Call to save one of city's oldest halls

TUDOR BUILDING IS 'SNAPSHOT OF LIFE 500 YEARS AGO', SAYS HISTORIAN

- LEE GRIMSDITCH

A NEW planning application has been submitted which proposes partially demolishing one of Manchester's oldest buildings to secure its future.

Hidden away behind a primary school in Moston, Hough Hall is thought to be more than 500 years old.

The ramshackle timber-framed farm house is Grade II-listed and dates back to the early 16th century. Thought to have been built in 1502 for a Moston merchant called Hugh Sherlock, Hough Hall has a rich history.

It was acquired by Sir William Radcliffe of Ordsall Hall in 1568 and passed through branches of his family for 200 years, before it was purchased by Moston landowner Colonel Samuel Taylor in 1775, and kept within that family for over 100 years, variously occupied by tenant farmers. In 1899 some of its grounds were sold to the council for the development of Moston Lane Primary School, which still stands next to it today.