Other Halls
LIVESEY OLD HALL was built in around the Tudor period of the English monarchy. It was a family home to the local gentry on its knoll overlooking the Darwen Valley out towards Pleasington. Two phases there were of the building. The second rendered another wing as a part of the house. Latterly, it fell into the possession of the dominant local family - the Fieldens - being shared twixt the Witton and Feniscowles branches. The hall’s latest days saw it used as a farm, until the farmer, a Mr Moss, decided to debunk for the golden shores of Australia. This was the beginning of the end for the hall, no longer the ward of the departed family Fielden. In the 1960s, it was destroyed, to make way for the Crescent housing estate in Cherry tree, Blackburn. Jessica Lofthouse, an excellent local writer, described the hall fluently on quite a few occasions. Other than that and the cloudy recollections of some local people, the poor old building is long forgotten, lost in the cobweb-infested attic of local history. Yet another sad and melancholy ending for a fine old Blackburn tale.
PLEASINGTON OLD HALL has a fascinating history. From its earliest days in the possession of the Winkleys, to its transfer by deed to the Ainsworth family, to the Butler and Butler-Bowdon era, these two houses (the first still standing, a fine building in the woodland demesne; the second standing in full grandeur atop the knoll of what is now the municipal cemetery) know many a tale! At present, there is a small ruin (mere walls remain) in Pleasington Old Hall Woods, used as a butterfly garden.
WOODFOLD HALL was the singular brainchild of one Henry Sudell, chapman and cotton magnate of Blackburn. A neo-Classical Georgian manor in the south western Ribble Valley, it was the scene of a pay riot by impoverished mill workers in the c19th. Around 1816 and again during the American Civil War, the house was besieged by these desperate people, either for more pay or just for a decent amount of food on the table, now in 2013 the hall is undergoing refurbishment and made into flats / Apartments.
HOGHTON TOWER is the current home of the ancient de Hoghton family (descendants, it is said, of Earl Leofric of Mercia and Hereward the Wake), and stands in splendour on Hoghton Hill - the single most fascinating sight on the Old Road between Blackburn and Preston. The family formerly lived in the valley below (Hoghton Hall is the nomenclature of an abode there to this day), until they entered their present home. They have also lived at Walton Hall.
OTHER HALLS / RUINS around this area include the burned out MOON paper mill, the ruins of an old corn mill in the Stanworth Valley and THROSTLE NEST or TROUT BROOK, of which merely a wall on the path that carries the name remains. Other small ruins litter the area. Some appear to be tiny stone hovels, north of Brownlands Farm. Further south, going towards Tockholes, HOLE BOTTOM once stood, although nothing is obvious here to the eye. Near to the path from Higher Park Farm, Pleasington towards the hamlet at Hoghton Bottoms (on Valley Road), hidden by thick bushes, lie the ruins of the SPRING GARDENS, associated, no doubt, with the deHoghtons – maybe this was their early home? Samlesbury Hall in its Tudor grandeur and the ruined Hollinshead Hall are also nearby.
OTHER HALLS formerly situated in the local area, the ruins of which are all that remains, include: PLEASINGTON OLD HALL (one nearby shell now a butterfly garden, the earlier hall still a habitation, the very last upon the site nowadays used as a cemetery and crematorium), the aforesaid FENISCOWLES HALL (see photographs) and WOODFOLD HALL (good views of which can be seen from atop the Yellow Hills). The latter is owned by Thwaites’ Brewery Limited, and the surrounding parkland is stocked with deer and game birds, used by the Holcombe Hunt although, sadly, any peace-loving individual who wishes to walk here runs a serious risk of being waylaid in person by a warden/gamekeeper.
The first Witton Hall is seen on early maps as a ruin south of the Coo Hill building/logging station, a situation roughly to the west of the south site of Witton Park High School. Dog kennels,
for otter hounds especially, were also in the vicinity, albeit it is, regrettably, many a year since their favourite quarry was to be seen near here – although this magnificent animal has made a comeback further north in our county palatine of Lancashire. The “Witton Hall” of the Feilden family, mentioned in the above document, it should be noted, is actually termed in most books and maps, as Witton House.
References
“The Old Hall of Witton stood on a bank near the Blakewater, at the south east corner of the present park. Witton House, the mansion of the Fieldens, built in 1800, is situated more to the west, on a knoll in the midst of the Park. It is a spacious structure of modern style, with a classic porch.” (From “History of Blackburn”, by W. A. Abram; p. 759).
“Feniscowles Old Hall is a house of some antiquity situate upon a high bank near the river Darwen. It fronts to the south, and has a gabled porch, and retains some of the original features. In a passage near the kitchen are the initials (within a scroll):- “TAL” and date “1726;” showing that the house was restored at that time by Thomas Livesey. In the wall of the barn are two sculptured stones, one bearing the letters “TL + AL” (Thomas and Alice Livesey), and the date “1732;” the other has the letters “IL” (for John Livesey).” (From “History of Blackburn”, p. 624).
“Feniscowles (New) Hall stands at the foot of a steep bank near Feniscowles Bridge, at the confluence of the Roddlesworth stream with the Darwen. It is an ordinary modern mansion; and contains a varied collection of objects in natural history, made by the present baronet, and a gallery of valuable paintings acquired by the first baronet.” (From “History of Blackburn”, p. 622).
“The old manor-house of Pleasington (which has been superseded as a residential mansion by the New Hall, built by the late J. F. Butler, Esq., and lately enlarged by J. Butler-Bowdon, Esq.), stands in a sheltered spot in the demesne, fronting south. It consists of a central block with gabled wings.
The east wing retains its original features in mullioned windows and the projecting chimney at the end of the hall,; the middle portion and the west wing have been partially modernised. The interior contains nothing worthy of note; and the only curious object on the exterior is the lintel of the doorway, which is divided into five panels, containing carved initials d insignia as follows:- First and fifth panels, the initials “TH” (Thomas Hoghton), and the Hoghton crest, a “bull’s head couped;” third, the arms (or crest) of Ainsworth, “three battle axes,” with traces of effaced initials, perhaps of Lawrence Ainsworth; and fourth, the initials “IS” (for John Southworth), and the Southworth crest, a “bull’s head erased.” The reasons for placing these several heraldic devices upon the manor-house was that the Ainsworth, Hoghtons of Hoghton Tower, and Southworths of Samlesbury, were the chief owners of lands in Pleasington when this Hall was rebuilt in 1587.” (From “History of Blackburn”, p. 621).
