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| Marsden Hall - Winter 2007 |
Before Nelson developed and Colne grew, the area that
included Marsden Park
The Walton family’s connection with the Marsden estate can
be traced back as far as 1352 when Henry, Duke of Lancaster, gave Richard de
Walton a large portion of land. The
estate grew further in 1356 when Queen Isabella gave the family another 118
acres.
The family continued to live in the hall and although they
may have appeared wealthy, this was perhaps not the case especially during the
15th century.
Much of the evidence that remains of the Walton family up to
the 1600s is tied up in legal matters.
One record states that Christopher de Walton was outlawed in 1423 for
the crime of taking deer from the royal hunting grounds of the Forest of Pendle
The last of the true Waltons of Marsden, Banastre, died in
1784 and the estate passed to his cousin, Reverend Richard Wroe, a rector in
Radcliffe. Richard Wroe moved to the
Marsden estate and assumed the name Wroe-Walton in accordance with Banastre’s
will.
Richard Wroe-Walton died on 3rd December 1801 and was
succeeded by his son, Richard Thomas.
Richard Thomas was described as ‘a typical country squire, a gentleman
of the old school in dress and manners’.
He was extremely interested in the welfare of his tenant farmers, his
staff and the poor.
There are many stories about Richard Thomas’s generosity and
helping the poor. The shelter at the
coach gate was built so that on Sundays Richard Thomas could ‘fling’ coins over
the fence to the poor. The silk purse
used for this was still in the family’s possession in 1926 and gave weight to
the story.
Local legends say that bread was always available should
anyone approach the gates, while another tells how Richard Thomas gave his own
boots to someone with ‘wretched footwear’ while out on his daily ride saying
‘Take them, you have more need of them than I have’.
Richard Thomas died on 1st April 1845 aged 71. His remains were taken to Altham Church Burnley
closed out of respect. The funeral
cortege was made up of 30 to 40 carriages, and stretched around a mile in
length, and all the male tenant farmers rode on horseback in cloaks of
black. The funeral was described as ‘a
noble end to a noble life’.
After the death of Richard Thomas the absence of an heir
meant that the estate passed to his sisters.
On their deaths it again passed to cousins whose ancestors were the
original Walton family.
After a few years at Marsden Hall, Mrs Hallam retired to
Colne having sold her family’s estate of Broadbank. She leased the hall and the estate to Dr
Pinder of Whalley who opened the property as a private hospital for people with
mental health issues. The hall and
estate was used for this purpose for around 40 years. On the death of Mrs Hallam the estate passed
to her daughter Mrs Howarth who sold the hall and 44½ acres to the Corporation
of Nelson for £6,000. On 20th June 1912 Marsden Park
Marsden Old Hall
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| Marsden Old Hall circa 1900. |
It is likely that there was some form of home on this site
or close by prior to 1356. However, with
the Walton family’s growing standing within the community it is likely that
James de Walton would have built the first hall on the site. This would have been a structure consisting
of a central hall with corridors off to other sections of the building which
probably would have included a buttery, a kitchen, a bakery, a dairy, private
apartments and a chapel. The hall and
private apartments would have been the only structures built of stone with the rest
of the buildings being built of wood or wattle and daub. Other buildings may have been present on the
site, such as a blacksmith and a granary, but these would have been shared with
other families and would not be the sole property of the Waltons.
The hall that can be seen today is actually of two different
periods. The old part of the hall, which
forms the main part of the building, was probably built in around 1555 to 1563
by Richard Walton of Barkerhouse. However,
on his death in 1559, the building was left to his son Henry of Barkerhouse who
finished his father’s project.
In 1740 Henry Walton rebuilt the hall. However, contrary to the fashions of the time
he kept the Tudor aspect of the building and added a huge extension to the
front of the building, to the side and built the coach gate and lodge. From this point on the Tudor section of the
hall became the staff quarters, storage and kitchens. The new section of the building was a very
grand and luxurious affair with marble fireplaces, hall, library and oak
panelled bedrooms.
The hall began to fall into disrepair before its ownership
was transferred to Nelson Corporation.
The large extension became derelict and eventually had to be pulled
down. The Tudor section still remains
and has been restored with funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund; it’s a
historic landmark for the area. All that
now remains of the extension are the extensive cellars that would have been
used for storing food and wine.
