Wednesday 12/10. Bridge 86 to Hall Green Lock - Little Moreton Hall

We set of at 10 top walk the 'idyllic path' to Little Moreton Hall. Crossing a style

Through the field

Passed the heifer who wouldn't relinquish the path

And past the LMH farm barn

And that was as good as it got - no dells, no woods and no babbling brooks - a bit of a disappointment really.

However Little Moreton Hall didn't disappoint.

We were a little early so enjoyed the weak sunshine while we waited. l. Down on the lawn with Mow Cop in the background

A view of the house and moat, which the house looks as though it will topple into

We did a guided tour, it  was absolutely terrific, here is some of the info imparted to us.

little Moreton Hall first appears in the historical record in 1271' but the present building dates for the early 16thC. It is a moat half timbered manor house. The earliest parts of the house were built for a prosperous Cheshire landowner, one William Moreton between 1504-1508 and the remainder was constructed in stages by successive generations of Moretons over the 100 years.

The house remained in possession of the Moreton family until ownership was transferred to the National Trust in 1938.  At its greatest extent, in the mid 16thC the estate occupied 1360 acres and contained a cornmill, orchards, gardens, wood lots, grazing and farming land, a fishery and an iron bloomers with water powered hammers.

The Moretons made money and increased their landholdings the usual way - by periodically marrying it and buying land cheaply after the Black Death Epidemic and during the Dissolution of the Monastries.

The fortunes of the family, however, declined during the English Civil War when the found themselves on the losing side. William III was slung in goal and the estate confiscated in 1643 and the family had to pay and exorbitant 'fee' to get William and the estate back. And this financially ruined them. By the Will 3 karked it, in 1654 the estate was in debt to the equivalent of approx GDP 20 million in today's terms. The family's fortunes steadily declined and by the late 1670s they no longer lived at LMH, renting it out instead to a series of tenant farmers.

By 1847  most of the house was unoccupied, it's Windows boarded over and it's roof rotting.

The Dale family took over the tenancy in 1841 and were still in residence when the Hall and what was left of the estate was transferred to the NT. The Dale family continued to farm,the estate until 1945 and acted as caretakers for the NT until 1955.

So thanks to the Moretons going broke, Little Moreton Hall is largely unchanged since the early 17thC.

The north range (as they call a wing) from inside the courtyard. The windows were added in 1559

The great hall, when first built would have had an earthen floor and a fire pit in the middle of the room

The ceiling of the great hall

The south range from inside the courtyard. The top floor called the long gallery was an unplanned addition and was built directly onto the ceiling joists of the floor below and not the load bearing walls as is normal.

The building has no foundations. The wooden frame of the building rests on stone plinths that lie, or did lie on top of the ground

Added to which LMH is built on reclaimed marsh land and the gritstone roof tiles (the biggest of which are a metre square and weigh over 100kgs)  are estimated to weigh over 200 tons. Consequently LMH leans, bulges and sags all over the place.

A garderrobe, at the time the latest mod con

And looking down the hole to the moat below

This is the room off the long gallery on the top floor. It gives you a good indication of how the house leans and sags. Believe it or not, the fireplace Mantel is dead level, it's the walls that are wonky

And finally the knot garden.

We had a quick, but very delicious bite to eat in the cafe at LMH and walked back to the canal.

As soon as we got back L. Was keen to get going so we cast off immediately. While we were waiting to go through the lock at Hall Green Lawrence suggested I ring CRT re Harecastle Tunnel. Lucky we did because we would have been too late for the last passage south today. So instead of going through the lock we filled with water and L. reversed the boat onto the visitor moorings and here we will stay for the night.

1 mile 40mins.