Historic Homes of England
This handsome Tudor property has a long and intricate history, as Barry McCann discovers
Barry McCann visits Samlesbury Hall
STANDING just off the A59 between Preston and Blackburn in Lancashire is a building so eye-catching that it manages to entice many a passing motorist to pull into its grounds. A beautiful Tudor exterior of contrasting black and white houses; a two-storey structure which dates back to the 14th century. It is a place steeped in rich atmospheric history, but which was nearly lost forever less than 100 years ago.
The first Great Hall of Samlesbury was built in 1325 by Gilbert de Southworth to replace a nearby building destroyed by Robert the Bruce and his men during the Great Raid of 1322. The Samlesbury manor was owned by the d’Ewyas family and Gilbert acquired his half by marrying the daughter of the family, Alicia. The building originally comprised what is now the main hall area. The family lived in one end and their servants occupied the other, while a fire stood in the middle with a hole in the ceiling for ventilation. It was rebuilt as the present Great Hall around the 1400s, and this is the structure that remains today – although it has seen some modifications since. It was also around this period that the Chapel was built adjacent to the Hall but this was not originally connected to it as it is today.
When the third Thomas Southworth inherited his family’s lands in 1517, he set about upgrading Samlesbury Hall to a manor house. The fireplace was installed in the Great Hall, a
beautiful, long south-west wing, known as the Parlour, was built to link the Hall to the chapel and the Long Gallery was added above this with carved wall panelling and added ceiling illustrations.
“They’re beautiful, beautiful rooms,” Hall Director Sharon Jones says. Sharon has worked at Samlesbury for over 20 years. “The stained glass windows in the Parlour are the original windows from the
16th century, and there are not many crook roofs left like our one in the Great Hall.”
Another stunning feature is the huge Oriel window which was built into the side of the Hall, originally for ladies to sit by and do their sewing.
“It’s glass from two feet off the floor right up to probably twenty feet high, so the ladies could sit around and chat away from the men, I think! The stained glass in it shows all the crowns from all the kings and queens of all the years right up to Queen Elizabeth. We now have a beautiful grand piano in the Oriel window, and it’s so pretty.”
While the south range was built in timber, the southern side of the building which faces what is now the main road was faced with brick, apparently the earliest recorded use of the material for a manor house in Lancashire. It was used to both encase the timber framing and support the bulky square headed windows that line that side of the building. One of these is said to have come from the nearby Whalley Abbey after it was closed down by Henry VIII as part of his programme of dissolution.
The Southworth family remained staunchly Catholic during the bloody Reformation and it is not surprising to learn that the Hall became a sanctuary to Catholic priests on the run, or that they conducted secret masses at the Chapel. There is a priest’s room with secret hiding hole just upstairs from the Grand Hall and another escape route via a tunnel by one of the fireplaces in the south wing. One story goes that a clergyman was found hiding in the priest’s hole and beheaded on the spot. The blood stain this left has been said to reappear mysteriously over the years.
Thomas died in 1546, the year before the death of Henry VIII. The Hall passed to his son, the third John Southworth, whose Catholic allegiances often led to arrests and fines for refusing to renounce his faith. He took part in the plot to replace Elizabeth I with Mary, Queen of Scots. Despite his Catholicism, he lent no support to the Pope’s forces in Spanish Armada of 1588 out of loyalty to his country. He was though eventually imprisoned in the Tower of London and languished there until his death in 1595.
This period also gave rise to a tragic personal series of events for which Samlesbury is famous.
“We almost have our very own
Romeo and Juliet story here,” Sharon explains.
Back then Samlesbury’s nearest neighbour was Hoghton Tower, belonging to the de Hoghton family.
Lady Dorothy Southworth, who is thought by many to be John’s daughter, had fallen madly in love with Richard from the de Hoghton family who were Protestant. As neither house would have approved of the union, the lovers continued to meet in secret and conceived a plan to elope and marry.
Unfortunately, their plans to steal away were relayed to Samlesbury
Hall, and on the night of their elopement, Thomas’s younger brother, >
Christopher, and other conspirators waited in ambush at the lovers’ planned rendezvous. When de
Hoghton arrived, they killed him, along with his two accompanying retainers. The bodies were buried under the cover of darkness within the grounds of the Hall’s Chapel. Dorothy, said to have witnessed her lover’s violent death, remained inconsolable.
She was sent to a convent abroad and remained there for the rest of her life, descending into grief-fuelled madness. It is said her dying words were a whisper of her murdered lover’s name and she is said to haunt the Hall, her ghost known as “the white lady”. Later in 1826, the remains of de Hoghton and his two companions were unearthed during the digging of a road near the Hall, which at least verified their fate and brought credence to their story.
