Hall-i'-th'-Wood
Hall i' th' Wood
Building in Greater Manchester, England
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.
