£1.6m to help MEND town’s historic jewel
IT’S earliest incarnation as a manor house was valued at 5 shillings (5p) in the Domesday Book of 1086.
By the late 14th Century the land owning family, the Davenports, had built a magnificent timber-framed home there.
The family remained lords of the manor for 500 years before it was sold to a Manchester property firm, and then a Victorian industrialist and in 1925 the president of Manchester United, John Henry Davies, for £15,000 (the equivalent of £910,000 in 2024).
Davies lived in the house until his death in 1927 and his widow Amy remained there until 1935, when she sold it to Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council for £14,360 (worth about £1,061,000 in 2024) with the intention that the house and park be open to the public. In 1974 it was taken over by Stockport council.
The beautiful Bramhall Hall, once described as ‘one of the four best timber-framed mansions of England,’ will now benefit from £1.6m worth of tender loving care, it has been announced.
It is the first major cash injection for the Grade I listed building since 2013 when £2m, made up of £1.6m from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the rest from the council was spent on repairs to a highly decorative 16th century Venetian plaster ceiling, and Victorian boiler room, and improved visitor facilities.
The latest grant will be used to restore the roof of the Tudor manor house.
Urgent repairs, are needed to the building as its collections are at risk from the elements, with climate change making the situation critical.
The funding awarded to Stockport Council through Arts Council England’s Museum Estates and Development Fund (MEND) is intended for vital work beyond the scope of day-to-day maintenance budgets.
Additional funding from Stockport Council will now enable the most urgent work to get underway, which includes stripping the roofs to relay and replace worn-away grit stone tiles and all leadworks and gutters.
The vital repairs will help preserve invaluable historic objects and architectural features, such as internationally significant
Tudor wall paintings, a rare surviving example of an Elizabethan pendant plaster ceiling and the work of arts and crafts architect George Faulkner Armitage.
Work is due to start in winter and is expected to take up to two years to complete.
The council intends to keep the Hall open throughout this time and actively engage visitors and the community in the renovation works.
Stockport Museums is developing a new programme to enable the community and visitors to see Bramall Hall through new eyes. It will explore heritage building methodology, offer behindthe-scenes tours and introduce bats and bees – some of the Hall’s more unusual tenants – through special events and activities.
In the longer term, plans are in place to bring alive the stories and symbolism hidden within the Hall’s Tudor paintings, redevelop the schools’ learning programme, and improve digital access to the Hall and its collections.
Councillor Mark Hunter, Leader of Stockport Council, said: “Stockport Council is proud to own, operate, and care for Bramall Hall. Not only is it a jewel in Stockport’s crown, but it’s also a national treasure, and we must preserve this first-class historic house and its enviable collections for generations to come. It is great news that we have been awarded this funding, which will support us in doing this.”