Westwood Hall

First topic message reminder :

Had the privilege of having a tour round the Hall today after meeting the cracking (eccentric) tenant. The hall was made a grade 2 listed building in the 60's, and delisted when the council tried to sell the land to a Chinese consortium in the 90's I think. He moved in the Hall in 1971 after his Mother agreed with the lady who lived there, Mrs Elizabeth Kay, to look after the place.Mrs Kay dies in 1986 (I think) When the council took ownership, they tried to get the tenant out as the place was unfit for human habitat, he went to court and won.


(The above may have the wrong dates, but am sure you will put me right, where I can edit and correct)

I have been invited back tomorrow to see some old pics of the area by the tenant.

Nearby, there is the Kay tunnel? that the Railways build so the hall owners and Kay Cottages tenants could have access.
There was a clay woks where the Kays dug the clay out to make bricks that went into building the Kays Cottages. There was also a mine there, which was handy to keep the Hall warm.

The Hall was build in the 1600's, and was changed in style and added to in the 1800's.

The hall itself is leaning, so when I went upstairs it was like I had vertigo.

https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101392199-westwood-hall-and-attached-cottage-worsley-mesnes-ward#.W6J3AYgvyUk

 Pictures don't do it justice.


Many of the pics may be useless, due to the light....

First thing I saw on the entrance to the Hall.


Oak beams on ceiling 1960's light fitting


Panelled wall


Floorboard, (I could see through them, and the drop was substantial)


Cupboard


Dizzying staircase with a beam running across top. (very low


A beam holding  a bedroom roof up from downstairs  (Not all same stairs)


A beam holding  a bedroom roof up from downstairs


A beam holding  a bedroom roof up. From down stairs


A beam holding  a bedroom roof up


A beam holding  a bedroom roof up closeup (Tried to get bolts in. Failed)


A beam holding  a bedroom roof up from downstairs.


Another beam holding  a bedroom roof up



Another beam holding  a bedroom roof up


Front door (Pic repeated (crap image))


Side door



Tried to show the colour of the wood, failed


Original front door from inside (It was pitch black here)


Another bedroom fireplace


Central heating put in during the 70's?


Window with sash? open


Window Sash? (Forgot the real term)


A skylight


Fireplace in a bedroom


A cupboard



Panelled wall between rooms


Back door

Rear of property (Only access now)



Side of house (new front of hall)


Front of hall (Not original)


Front of the hall (Not the original one)


Original entry to the Hall


The first wekll (Capped and now dry (It was fed from the house water run off, from lead pipes)


Original front of the building


Original main entrance


Original main entrance


Floor of the front of the original main door (They ran all the way in, and may have been coloured)


A boot scraper on the right of the original main door (Had to stand on weeds to be able to see them)

A boot scraper on the left of the original main door



Second main door, there are four concrete blocks that once were the base of four columns for the porch? to the entrance


Abandoned boat.


One of the two wells that fed water to the Hall


One of the two wells that fed water to the Hall(2)

That Kays girls photo, two of my cousins on there.

Thank you Mac.

Very welcome. Happy the work I put in is appreciated.

Brilliant thread Mac Looking forward to more.

Those beams are very similar to some in a relative's house that was built mid 1700's

Crook Trusses! 

They were building timber-framed houses before timber-framed houses were invented!!  

You mean Cruck trusses, like they used in medieval times?

No.  Crook!  Because people who say "cruck" only say it like that because they think they're posh!

Book!  not Buck!!

Soot!  not Sut!!

You Ful! 

Actually, looking at them pictures of Mac's,  I'd say them trusses were queen posts,  because that house is too square for crook trusses!!!

tonker wrote:No.  Crook!  Because people who say "cruck" only say it like that because they think they're posh!

Book!  not Buck!!

Soot!  not Sut!!

You Ful! 

Good man.


Cracking thread.

Been many years since I was down there. Interesting thread this, well done, Mac.

I never knew it existed.  Good thread

About 5 years ago my mother contributed to the Lancashire Society's project "The noise we Mek" a couple of her comments about Kays' Houses life in the 20's and 30's are on their website.The families in the cottages also used a well for their water in her childhood.

Yes, Mr. Lillis told me about the well that fed the cottages.
I will ask if it was the same system that replenished the well at the 'Big house' where the rainwater came from the roof, along lead guttering and down the lead spout into a channel that led to the well that kept the Hall in water.

Apparently, water (or lack of) was the biggest problem. I wonder how they would have coped in this years drought?

Ask him if he's related to Stuart Lillis from Bryn!

No!

Carl beats the bulldozers

More information. Fascinating Mac

It's value?

It's real title, if you had followed the thread, is Westwood hall cottage. There is a pic involved there somewhere.

There was a selection of pics. there,  but they wouldn't transfer!

To where? And why the superfluous full stop?

Mac wrote:To where? And why the superfluous full stop?

To here!  It kept showing a puzzle I had to complete to make sure I wasn't a 'robot'?  Then, when I filled it in, it just showed loads of letters etc.!

As for the fill-stop,  it isn't superfluous, it's correct.  A full-stop, period, shows a shortened word,  ie; pics., which is like 'photos.'!

Get to know! 

tonker wrote:There was a selection of pics. there,  but they wouldn't transfer!

I 'know'. Why the superfluous full stop?

A fill stop isn't appropriate here, it isn't whinging world. you know!