the American Old West, Cody started his legend at the young age ...

's Wild West Show". The grounds were then progressively sold for housing and the hall itself finally demolished in 1905. Manley Park playing fields is the only part of the original grounds which has not been built over.

References

Notes Bibliography *

External links

Photograph of Hall on FlickrPictures of House
{{Coord, 53, 26, 58, N, 2, 16, 3, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title History of Manchester Demolished buildings and structures in Manchester Former buildings and structures in Manchester Country houses in Greater Manchester British country houses destroyed in the 20th century Buildings and structures demolished in 1905