Hall of memories
50 years after Ordsall Hall was opened to the public, we look back at the history of one of the jewels in Salford’s crown
IT’S one of the finest examples of Tudor construction in Britain. Reputedly haunted, it sits between a huge housing estate and industrial units in its own beautiful gardens.
But to John Finley it was once home and its walls will always be part of the fabric of his family history.
Ordsall Hall is the jewel in Salford’s architectural heritage. Fifty years ago it first opened its doors to the public after a chequered past in which it was a medieval mansion occupied by aristocracy, wealthy merchants, industrialists, then later butchers and farmers, plus a spell as working man’s club.
This spring, John, 76, was the guest of honour at a party to mark the golden anniversary of the building opening up for everyone.
In 1959, to save the hall from being bought for commercial use, and probably demolished, it was bought by Salford Corporation (council). John’s father, Edward ‘Ted’ Finley was hired by the council as the hall’s caretaker that year.
At first Ted kept only a daytime watch on the premises. But the council then created a flat within the hall for him, his wife Margaret, and young John, their only child, to live in. Ted also worked as a gallery attendant at the hall.
Ted was unable to attend the original launch of the opening of the hall to the public in late April 1972 due to illness.
A party of schoolchildren were amongst the first to visit the hall after initial major repairs were done during the 1960s – now 35,000 visit each year.
Ted died in 1979. But he left behind two legacies – the family’s link to one of the city’s most famous buildings, and as a founder member of the Salford Art Club, an important and impressive collection of paintings of his home city – including one of Ordsall Hall.
A self-taught artist, Ted was regarded by many as an unsung hero of Northern art. He recorded the changing landscape of old Salford and was a founder member of Salford Art Club in 1948.
Now retired, John could not forget his roots and played a key part in the hall’s ongoing restoration, by helping to fundraise. He even met his American wife through Ordsall Hall.
John, who was in his early teens when he moved into the hall, said: “Salford has gone through a period of intense development and we have seen some magnificent new buildings arriving in the city, but we still need to protect these old treasures that give our children the opportunities to learn about our past.
“Ordsall Hall is a very special building and indeed, it has been a special part of my life since I was a boy and my family were very happy living here. I hope it can be appreciated by many generations to come.”
But he also shatters the myth that the building is haunted.
John says that in all the years he and his family lived there they were never once bothered by the three ghosts reputed to stalk its rooms including ‘The White Lady,’ alias Lady Margaret Radclyffe, who died in 1599 following the death of her beloved brother Alexander.
Another ghostly presence is said to be that of Sir John Radclyffe himself, with reports of activity in the Star Chamber – and Cecily, a young girl associated with the smell of roses, who appears when parties of schoolchildren are visiting.
John used to accompany his dad Ted on night watches where they would patrol the hall and grounds and check everything was safe and secure – but saw no strange sightings.
“We lived at the hall for many years, day in and day out and saw not one ghost; we used to joke that we’d actually scared them away! My family and I did not believe in ghosts and I am not religious so they probably avoided us.”
Living in the hall nurtured John’s love of history which ultimately led to wedding bells. He met his wife, Martha Scott, via the internet due to their shared passion for local history.
Among the attractions in Richmond County, Virginia, where Martha lives, is the 15th century Agecroft Hall - a little piece of Salford that was transported across the Atlantic and rebuilt in 1925.
John, vice-chairman of the Friends of the Salford Museums Association, said: “I put information about our association on the internet and Martha first contacted me in August 2006. She was curator of the Kinsale Foundation Museum in Virginia. Her ancestors came from Oxford and 300 years ago they sailed to the colonies to make a new life.
“Martha said she was visiting Oxford and would like to see Ordsall Hall. She flew to Manchester and we first met in October 2006. That weekend we went to a hog roast at Ordsall Hall, where the staff dressed in Tudor-style clothes and Martha thoroughly enjoyed herself.
“She then went to Oxford and I thought that was the end of it. It was not quite love at first sight but that weekend there was a spark.”
John recalled the moment he popped the question when Martha revisited Salford a few years after they first made contact. “It was very traditional. I went down on one knee and asked her to marry me. I had been fortified by a pie from the food hall at Salford precinct before I asked,” he said.
When they wed the idea was that they would live in America for six months of the year and the rest in Salford. John lives off Churchill Way, Pendleton.
As a thank you for all the work the Friends did to raise money towards what was needed for the restoration and a new roof, the council let John have his wedding reception at the Hall in 2008.
John, who worked as an electrical engineer for AEI in Trafford Park, and later Tameside council as a clerical officer, recalled how living in the hall meant he and his family came into contact with circles ordinary working class families wouldn’t normally. He says he felt compelled to go back to the hall and help when cash was needed to safeguard its future.
