Bramall Hall

Building in Greater Manchester, England

Bramall Hall is a largely Tudor manor house in Bramhall, Greater Manchester, England. The building is timber framed and its oldest parts date from the 14th century, with additions from the 16th and 19th centuries. The house functions as a museum and its of landscaped parkland (Bramhall Park) are open to the public. The manor of Bramall was first described in the Domesday Book in 1086, when it was held by the Massey family. From the late 14th century, it was owned by the Davenports, who built the present house and remained lords of the manor for about 500 years. In 1877, they sold the estate of nearly to the Manchester Freeholders' Company, a property company formed to exploit the estate's potential for residential building development. The hall and a residual park of over was sold on by the Freeholders to the Nevill family of successful industrialists. In 1925, it was purchased by John Henry Davies and then, in 1935, acquired by Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council. Following a local government reorganisation in 1974, Bramall Hall is now owned by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, which describes it as "the most prestigious and historically significant building in the Bramhall Park Conservation Area." The manor of Bramall dates from the Anglo Saxon period, when it was held as two separate estates owned by the Anglo Saxon freemen Brun and Hacun. After William subdued the north west of England, the land was divided among his followers and Bramall was given to Hamon de Massey in around 1070. In the first part of the 12th century, the manor passed from the second Baron of Dunham Massey to Matthew de Bromale. According to Dean, Matthew's father is said to have founded the de Bromale family, naming himself after the manor, and he may have been related to or a follower of the de Masseys. He may have also held the manor at some point. The de Bromales held the manor until 1370 when Alice de Bromale married John de Davenport, and so the estate came to be held by the Davenport family until the late 19th century. In 1160, the family became responsible for Macclesfield Forest, and in the early 13th century Vivian Davenport became its Grand Sergeant. The family's achievement of arms has, as the crest, a felon's head with a rope around the neck, which is said to represent the family's power over life and death during this period. The Davenports acquired land throughout the area, notably at Wheltrough, Henbury, Woodford and lastly at Bramhall through marriage. and one of the first recorded trustees of Macclesfield Grammar School. It is possible that he was heavily involved in the final battle of the Wars of the Roses at Bosworth and thereby instrumental in gaining the crown for Henry VII, who rewarded him with a pension of 20 marks per year payable for his lifetime. According to Dean, it was during this first William's tenure that Bramall may have been vandalised by a man named Randle Hassall, who destroyed all or part of nine houses and stole the timber. This gives credence to the theory that Bramall was rebuilt, replacing or partially replacing an older building. The fifth William Davenport inherited Bramall in 1585 from his father of the same name, and lived there with his wife Dorothy for over 50 years. The first marriage in Bramall's chapel was recorded in 1599, between William (aged 15), eldest son of the fifth William and Dorothy, and Frances Wilbraham (aged 11). On 22 April 1603, the fifth William Davenport was knighted by James I and VI at Newark (where the king was staying on his journey from Edinburgh to London) and later became the High Sheriff of Cheshire and a commissioner of the Hundred of Macclesfield. The internal decorations were also updated with additions such as wall paintings and portraits. The sixth William succeeded his father in 1639 shortly before the English Civil War broke out. He was a Royalist, though said not to have been a particularly dedicated one. Many of his tenants became Parliamentarian soldiers, and over the next three years he had numerous visits from Parliamentarian soldiers, mostly seeking to acquire goods such as horses and weapons for the war, and using the house for quartering soldiers. Bramall was also host to Royalist soldiers, who confiscated some of the Davenport property for use in the war. William Davenport was at one point charged with delinquency, and ordered to pay a fine of £750 (equivalent to £ in ),

The sixth William was briefly succeeded by his son Peter, William the seventh's son was the eighth William Davenport, His two eldest sons each inherited the estate but both died young and heirless, The tenth and final William Davenport succeeded his father, Warren at the age of four. Many changes were made to the house during his tenure, including the dismantling of the gatehouse side of the courtyard and the long gallery, the latter of which may have been done because of their being considered unsafe. William had no sons, so the estate passed to Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, the husband of his illegitimate daughter Maria. He became widely respected in the Stockport area, but following his succession to the estate in 1829, there were disputes from other members of the Davenport family who claimed a right to the property. Edmund Davenport, who claimed ancestry from Thomas Davenport, the third son of Peter, unsuccessfully contested the succession in two different courts; Edmund was eventually imprisoned for failing to pay the legal fees. Humphreys was knighted in 1834 for his services, and in 1838 changed his name to Davenport, in an effort to continue the Davenport line. Over the next decade, the house was likely to have been let, as Maria Davenport preferred to live elsewhere. Her eldest son, William Davenport, married firstly to Camilla Maria Gatt and then secondly to Diana Handley, During William's tenure Bramall was regularly visited by members of the public, and the Chapel continued to be used for regular services of worship. However, following his death in 1869, the property was let to Wakefield Christy of Christys & Co Hatting, therefore ending direct involvement from the Davenport family. This occurred because William's son, John, was too young to inherit the estate. John's whereabouts during Christy's seven year tenure is unknown, though he was shown as a visitor at Bramall in 1871, and in 1874 became the first chairman of the Bramhall School Board. In 1876, shortly before he returned to the house, he was listed as living on Ack Lane in Bramhall.

