Werneth Hall

{{Short description|Listed building in Greater Manchester, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox historic site

| name = Werneth Hall

| image =

| caption =

| type = House

| locmapin = Greater Manchester

| map_relief = yes

| coordinates = {{coord|53.53361|-2.12872|type:landmark|display=inline, title}}

| location = Werneth, Oldham, Greater Manchester, England

| area =

| built = 17th century or earlier

| architect =

| architecture = Jacobean

| governing_body = Privately owned

| designation1 = Grade II* listed building

| designation1_offname = Werneth Hall

| designation1_date = 25 October 1951

| designation1_number = 1201652

}}

Werneth Hall is a Grade II* listed privately owned Jacobean manor house in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England.{{NHLE |desc=Werneth Hall, Oldham |num=1201652 |access-date=6 March 2021 |date=1986}}

History

In the reign of Henry III, Alwardus de Aldholme held the manor of Oldham and land in Werneth (Vernet). In the 13th century, Oldham was documented as a manor held from the Crown by a family named Oldham. The Oldhams were relatives of the Bishop of Exeter, Hugh Oldham.{{cite book|last=Butterworth|first=Edwin|title=Historical Sketches of Oldham|publisher=E.J. Morten|year=1981|isbn=978-0-85972-048-9}}

Richard de Oldham was lord of the manor in 1354 and the hall, park and estate passed to his daughter, Margery de Oldham, who married John de Cudworth in the 1370s. The estate passed to their son, John, and to his descendants one of whom, Ralph Cudworth (d.1572), was the father of the Anglican theologian Ralph Cudworth and grandfather of the Cambridge Platonist Ralph Cudworth. The estate remained in the Cudworth family until Joshua Cudworth (d.1710) sold it to Sir Ralph Assheton (1651–1716) of Middleton in 1683.{{Cite journal|date=1890|title=Proceedings|journal=Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society|volume=8|pages=147–150}}{{Cite web|title=The parish of Prestwich with Oldham: Oldham {{!}} British History Online|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol5/pp92-108#fnn39|access-date=14 March 2021|website=british-history.ac.uk}}R.E. Stansfield-Cudworth, 'Gentry, Gentility, and Genealogy in Lancashire: The Cudworths of Werneth Hall, Oldham, c.1377–1683', Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 111 (2019), 48–80.

Assheton gave the estate to his daughter, Catherine Assheton (d.1728), who married Thomas Lister (1688–1745) of Gisburn Park, Yorkshire. The estate passed to their son Thomas Lister (1723–61) and then to his son Thomas Lister, Lord Ribblesdale (1752–1826) who sold it to Parker and Sidebottom of London, for £25,500, in 1792.

In 1795, the Werneth Hall estate was purchased, for £30,000, by the cotton manufacturer John Lees (d.1823) of Oldham. His son Edward Lees (d.1835) was succeeded as owner of the hall and lord of the manor by his sons the MP John Frederick Lees (1809–1867) and George Lees.{{citation|last=Lewis|first=Samuel|title=Werneth|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp513-517#h3-0005|work='Weobley - Westby', in A Topographical Dictionary of England|pages=513–517|year=1848|publisher=British History Online}} The estate included a park until around 1844 when the hall property was separated from the land and the latter became the public Werneth Park in 1936.

Architecture

There have been three buildings on this site since the Middle Ages. The first Werneth Hall (probably timber and plaster) was destroyed by fire in 1456. The house was rebuilt and was in use until at least the 1590s.{{Cite web|title=Werneth Park|url=https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/werneth-park|access-date=13 March 2021|website=Parks & Gardens|language=en}}

Most of the third (present) building was built between 1590 and 1625, and has been extensively altered. It is in sandstone with a roof partly in Welsh slate and partly in stone flags. There are two storeys with a cellar, a main range with two cross-wings, coped gables and later extensions. The windows are mullioned and transomed. The entrance has a moulded architrave and to the left an inserted French window.{{Citation |last1=Hartwell |first1=Clare |last2=Hyde |first2=Matthew |last3=Pevsner |first3=Nikolaus |author3-link=Nikolaus Pevsner |series=The Buildings of England |title=Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2004 |location=New Haven and London |isbn=0-300-10583-5 |page=548}}{{cite web |title=Werneth Hall |url=https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101201652-werneth-hall-werneth-ward#.YEOEvmj7Q2w |website=British Listed Buildings |access-date=5 March 2021}}

See also

References

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Buildings and structures in Oldham|state=collapsed}}

{{Greater Manchester|state=collapsed}}

{{Portal bar|United Kingdom|Greater Manchester|Lancashire}}

Category:Grade II* listed houses

Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Manchester

Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester

Category:Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham