Bramall Hall

Bramall Hall, from the west. This is the main entrance side. The courtyard can be seen, as well as the north and south wings. In the centre is the Great Hall.

Bramall Hall (often misspelt as Bramhall Hall) is a Tudor mansion located in Bramhall, Stockport, England. It is a timber framed manor house located in the middle of 70 acres (28 ha) of landscaped parkland featuring lakes, woodland walks and gardens. Dating back to Saxon times, the Hall has passed through the hands of the families Massey, Davenport, Nevill and Davies. Today it is run by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, and the Hall and grounds are open to the public.

The house dates from the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, and is constructed of oak timber framing, which was originally infilled by wattle and daub. The building also has motifs from the Victorian era.

Bramall Hall is one of the area's main attractions for tourists. Many school parties visit the house which has an education team recreating the daily life of life in Tudor England. The children are encouraged to dress as and role play the lives of young residents of Tudor England. Bramall Hall is popular too with people in the area due to its historical significance and extensive grounds.

History

Bramall Hall from a postcard in 1819. At this time, it had yet to get its current black and white appearance.

The manor of Bramall dates from the Saxon period, when it was held as two separate manors owned by two Saxon freemen, Brun and Hacun. In 1070, William the Conqueror subdued the north-west of England, and divided the land among his followers. The manor of "Bramale" was given to Hamon de Massey, who eventually became the first Baron of Dunham Massey. The earliest reference to Bramall was recorded in the Domesday Book as "Bramale", a name derived from the Old English words brom meaning broom, both indigenous to the area, and halh meaning nook or secret place, probably by water. When de Masci received the manor, it was wasteland, having been devastated by William the Conqueror's harsh subdual. By the time of the Domesday survey, the land was recovering and cultivated again.

The de Bromales

The founder of this family was probably a follower or relative of the first Hamon de Massey. About the time of Henry II the land passed from the second Baron of Dunham Massey to Matthew de Bromale, one of his kinsmen who took his name from the land he had received. Matthew's father is said to have held the land previously, and may have been the kinsman of the first Hamon de Massey. Matthew was succeeded by his grandson Richard, and then two subsequent Richards, the second dying without issue. He was succeeded by his younger brother Geoffrey, who had two daughters Alice and Ellen. Alice eventually inherited the land, and married John de Davenport of Wheltrough circa 1370 - 1380, thus changing the family name to Davenport.

The Davenports

The Davenport family can be traced back to Orm de Davenport, who lived around the time of William the Conqueror. The name "Davenport" comes from "Dauen-port", meaning "the town on the trickling stream", where he lived. The family soon became important landowners, and in the early thirteenth century the office of grand sergeant of Macclesfield was granted to Vivian Davenport. Over the next hundred years, various branches of the family became established at Wheltrough, Henbury, Woodford and finally at Bramhall. Robert, the son of John and Alice was the first Davenport of Bramhall. His grandson, John succeeded him, and was lord of the manor from 1436 to 1478. Succeeding John were five Williams, the first who was lord of the manor from 1478 to 1528. He took an active part in the Battle of Bosworth, which ended the Wars of the Roses and put Henry VII on the throne. The following year, on 3 September 1486 William was granted an annuity of 20 marks a year for life, as a recognition of his services. About ten years later one of William's houses was destroyed by Randle Hassall, who carried off the timber. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and it is probable that the house destroyed was Bramall. This supports the theory that Bramall was rebuilt around the time of Henry VII. The first William Davenport was also notable for being one of the original trustees of the Macclesfield Grammar School. The second William Davenport is more memorable for his death than his life. His will, dated 1 June 1541 provides the first known record of the chapel:

I will that myne executo[rs] cause an honest priest to celebrate masse and other devine services for the soulles of me my father my mother my aunceto[rs] and all Christen soulles in the church of Stopford and chappell of Bromall by the space of one wholle yeare next after my deathe ffor convenienr wage to do so...

