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| Photo Credit: Hannah Priest |
As Manchester Medieval Society’s incoming president, I was excited to join the first event of the academic year, a visit to Clayton Hall on Sunday 24 September. We gathered in a beautiful sunlit garden that covers much of the 74m by 66m site, surrounded by a continuous medieval moat (now dry and strikingly rectangular if you look at a plan of the site), which is accessed via a Grade II listed, seventeenth-century, coursed, squared sandstone bridge comprising two segmental arches, a central pier and a cutwater on each side.
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| Photo Credit: Hannah Priest |
The land belonged to the Clayton family in the twelfth century. In 1194 the land and its hall passed into the ownership of the Byron family – of whom the poet, Lord Byron, is a descendant. Nothing is really known of the original structure, and details of the expansion and remodelling of buildings, including a chapel, in the fifteenth century survive only partially. But the sense of a great Tudor house is expressed in the timber panelling, casement windows, bell-cote and impressive chimney stack that form the right-hand portion of the surviving building. All this was pointed out to us by the lovely and knowledgeable volunteer Friends of Clayton Park without whom Clayton Hall would not be open to visitors – indeed, it may not have survived (its poor condition saw it at risk of demolition just a few years ago).
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| Photo Credit: Hannah Priest |
Once inside, we went to the Humphrey Chetham room, so-named since it recalls that Clayton Hall was acquired and lived in by Humphrey Chetham (1580-1653), the Manchester cloth merchant who founded Chetham’s School and Library (about which Manchester Medieval Society members will learn lots more when we have the fortunate opportunity to visit the library on 28 February 2018).
In the Humphrey Chetham room, we learned something about his working life, and his royal and political encounters with Parliamentarians, including Thomas Fairfax, documented as staying at Clayton Hall during the English Civil War. The room is sympathetically decorated, with a picture of Fairfax on the wall. Most impressive for me was the timber framing that arched into the roof and, in the adjacent room, ingeniously a window has been put in the ceiling with spotlights in the roof space that allow you to study how the roof is constructed.
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| Photo Credit: Hannah Priest |
Humphrey and his brother, George, had bought Clayton Hall in 1620 and it passed to George’s children in 1653, after which time records of ownership are a little sketchy – the volunteers have done an amazing amount of work to put together the story of Clayton Hall, but there is surely an archival research project or two here. In 1897 it was acquired by Manchester Corporation and was residentially tenanted until recently. One of the fascinating files put together for visitors is a memory book of photographs and recollections provided by families that lived in Clayton Hall in the twentieth century. Some of them must have been darts players – we were entertained with the story of how conservation fears over a pattern of small holes on a section of wall were allayed when someone worked out that the undamaged circular area in the middle of the holes was consistent with the placement of a dartboard on the wall!
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| Photo Credit: Hannah Priest |
The other parts of the building exhibit changes made in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and, through the great practical efforts of the volunteers (see their planning, painting and plastering skills on their website), this part of the Hall has been presented as a Victorian home with visitors encouraged to dress up, play chess (one game lasted two hours) and to make ‘modelling putty mince’ using the mincer in the kitchen.
We all had a fabulous time. One of our party was Dr Catherine Casson and I am delighted that she will be our first speaker in the Society’s 2017-2018 programme. I look forward to welcoming you to her talk on 19 October.
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| Photo Credit: Hannah Priest |
But for now, I just want to thank all the volunteers for their time and hospitality. Do look at their website and, if you missed our visit, do find an Open Saturday when Clayton Hall (the metro stop to which it gives its name is just outside) will be able to welcome and delight you too.
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| Photo Credit: Hannah Priest |