The Sundials of Marsden
Park
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| The Icashedral Sundial |
There are two sundials in Marsden Park
The Icosahedral Sundial has twenty faces which tell the time
in different countries. It also has the
ability to depict the day, date and the points of the compass. Even with modern technology recreating a
sundial like this one would be a feat of mathematics and engineering.
This type of sundial is extremely rare; there are only two
other similar sundials in the UK . One is in Plymouth
and the other in the nearby grounds of Stonyhurst College
The sundial has seen two periods of restoration. The first was in 1986 by Roger Maculay Lord,
and the second in 2006 as part of a project to restore Marsden Park
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| Coach House Sundial |
The co-ordinates at the sundial give the location of 53° 49’
N 2° 10’ W which is in a field over 1½ miles south-west of the sundial’s
location. Whether this is a genuine
mistake or the location has some other significance has been lost with the
Walton family and will never be known.
The Coach House
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| George Cocks |
The coach house, along with the farm, formed an important
part of the Marsden Hall complex. The
ground floor of the building housed the family’s coaches and the horses that
pulled them while the upper floor would have originally stored food for the
animals. This floor was later converted
to living quarters for the coachman and his family.
The last coachman to live and work on the Marsden Estate was
a man named George Cocks. Local stories
state that George worked at Marsden Hall up until the asylum closed. He and his wife were impressed with a young
boy who was resident in the hospital and when it closed they adopted him and
brought him up as their own.
A dove cote can be found in the gable of the coach house .
This housed doves and pigeons that would have been eaten and their eggs
harvested.
The Psuedo-Roman Bath House and Gardens
Although the hall gardens would have been ornamental and
grand, they also had the purpose of maintaining the hall and those who lived
there with a supply of fresh food. The
kitchen garden, which is the area laid out in a bowl shape next to the coach
house, is extremely unusual because of its shape. In the bottom of the bowl stood a large
greenhouse where exotic fruits such as pineapples would have been grown.
It is documented that one of the Cunliffe family visited
Marsden Hall for dinner one evening and was so impressed with the pineapples
that he returned to Wycoller and built a pinery for his own home.
The Psuedo-Roman Bath House had two functions. The first was
to act as a summer house for the family so they could take shade from the sun
and have afternoon tea by the lakeside. The other, less indulgent function was
to act as a boiler house for another greenhouse and the families that were once
located above.
The Egyptian Gate
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| The Opening of Marsden Park at the Egyptian Gate 1912 |
The Egyptian Gate was once the main entrance to the upper
gardens. It is known locally as ‘The
Wishing Gate’ after the local custom of picking a leaf from a tree and placing
it in one of the carved holes before walking through the gate and making a
wish. What will you wish for?
The gate has several unusual carvings around it. One of the most notable is of the Secretary
Bird (pictured) at the top of the arch.
This bird of prey is only found in Africa . Usually, the Secretary Bird hunts on the
ground eating snakes and lizards as its main diet. This bird has become a symbol for strength
and success.
The Egyptian Gate has played a major part in Marsden Park Marsden Park
The My Lady’s Garden
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| The Ladies Garden circa 1920 |
Early photographs of the My Lady’s Garden show that it
would have looked very different to how it does today. The photograph bottom right shows an
octagonal pagoda that stood above the garden, giving excellent views. The planting scheme at this time is mainly
evergreen shrubs such as rhododendron mixed with standard deciduous trees and
conifers.
In the 1920s and 30s the planting scheme changed (see top
right photograph). At this time the
garden was planted in the style of most parklands with seasonal bedding plants
planted in a formal style.
During the restoration project the planting scheme was
replaced to suit the modern needs of the park.
This includes perennial bedding that requires less maintenance but is
also valuable for wildlife such as bees and butterflies.
In the wall of the garden there are two bricked up
doorways. Local legend states that one
of these was a secret passageway to the hall.
However, investigations during the restoration proved that this was not
the case. One appears to be a
summerhouse or storage area, while the other was an ice house.
During winter ice would have been cut from the upper lake
and brought to the house. This was then
used as a type of outdoor fridge to store meats and other foods that were
likely to go off if stored anywhere else.