An inventory of William's belongings was made in 1541, and shows that he was a wealthy man. There is mention of a "yate house chamber", showing that at this date there was a fourth side to the Hall, with an entrance by a gatehouse. There is also mention of a "chapell chamber", the room above the chapel, which may have been the priest's room. The third William Davenport succeeded his father, and it was he who was the originator of the Bramhall heraldic tapestry. Shields depicting various marriages are commemorated on it, and its arrangement makes it appear as though it was intended to be a cover of some sort, possibly for the high table. His son, another William who succeeded in 1576 was lord for nine years. It would have been during his time that a priest's hide would have been built at Bramall, and it would have been done on this William Davenport's orders. He and his wife Margaret were both Catholic, so it seems fairly likely that this happened. The fifth William Davenport inherited Bramall in 1585, and lived there with his wife Dorothy for nearly fify five years. The first marriage at Bramall was recorded at this time, and it was of William, the eldest son of William and Dorothy, and Frances Wilbraham. William was fifteen and Frances was eleven, and the entry of the marriage was made in the register of Stockport Parish Church. On 22 April 1603 the fifth William Davenport was knighted by James I at Newark, where the king was staying on his six week journey from Edinburgh to London.

From 1869 to 1876, the Hall was leased to Wakefield Christy, a member of the well-known Stockport hatting firm. John William Handley Davenport became the legal owner in 1876, but on 24 January 1877 it was announced the estate had been arranged to be sold. Much of the furniture was auctioned, and some of these pieces can be seen at Capesthorne Hall in Cheshire. The Hall itself, and rest of the Bramall estate totalling 1918 acres was sold to Freeholders Company Limited, a Manchester property development firm, on 3 August 1877 for £200,000. It remained empty until 1882 when it was purchased by Thomas Nevill, a local industrialist whose wealth came from calico printing, as a wedding present for his son, Charles Nevill. While living in the Hall, Charles carried out substantial restoration and remodelling of the building as well as redesigning the landscaping of its grounds. Most notably, the interior was made more comfortable while retaining most of the building's external features, with the assistance of the architect George Faulkener Armitage.

The Hall remained in the Nevill family until 1925, when with changing fortunes after the first world war the family were forced to sell the estate to John Henry Davies. He lived in the Hall until his death in 1927, and his widow Amy remained in the property until 1935 when she sold it to Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council with the intention that the Hall and Park should be open to the public.

Following local government reorganisation, the estate became the property of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council in 1974 and has remained so ever since.

Building

The east side of Bramall Hall. This side was the original entrance before the road through the park was rebuilt.

There has been a settlement at Bramall since Saxon times. The current Hall has not always been in the current location, having been built there around the fourteenth century. Legend gives site of the original dwelling of the Bromales as Crow Holt Wood, where artificial ditches which remain today are thought to have come from a moat. The current Hall is a grade I listed building, and the oldest surviving parts date from the late fourteenth century, with extensive additions and alterations from the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is built with foundations of stone, but the main part is made of oak timbers, joined together using mortice and tenon joints, and held in place with oak pegs. Wattle and daub or lath and plaster are used to fill the spaces between the timbers. The Hall was originally approached on the east side; the drive followed the route of the Ladybrook stream, crossed the Carrbrook and went uphill towards the chapel on the south side, reaching the courtyard on the other side. Today the main entrance in on the west, on the side of the courtyard. The gables date from the nineteenth century, and are an imitation of nearby Little Moreton Hall. The current layout can clearly be seen from the west side of the building: the service wing is on the left, the Great Hall is in the centre, and the solar wing is on the right. The service, or north wing contains servants' hall and working quarters, with bedroom accommodation upstairs. The rooms are small, badly lit, and poorly arranged. They have been remodelled so much over the years, little antiquity remains in this area. However, the roof timbers are still entact, and indicate this wing is as old as the rest of the Hall. There was a gatehouse on the west side, and it formed a courtyard in the centre. It was built for defence purposes, but in the late eighteenth century it was no longer necessary or fashionable, and was thus removed.

Ground floor

A plan of the ground floor.

The Great Hall is the central part of Bramall, and in the middle ages, this is the place where everyone would gather. It was originally an open-roofed, single storey building with two cross wings, and was floored over in the sixteenth century. It was largely rebuilt with the withdrawing room constructed above it towards the end of the sixteenth century, and a long gallery was later added as a third storey. The gallery was in existence in 1790, however it was taken down before 1819, because it was considered unsafe. There was once a belief that there was a right of way through the Hall, popularised by Harrison Ainsworth in the mid-nineteenth century. He wrote that the road took the traveller through the Great Hall, where he was entertained, and sometimes refreshed. Tradition also claims that food from the buttery hatch was handed out to the poor who had gathered in the front porch. There is however no evidence for any right of way through the Hall. The banqueting room, which leads off the Lesser Hall was built in the early fifteenth century, and in the nineteenth century it was used as a billiards room. Its northern wall is possibly the oldest part of the present hall, having not been renovated like the rest of the courtyard walls. The chapel, opposite the Banqueting Room was the only place of public worship in Bramhall for many centuries. It was closed some time between 1869 and 1890, and later dismantled. In 1938 it was restored, and religious services were resumed. On the north wall are unglazed windows which face the wall of the library. The origin of these is obscure, but they do provide evidence that the south wing was once separate from the Great Hall. On the west wall are written the Ten Commandments. Much of it has faded away now, and in doing so an even older painting has been revealed. It is a pre-Reformation passion painting. These were outlawed following the Reformation, and whitewashed over. It was only in the twentieth century that an effort was made to restore these paintings, but very little of this painting survived.

