Hall i' th' Wood

53°36′02″N 2°25′08″W / 53.60049°N 2.41895°W / 53.60049; -2.41895Completed16th centuryDesignationsOfficial nameHall i' th' WoodDesignated22 April 1952Reference no.1388052

Hall i' th' Wood is an early 16th-century manor house in Bolton in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Greater Manchester, England. It is a Grade I listed building and is currently used as a museum by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council.^[1][2] It was the manor house for the moiety of the Tonge with Haulgh township held by the Brownlows in the 16th century. The original building is timber framed and has a stone flagged roof; there were later additions to the house, built from stone, in 1591 and 1648.^[1] The name represents "Hall in the Wood' spoken in the local regional English dialect and is pronounced /ˌɔːlɪθˈwʊd/.

The house was not used as a gentry house but rather given over to multiple occupation by families engaged in industry. Four (previously five) separate dwellings can be identified, each with its own entrance and staircase.^[3] One part was let to Samuel Crompton during the 18th century, where he designed and built the first spinning mule.^[2] About 1779, Crompton succeeded in producing a mule-jenny, a machine which spun yarn suitable for use in the manufacture of muslin.^[4] It was known as the muslin wheel or the Hall i' th' Wood wheel^[5] from the name of the house.^[6]

Hall i' th' Wood was bought by William Lever (later Lord Leverhulme) in 1899 and was restored by Jonathan Simpson and Edward Ould.^[7] Lever gave the house to the Corporation of Bolton in 1900.^[1]

An episode of the television programme Most Haunted was filmed in the hall in 2008.^[8]

In Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833, is a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon to an engraving of a painting of the hall by William Linton.^[9] This dwells on the changes the hall has seen over the centuries.

1. ^ ^{a b c} Historic England. "Hall i' th' Wood, Bolton (1388052)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
2. ^ ^{a b} Historic England. "Hall i' th' Wood (44392)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 19 July 2012.
3. ^ Hartwell, Clare. Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East. p. 153.
4. ^ Baines, Edward (1835), History of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain, London: H. Fisher, R. Fisher, and P. Jackson
5. ^ Baines, Edward (1835), History of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain, London: H. Fisher, R. Fisher, and P. Jackson
6. ^ "Samuel Crompton 1753–1827". Retrieved 21 April 2008.
7. ^ Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2004), Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp. 153–155, ISBN 0-300-10583-5
8. ^ Karl Beattie and Bev Parr (directors) (2008). Most Haunted (TV-Series). Hall i' th' Wood: Antix Productions.
9. ^ Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1832). "picture". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833. Fisher, Son & Co.Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1832). "poetical illustration". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833. Fisher, Son & Co.

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