John’s eldest son, (another) Thomas, actually converted to the Church of England and was disinherited for it. His other son, Saint John Southworth, joined the priesthood for which he was arrested and hung, drawn and quartered in 1654. Though his body parts were sent to the furthest four parts of the country, his followers brought them back and sewed them together, after which his body was kept in France. It now rests in Westminster Cathedral and he was canonised in 1970 as one of the forty martyrs of England and Wales. A third son, Father Christopher Southworth, was also a defender of the Catholic faith. And as with his namesake great-uncle, Christopher’s pious devotion reputedly turned him against another family member, Jane.
By 1678 the Southworths were on the edge of bankruptcy, and Edward Southworth sold out to Thomas Braddyll, who already held a mortgage on the Hall. In 1710 it was turned into a fustian factory and later let to handloom weavers and their families. In 1834 Colonel T.R.G. Braddyll converted Samlesbury Hall into The Braddyll Arms, stripping the Long Gallery of its carved wall panelling and taking the panels to his house at Conishead Priory near Ulverston, while a moveable screen in the Great Hall was cut up to install the minstrels’ gallery.
“The panels are still at Conishead,” says Sharon. “I keep trying to get them back but I’m not having any luck . . . I’ll keep at it anyway!”
Being mid-way between Preston and Blackburn, The Braddyll Arms became a convenient stopping point for conveyances to change their horses. The appointed landlady Mrs Blundell also farmed 130 acres of the manor and even won the Preston Agricultural Society’s Prize for the best cultivated farm in 1838. Unfortunately financial misadventures eventually bankrupted Colonel Braddyll as well, and in 1851 the Hall was sold to Thomas Cooper, who ran two cotton spinning factories in the nearby Samlesbury Bottoms.
He further let it to Mrs Harrison for the opening of a co-educational school in 1852, which later evolved into a Pestalozzian Institution inspired by the 18th-century Swiss educational reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and very ahead of its time.
Ten years following this, the Hall was bought by Blackburn philanthropist and entrepreneur Joseph Harrison, an iron founder and mill owner who exhibited one of his power looms at the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace. Harrison’s wife had died that very year and he took on the Hall along with his eldest son,
William, as a pet project of restoration and the sensitive extension of the south-west wing.
“Joseph gave Samlesbury so much. He was a very kind and well thought of gentleman and there are a lot of
streets and places in Blackburn named after him,” Sharon explains. His daughter, Agnes, also made the Hall her home after she was widowed.
One story concerning Agnes is that of the Lancashire cotton riot of 1878. Disgruntled operatives arrived at the Hall while William was away for the day and entered the building. Agnes calmly greeted them and offered hospitality consisting of bread, beef and ale which they partook of “in the most orderly manner and went away perfectly quietly, doing no damage to anything, inside or out.”
William died in 1879.
“He mistakenly received a letter – was sent to the wrong Harrison,” Sharon explains, “telling him that he was about to be made bankrupt. He committed suicide in the Hall, which was really sad.” His father, who resided at Galligreaves Hall, died in 1880 after a prolonged illness.
The Hall passed to Joseph’s youngest son, Henry, who was mayor of Blackburn at the time. With his sister Agnes remarrying soon after, Henry bought out her share of the estate, though entailed the whole estate to her eldest son, Montague Charles Somerset Johnstone. The Hall was then leased to Frederick Baynes who had also been mayor of it
Blackburn from 1896 to 1897, and a High Sheriff of Lancashire and
Deputy Lieutenant in 1900. However, by the time Henry died in 1914, the Hall had stood empty since 1909 and was in a state of disrepair. Montague declined to live there. His brother, FitzRoy Lewis Montague Johnstone, agreed to take up residence instead but was killed that year at the Battle of the Marne. It was then left empty again, with only the gardener acting as caretaker.
The unkempt Hall came dangerously close to demolition in 1924 when it was bought by a building firm who intended to replace it with a housing estate. Fortunately, the locals were having none of this and money was raised by public subscription to buy the estate in 1925. It was then entrusted to the
Samlesbury Hall Trust, who manage it to this day.
Happily, Samlesbury Hall continues as a multi-functional venue ensuring a steady stream of visitors. The preserved historic part of the building is free of charge for those wishing to explore it for themselves, or they may wish to take advantage of the guided tours conducted by Henry VIII or Witch Janey. There is an antiques centre and gift shop, restaurant and bar area, and the Grand Hall also acts as a venue for various events including weddings – for which the Hall closes to the public on Saturdays.
“The weddings are vital to us,” Sharon emphasises. “They’re the