First floor

The ballroom, or upper banqueting hall dates from the late fifteenth century. It contains rare sixteenth century wall paintings depicting various scenes, painted directly on to the wood. There is one depicting the nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse", and along the east wall there is a mural of a man with a mandoline, playing music from a scroll held by a lady wearing a long gown. There may have once been a musicians' gallery there. Above the Chapel is the Chapel Room, or Queen Anne Room. In its current form it is almost all nineteenth century in origin. The room was divided in two during the Davenport days, the first part being the anteroom, and the second larger part being the state bedroom. The room also became known as the Priest's Room, being directly over the chapel, it is most likely a priest would have used this room, if there was ever one resident at Bramall. The Plaster Room is named after what would have been the original flooring. It contains the most important item in the Hall, a large table carpet dating from the 1560s, depicting the coats of arms of Elizabeth I and the Davenports with their marriage alliances. The Paradise Room is named after the bed hangings which contain embroidered images of Adam and Eve and their fall from paradise, as well as the fact paradise was a name used in the middle ages for a bedchamber or favourite room. There is a cupboard on the right hand side of the fireplace, and on the other side there is a large cavity which until recently was hidden by modern boarding. A description from 1882 describes it as

...a dark passage which is said to lead to some region unknown...

This is the most likely place in Bramall a priest's hide could be found, in the thick wall of the chimney breast, near to the chapel and chapel room. By the nineteenth century this room had earned the alternative name "the ghost room" due to the frequent stories of sightings coming from it. There have also been stories of a secret passage leading from the paradise room to the drive outside, or down to the chapel, but they are only imaginative tales. The largest upstairs room is the Withdrawing Room, and is situated above the Great Hall. It was built for William Davenport, and dates from 1592. It contains Davenport family portraits and a plaster ceiling. There is an overmantel bearing the arms of Elizabeth I above the fireplace, and tradition has it that it was presented by the queen herself as a thank you for hospitality received. However, there is no evidence for this, the queen only likely to ever have come as far north as Chester.

Name

The area around Bramall is Bramhall, but the correct name of the Hall is without the "h". The Domesday book spells Bramall as "Bramale", and the current spelling was preferred by Charles Nevill, as well as Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council, so "Bramall" became the correct spelling. It is often still confused however.

Land

Part of the grounds and lakes.

The Hall is set in 70 acres of parkland, which have been landscaped in the style of Capability Brown. The park was originally an estate attached to the Hall, and would have served as a deer park, stocked with deer and used as a hunting ground. From the seventeenth century, the park was gradually converted into agricultural land. In the 1880s Charles Nevill remodelled the park into what can be seen today, creating the lakes by altering the course of the Ladybrook. A new road through the park was built in the spring and summer of 1888, which was taken well away from the Hall. The east entrance was turned into a private doorway leading into the garden, where Charles Nevill laid out terraces.

There have been a number of archaeological finds in and around Bramall, including an early Bronze Age arrowhead and flints. The park contains substantial mature woodland and open grassland, which provide a natural boundary, as well as two lakes.

Notes

53.374055°N 2.16653°W / 53.374055; -2.16653

References

• Ainsworth, Harrison (1834). Rookwood. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard.
• Campbell, W. (1873–1877). Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link) (Roll series, no.60)
• Dean, E. Barbara (1977). Bramall Hall: The Story of an Elizabethan Manor House. Stockport: Recreation & Culture Division, Metropolitan Borough Council of Stockport. ISBN 0905164067.
• Earwaker, J.P. (1877). East Cheshire Past and Present. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Nichols, J. (1828). The Progresses of King James I.
• Ormerod, George (1980). The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester. Manchester: E. J. Morten Publishers. ISBN 0859720454.
• Piccope, G.J. (1855). Lancs. & Ches. Wills and Inventories. Chetham Society.
• Watson, John. Survey of Bramhall.

External links

• Bramall Hall