His caretaker father, Ted, oversaw building work that was done including architectural investigations and excavations.
Ted was born in South Ann Street Salford in 1907, and except for four years serving with the Lancashire Fusiliers, he lived and worked in Salford all his life.
In his time he was furrier, cartographer, street sweeper, gallery attendant and caretaker of Ordsall Hall.
Ted was alert to the poor conditions of the working people among whom he lived and he dedicated his life to their improvement. Ted’s brother was the trade union activist Larry Finley, a fictionalised version of whom appears as Larry Meath in Walter Greenwood’s Salford-based book Love on the Dole, on working class poverty in the 1930s.
According to the Salford Art Club archives, Ted “was deeply interested in music, but painting-was his passion. Ted was a self-taught artist who, for more than 40 years, painted the changing landscape of old Salford as he saw it around him, the streets and alleys, the industry and the docks. He couldn’t usually afford canvas, unless someone kindly provided it, so most of his work is on board.”
His first exhibition was at Salford Art Gallery in 1951. He was then a regular exhibitor with Margo Ingham at the Midday Studios. He exhibited with other artists and in one-man shows in various galleries in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
Many of his paintings are in private and public collections in this country, America and New Zealand.
After his death, aged 71, a retrospective exhibition was held at Salford City Art Gallery.
This year, to mark the 1972 public opening of the hall a ‘retro’ buffet was put on including pineapple and cheese on sticks, and vol au vents.
Salford’s City Mayor, Paul Dennett, said: “Attending a celebration to mark 50 years since this fantastic building opened as a museum is
about celebrating the people who made it happen over the years. I know how important history is to the people of Salford and it is great that we have buildings like this, which speak to people of our local history.
“We can learn an awful lot from our past and in terms of the building alone, they simply don’t build them like this today.
“Ordsall Hall is a fantastic feat of architecture and brilliance. It is commendable that Salford council worked on the building to make it safe and lovingly restore it for 12 to 13 years before opening it to the public.”
Now run and managed by Salford Community Leisure, the restoration of Ordsall Hall, a decade ago, included stripping black paint added by the Victorians and taking back to the original wood, the restoration and recreation of some newly discovered paintings and restoring and opening up areas previously closed to the public such as the Great Chamber.
New Arts Council funding will allow for the installation of an oak shelter in the grounds. This will be a covered outdoor space in which the hall can run outdoor activities, picnics for schools, families and visitors.
Ordsall Hall is one of only a few Tudor manors in the UK that has retained many of its original features including rare surviving examples of medieval domestic quarters in The East Wing (dating back as far as 1360) and one of largest examples of a timber-framed hall - The Great Hall.
The earliest record of the manor house is in 1251, when William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, exchanged the manor and land for the area of Pendleton with the first registered owner of the hall, David De Hulton. First mention of Ordsall Hall appears in print in 1177 when ‘Ordeshala’ paid two marks towards a feudal due or tax.
For the first 80 years the hall belonged to the Hulton family and then was passed to the Radclyffe family of Bury around 1330, as a reward for service to the King.
Between 1251 and the late 1700s, many wealthy families owned and occupied the manor house including the Radclyffes, Oldfields, Stocks, Egertons and finally the Markendales.
The hall was later tenanted, being occupied by butchers, farmers, and cotton merchants and had mixed uses including being used as a working men’s club, a centre for unemployed men, a clergy training school and a wireless station in World War Two. Interesting tenants and boarders included Pre-Raphaelite artist, Frederic Shields, who lived in the hall between 1872 and 1875.
Shields was famed for his drawings of the working poor and took inspiration from the community around the Hall at the time. He favoured this space for its plentiful natural light and views of the surrounding area.
An anxiety and depression sufferer, artist Shields rented a room at Ordsall Hall that helped his mental state. He established himself in a room where light flooded through a bay window. The room is now known as the Frederic Shields Gallery. In a letter to the art critic. John Ruskin, he described the hall as ‘the happiest refuge I have ever nested in.’
The Industrial Revolution emerging around Shields left him troubled. In another letter to Ruskin he complained of the proposed sale of the hall and wrote: “Already the Egyptian Plague of bricks has alighted on its eastern side, devouring every green blade. Where the sheep fed last year, five streets of cheap cottages, one brick thick walls are in the course of formation.”
During his Ordsall years, Shields married Matilda Booth - previously a child model for his paintings. He was 40 and she was 16.
Other notable residents included the ‘fair and witty’ Margaret Radclyffe (former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth 1), the butcher John Markendale (whose farming family lived at the Hall in the early 1800s) and the industrialist and philanthropist Lord Egerton of Tatton former Chairman of the nearby Manchester Ship Canal.
Although closed during the pandemic, the museum is now back open and has many events planned for the summer of 2022, including its outdoor theatre programme, starting July 28.