MANCHESTER |
| Bramall Hall and Park |
On A5102, 2 miles south of Stockport |
Bramall Hall, one of England's finest Elizabethan
houses, has many memories of the Davenports who were lords of the manor of Bramall for 500
years before selling the estate in 1877. Wall paintings, believed to date from about 1600,
were discovered when a more recent owner repaired a wall in the ballroom. This ballroom
has a timber roof, and high above the door are two figures in early 16th century dress.
The Paradise Room is said to be haunted by Dame Dorothy Devenport, who lived at Bramall
Hall during the Civil War. |
| Castlefield |
Near centre of Manchester |
The visitor centre in Deansgate provides a good 'entry
point' for an exhibition that covers numerous sites in a network of streets between
Deansgate and the River Irwell. Reconstructions and special displays on the various sites
combine to build up an impression of the development of Manchester since Roman times.
Railway viaducts now cross the land where, towards the end of the 1st century AD, the
Romans established a fort and civilian settlement. Nearby runs the Bridgewater Canal. The
Museum of Science and Industry presents a wide array of the machines that revolutionised
industry in the Western world. In the museum's Power Hall, locomotives, steam engines,
cars and motorcycles glisten. The museum also includes the National Electricity Gallery,
housed in the former railway warehouse. The Air and Space Gallery is on the opposite side
of Lower Byrom Street. |
| Dunham Massey |
On B5160, 3 miles south-west of Altrincham |
Within the plain red-brick house, for over 300 years
the seat of the Earls of Stamford and Warrington, more than 30 rooms are open to the
public, evoking the way of life for those who lived and worked here in past centuries.
Outside, visitors can walk through 250 acres of parkland. Dunham Massey dates from Tudor
times, but was rebuilt by George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington, in the 18th century. His
portrait shares the chintz drawing room with paintings, prints and photographs devoted to
the history of the Booth and Grey families, united by marriage in 1736. |
| Hall-i'th-Wood |
Off Green Way, 2 miles north-east of Bolton |
In this manor house in 1779, Samuel Crompton invented
the spinning mule - a machine which revolutionised the textile industry by producing yarn
that, while still strong, was fine enough to make muslin. Links with Crompton, to be seen
in the house where the Cromptons lived from 1758 until 1782, include a model of the 'mule'
- a traditional Saxony spinning wheel - and hymn tunes composed when Crompton was
choirmaster at a Bolton chapel. The oldest part of Hall-i'th-Wood dates from the 15th
century. Nothing has been altered since the 'new' wing of dressed stone was added in 1648. |
| Heaton Hall and Park |
At Prestwich, 6 miles north of Manchester |
Sir Thoma Egerton, who later became the 1st Earl of
Wilton, set about building Heaton Hall in 1772. An orangery was added and other
alterations made in the 1820s. Heaton Hall was then owned by the 2nd Earl of Wilton.
Portraits and landscape paintings, furniture and an organ built for the music-loving 1st
Earl give a vivid impression of what Heaton Hall was like in its glittering heyday. Heaton
Park's 600 acres include a boating lake, a farm interpretation centre, a vintage tram and
bus service and a plublic 18-hole golf course. |
| Saddleworth Museum |
Off A670, 5 miles east of Oldham |
A reconstruction of a traditional clothier's cottage
recalls what life was like in this part of the Pennines 200 years ago. The changes that
revolutionised the textile industry during the 19th century are epitomised by a power loom
from the nearby village of Dobcross, where John and James Platt established what became
the world's largest machine-making business in the 1850s. A Victorian parlour, laundry and
bedroom have also been re-created in the museum. An adjoining art gallery stages
exhibitions of paintings and sculpture. Trips on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal start from
the museum's car park. |
| Smithills Hall |
Off A58, 1.5 miles north-west of Bolton |
This medieval manor house on the lower slopes of
Smithills Moor has memories of two 16th century Protestants who died for their beliefs
during Queen Mary's turbulent reign. Tudor glass in the chapel's east window depicts the
heraldic arms of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was burnt at the stake at
Oxford in 1556. The passage leading to the chapel has a mark said to have been left by a
local man who stamped his foot, and defiantly proclaimed his Protestant faith, before
meeting an identical fate in 1555. The chapel was rebuilt after a fire in 1856, but the
oldest part of Smithills Hall dates from the 14th century. |
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