Monument record 68/1/1 - Hale Hall

<1> Farrer W & Brownbill J, 1906-14, The Victoria County History of the County of Lancaster, 3/141-7 1907 (Book). SCH3636.

‘…Hale Hall is a quadrangular building of c.1600, altered in the latter part of the seventeenth century, with a large south front added in 1806.

The original house had a north front with five irregularly spaced projecting bays, with mullioned windows and gables. It was remodelled in 1674 by Sir Gilbert Ireland, the gables being masked by a panelled parapet, flush with the front of the projecting bays, and carried on semi-circular arches springing from their angles, or from piers brought forward to the same line. At the same time a porch was built in front of the entrance doorway, and a second entrance porch added to the second bay from the west. This is now built up. The inner courtyard was very small, and is now roofed over, and filled up with an eighteenth-century staircase, a former stair dating from the middle of the seventeenth century, with good newels and balusters, having been moved from its original position near the south-west angle of the court and set up further to the west, near the kitchen and offices. On the south side of the court is a fine panelled room, which seems to have been fitted up by Sir G. Ireland in 1674 It was designed as the hall of the original house, and may have had a projecting bay at the south-east angle of the court and screens -at the west, where a door still communicates with the kitchen passage. On the first floor a gallery runs round all four sides overlooking the court, having in its windows some very interesting early seventeenth-century glass, with representations of the months, of various birds and beasts, and of Faith, Hope, &c., and in one of the bedrooms opening from the gallery on the north, known as Sir Gilbert Ireland's room, is a bay window with panels of heraldry, mostly c. 1670, with the arms of various local families.

The roof-timbers are those of the original house, and the roof space preserves the clay floor which was common in the older houses of Lancashire. A similar floor was found beneath the floorboards of Sir Gilbert Ireland's room on the occasion of a fire, and was undoubtedly of use in preventing the spread of the flames.

The south front of the house consists of a range of rooms with a tower at the west end, added in 1806, Nash being the architect. The design is copied from the north front, both the original features and the alterations of 1674 being imitated in a manner worthy of the time.

The house is not so rich in detail as many of the old Lancashire houses, but what there is is good of its kind, and there are some good pictures and furniture…’

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ48 SE4 (Index). SCH2487.

The only remaining portions of Hale Hall are the additions of 1806, now in ruins. The site of the north front is occupied by rubble and trees. [DS 24/03/1961]

<3> Jacques D, 1983, Georgian Gardens: The Reign of Nature (Book). SCH1266.

The hall is set in the remains of an early landscape park designed by Frances Richardson in 1758. A plan survives in Lancashire Record Office.

<4> Parks and Gardens Data Services Ltd, Various, Parks & Gardens UK, 1580 (Web Site). SCH6814.

The north front of Hale Hall was erected for Sir Gilbert Ireland in 1674. The south front for John Blackburne by John Nash in 1806.

<5> Pollard, R & Pevsner, N, 2006, Buildings of England. Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-west, p.190 (Book). SCH8437.

Hale Hall was demolished in the twentieth century. It was an idiosyncratic seventeenth century house with a west front of 1806 by John Nash, which echoed the earlier building. The unremarkable late nineteenth century service buildings and walled gardens survive.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1927-1928, Ordnance Survey Second Revision County Series (Epoch 3) 25 inch to 1 mile - Lancashire, SJ4681, 1927 (Maps and Plans). SCH5041.

The hall is depicted on this map.

<7> The GeoInformation Group, 2005, 1940s RAF Aerial Photographs from Operation Review (Aerial Photograph). SCH4608.

Only the southern half of the hall appears to be extant.

<8> Huntings Surveys Ltd, 1971-1973, 1971-1973 County Survey, Run 17 no.0109, 08/07/1971 (Aerial Photograph). SCH4881.

The hall is no longer extant.