Manley Hall was a large house in

Whalley Range, Manchester Whalley Range is an area of Manchester, England, about southwest of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 15,430. Historically in Lancashire, it was one of the earliest of the city's suburbs, built by local businessman Samuel ...

. It was a two-storey

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italia ...

building with fifty rooms, very grandly furnished and with a

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

collection. It stood in of exotic gardens with artificial lakes and many greenhouses in which

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

s were grown. The house was built for the wealthy businessman

Samuel Mendel Sam Mendel (1811–1884), the "Merchant Prince", was one of the leading merchants in Manchester during its rise to industrial prominence. He was born in Liverpool, but the family soon relocated to Manchester where his father, Emmanuel, established ...

and was completed in 1857. Mendel occupied the house from 1858. Born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

of Jewish origin he was the so-called "Merchant Prince" of Manchester's

textile industry The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry. Industry process Cotton manufac ...

, who made a fortune by providing the fastest export routes round the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is ...

to India and Australia. At the height of his commercial success he converted from

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

High Church The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originat ...

Anglicanism, and became a significant local figure as trustee of

St Clement's Church, Chorlton-cum-Hardy St Clement's Church is an active Anglican parish church in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England. Its daughter church, St Barnabas (opened 1951), serves the Barlow Moor estate and south Chorlton. St Clement's is in the Hulme deanery in the dio ...

, despite Manley Hall being outside the Parish boundary. When the Suez Canal opened in 1869 he lost his commercial advantage and in 1875 was forced to sell Manley Hall and its contents. The contents of the house were sold in an auction that lasted five days. A second sale was held on 9 July 1879 by order of the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

for the

County Palatine In England, Wales and Ireland a county palatine or palatinate was an area ruled by a hereditary nobleman enjoying special authority and autonomy from the rest of a kingdom. The name derives from the Latin adjective ''palātīnus'', "relating t ...

and was bought by Mendell for £85,000. In 1879 a company formed to buy the estate and turn the gardens into a public pleasure park which failed after two years. Its most famous visitor was "

Buffalo Bill William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but he lived for several years ...

's Wild West Show". The grounds were then progressively sold for housing and the hall itself finally demolished in 1905. Manley Park playing fields is the only part of the original grounds which has not been built over.

References

Notes Bibliography *

External links

Photograph of Hall on FlickrPictures of House
{{Coord, 53, 26, 58, N, 2, 16, 3, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title History of Manchester Demolished buildings and structures in Manchester Former buildings and structures in Manchester Country houses in Greater Manchester British country houses destroyed in the 20th century Buildings and structures demolished in 1905