Werneth Hall is a Grade II* listed privately owned Jacobean manor house in

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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 A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

by a family named

. The Oldhams were relatives of the Bishop of Exeter,

Hugh Oldham Hugh Oldham ( – 25 June 1519) was an English cleric who was Bishop of Exeter (1505–19) and a notable patron of education as a founder and patron of Manchester Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Born in Lancashire to a fami ...

. Richard de Oldham was

lord of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

in 1354 and the Hall,

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

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 Ralph Cudworth ( ; 1617 – 26 June 1688) was an English Anglican clergyman, Christian Hebraist, classicist, theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is tau ...

and grandfather of the Cambridge Platonist

. The estate remained in the Cudworth family until Joshua Cudworth (d.1710) sold it to Sir Ralph Assheton (1651–1716) of Middleton in 1683. 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 John Frederick Lees (1809 – 1867) was a British landowner and Liberal Conservative politician who represented Oldham in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as a Member of Parliament from 1835 to 1837. Biography Lees was the grandson ...

(1809–1867) and George Lees. The estate included a

until around 1844 when the Hall property was separated from the land and the latter became the later public

Werneth Park Werneth Park is a public park in Oldham, Greater Manchester, Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, including a Grade II* listed #Werneth Park Community Centre, Community Centre, #Werneth Park Music Rooms, Music Rooms, #Dame Sarah Lees Memorial, ...

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. Most of the third (present) building was built between 1590 and 1625, and has been extensively altered. It is in

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

with a roof partly in Welsh

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

and partly in stone flags. There are two storeys with a cellar, a main range with two cross-wings, coped

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s and later extensions. The windows are

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed and transomed. The entrance has a moulded

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can ...

and to the left an inserted French window.

References

{{Portal bar, United Kingdom, Greater Manchester, Lancashire Grade II* listed houses Grade II* listed buildings in Manchester Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham

History

Architecture

See also

References