John Davenport returned to Bramall in 1876 at the age of 25, but on 24 January 1877 it was announced that the estate was to be sold. The furniture was auctioned, while the house itself and rest of the Bramall estate (totalling ) was sold to the Freeholders Company Limited, a Manchester property development firm, on 3 August 1877 for £200,000 (about £ in ). According to speculation, the sale was motivated by financial issues and a personal distaste of the building. It remained empty until 1882 when it was purchased by Thomas Nevill, a local industrialist whose wealth came from calico printing, for his son, Charles. While living in the house, Charles Nevill commissioned substantial restoration and remodelling, making the interior more comfortable while retaining most of the building's external features, under the direction of architect George Faulkner Armitage. Another building, known as Hall Cottage, was also built in the vicinity, and housed the Sidebottom family. Thomas Nevill, Charles' nephew and adopted son, inherited the estate in 1916, but there was no interest in purchase of the house. During that decade rumours arose that Bramall would be dismantled and transported to the United States; this may have been popularised by the autobiography of Kate Douglas Wiggin, which described the author's visit to Bramall in 1890. In 1925, the house was auctioned, with the condition that if no purchaser came forward it would be demolished and the materials sold off. At one point the neighbouring local authority, Stockport County Borough Council, offered to buy the estate, but Nevill rejected their offer as "unacceptable". The auction received no acceptable offers. However, one of those present, John Henry Davies, president of Manchester United, later offered £15,000 (about £ in ) for the house; this was accepted. He lived in the house until his death in 1927, and his widow Amy remained there until 1935,

Under council ownership, the house was occupied by a caretaker, though most of the building was open to the public. The house and grounds were used for various functions, such as the proclamation of George VI succeeding his brother King Edward VIII to the throne. At that time, the house was sparsely furnished as the council was unable to afford much furniture. One of the council's earliest projects was the restoration of the chapel, which had fallen out of use towards the end of the 19th century. It was restored to resemble how it would have been when the Davenports were last at Bramall, and a service of consecration was held on 30 October 1938 once the work had been completed. In 1947, an association called the Friends of Bramall Hall was set up, primarily to find furnishings for the house, but also to advertise and assist in the upkeep of the house and grounds. Over the years, many furnishings which had once belonged to the house were returned, including portraits of the occupants. The estate is now the property of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC), which acquired it in 1974, following local government reorganisation.

The house and grounds are open to the public and are run by SMBC. Visitors may take an official tour of the house or explore it at their own pace on a self guided basis. The public is able to wander the grounds freely at all times. Events and club meetings are held in the house and grounds throughout the year, and has been used as a background for television series and films, including Prank Patrol, Cash in the Attic, Coronation Street, The Making of a Lady and The Last Vampyre. Currently the house is named "Bramall" while the park is named "Bramhall", though there remain some local inconsistencies. However, both have been spelt as "Bramhall", "Bramal" and other variations over the years. The Domesday Book used the spelling "Bramale", which led Charles Nevill to prefer "Bramall", a convention maintained by Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council when it acquired the property. Today the house has stream valleys to its south and east sides. It is a grade I listed building, and the oldest parts date from the late 14th century, with later renovations dating from the 16th and 19th centuries. It was originally accessed from the east side – the drive followed the route of the Ladybrook stream, then uphill towards the chapel on the south side, reaching the courtyard on the other side. The main entrance is now on the side of the courtyard, in the west, because of the restructuring of the drive in 1888. Before the 19th century, the courtyard was enclosed by a gatehouse which was taken down between 1774 and 1819, because of its being neither required nor in vogue. It was probably first built around the end of the 14th century when the Davenports became lords of the manor. because it was believed to be unsafe. William Harrison Ainsworth wrote about a right of way through the Great Hall, in his 1834 novel Rookwood. He described how a traveller could pass through the Great Hall, and be entertained and sometimes refreshed. He described Bramall as "[the] best specimen of its class  its class, in our opinion, is the best  to be met with in Cheshire". No evidence exists for any such right of way. According to another tale, food from the buttery hatch was given to the poor who congregated outside. is believed by Dean to be the oldest part of the house. Its northern wall is possibly the oldest part of the house, not having been renovated like the rest of the courtyard walls. Its existence was first recorded in 1541, when it was referred to in the will of the second William Davenport. and Nevill's Room. It had been two rooms, a state bedroom and ante room, but was almost totally transformed in the late 19th century into one larger room. A blocked up door next to the fireplace was thought to have been a priest hole, but is more likely to have been the entrance to the first floor of the house from an external staircase before the wing was restructured, probably in the late 16th century or the early 17th century. It is possible that this was a priest's hide, adjacent to the Chapel and Chapel Room. Less romantically, it may, alternatively, have been a garderobe or privy. This room became associated with sightings of ghosts in the 19th century, and legends of a secret passage that led from the room outside or to the Chapel arose, though no such passages exist. The largest room on the first floor is the Withdrawing Room, situated above the Great Hall. It has an elaborate plaster ceiling, and the overmantel above the fireplace bears the arms of Queen Elizabeth I.

The house is set in around of parkland, until the 17th century, when it was used as agricultural land. Two water courses run through the park: the Ladybrook, which, a little beyond the Park, becomes the Micker Brook, before flowing into the River Mersey, and a stream known as the Carr Brook. In the 1880s, Charles Nevill remodelled the grounds in the Romantic Victorian taste, altering the course of the Ladybrook, adding considerably to the trees in the park In 1888, a new drive was made through the park, a few yards further to the south of the house than the previous drive, and below the East Front of the house Nevill set out terraces. The park is open to the public and features woodland, open grass areas, gardens, a café, a bowling green, and children's play areas.