Bramall Hall
Encyclopedia
Bramall Hall is a Tudor
manor house
in Bramhall
, within the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport
, Greater Manchester, England. It is a timber-framed
building, the oldest parts of which date from the 14th century, with later additions from the 16th and 19th centuries. The house, which functions as a museum, and its 70 acres (28.3 ha) of landscaped parkland with lakes, woodland, and gardens are open to the public.
Dating back to Anglo-Saxon England
, the manor of Bramall was first described in the Domesday Book
in 1086, when it was held by the Masseys. 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 before selling the estate of nearly 2,000 acres in 1877 to the Manchester Freeholders' Company, a property company formed expressly for the purpose of exploiting the estate's potential for residential building development. The Hall and a residual park of over 50 acres was sold on by the Freeholders (though not the lordship of the manor) to the Nevill family of successful industrialists. In 1925 it was purchased by John Henry Davies
, and then, in 1935, acquired by the local government authority for the area - Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council. Bramall Hall is owned now, following local government reorganisation in 1974, by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
(SMBC), which describes it as "the most prestigious and historically significant building in the Conservation Area".
, a type of shrub common in the area, and the Old English noun halh, which has several meanings – including nook, secret place and valley – that could refer to Bramall. 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. The manor was devastated during William the Conqueror's Harrying of the North
. 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.
The earliest reference to Bramhall was recorded in the Domesday Book
as "Bramale" at which time the manor was part of the Hamestan Hundred
in Cheshire. With Cheadle
and Norbury
, Bramall was one of three places described in the Domesday Book that today lie within the modern-day Metropolitan Borough of Stockport
. Whereas its value was 32 shillings before 1066, it was worth only 5 shillings by 1086.
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 the family name was changed.
, and his name derives from the Norman French
Dauen-port meaning "the town on the trickling stream", referring to his home on the River Dane
. In 1160, the family became responsible for Macclesfield Forest
, and in the early 13th century Vivian Davenport became its Grand Sergeant. The family's coat of arms
includes a man'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.
The Davenports held the manor for around 500 years, and it is likely that after their accession they built the current house. The first William Davenport was lord of the manor from 1478 to 1528, 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 third William Davenport, who succeeded his father of the same name in 1541, took part in what later became known as The Rough Wooing
, a series of attacks against Scotland ordered by Henry VIII
. He was knighted for his efforts in this campaign. 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
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. During the tenure of the fifth William, many alterations were made to the building, including the addition of a room above the Great Hall (which would later become the Withdrawing Room), and a long gallery
. 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 £ as of ), and soldiers continued to use Bramall Hall because of its convenience.
, the husband of his illegitimate daughter Maria.
Humphreys, a Naval captain, had married Maria Davenport in 1810, and lived at Bramall Hall long before he succeeded his father-in-law. 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. He moved with Maria to Cheltenham
in 1841, most likely because living at Bramall had become expensive or because of health concerns. Salusbury died there four years later and was buried in Leckhampton
.
Over the next decade the house was likely to have been let, as Maria Davenport preferred to live elsewhere. Her eldest son, William Davenport Davenport married firstly to Camilla Maria Gatt, then secondly to Diana Handley, whom he lived with at Bramall for four years before the estate was passed to him. Maria moved to London where she lived with her youngest son, Charles, and died in 1866. 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 rented out 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.
property development firm, on 3 August 1877 for £200,000 (about £ as of ). 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 carried out substantial restoration and remodelling, making the interior more comfortable while retaining most of the building's external features. The landscape of the grounds was redesigned, and a new stable was built along with a west and east lodge, housing the coachman and head gardener respectively. 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 decided to sell it following financial difficulties after the First World War. In 1923, many items of furniture were auctioned off, 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 £ as of ) for the house; this was accepted. He lived in the house until his death in 1927, and his widow Amy remained there until 1935, when she sold it to Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council
for £14,360 (worth about £ as of ) with the intention that the house and park be open to the public.
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 wander the grounds freely. Events and club meetings are held in the house and grounds throughout the year, and local schools often visit to experience life in a particular era. The house is licensed for wedding and civil partnership ceremonies, and has been used as a background for television series and films, including Prank Patrol, Cash in the Attic
, Coronation Street
and The Last Vampyre.
Although the house and the park are known by the name "Bramall", both have been spelled 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 and continued by Stockport Council. There remains, however, confusion over spelling, most often with the house being referred to as "Bramhall", the name of the village in which Bramall Hall is situated.
There has been a settlement at Bramall since Saxon times. According to Alfred Burton, who wrote about Bramall in the late 19th century, the house has not always been in the present location, and was originally at Crow Holt Wood. This theory was rejected by another historian, Frederick Moorhouse, who became convinced in 1909 that Crow Holt Wood was a place where animals would have been taken to be sorted. There is no conclusive evidence to support either theory. Today the house is situated at the top of two valleys to its south and east sides, which two streams run through. 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. The current layout of the house can clearly be seen from the west side of the building, in the courtyard: the service wing is on the left, the Great Hall is in the centre, and the Banqueting Hall is on the right. 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.
The house is built with stone foundations, and the main structure 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 black and white appearance from the timber framing
construction dates from the Tudor period, though some parts have been repaired in later years.
s in the Middle Ages, this would have been the room where the business of the house, estate and its villagers was conducted as well as a communal eating room for the household. It was originally an open-roofed, single-storey building, with a fireplace situated in the middle of the floor. It was probably first built around the end of the 14th century when the Davenports became lords of the manor. Towards the end of the 16th century, the Great Hall was substantially rebuilt, and the Withdrawing Room was created above it. A long gallery
was also added as a third storey. The history of the gallery is uncertain; it was intact in 1790 but was taken down before 1819, because it was believed to be unsafe. A similar gallery was built at Little Moreton Hall
, and it is still intact, causing the lower storeys to buckle under the weight. The Great Hall has a bay window
with leaded windows, common throughout the building. 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.
The Lesser Hall leads off the southern end of the Great Hall. Its walls are panelled with oak, and the timbers that the ceiling is constructed of are decorated with cross and rose shapes dating from the Victorian era. The Banqueting Hall, which leads off the Lesser Hall to the west, 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. The Nevills used this room as a billiards room. The Chapel, opposite the Banqueting Hall, was the only place of public worship in Bramhall for many years. Its existence was first recorded in 1541, when it was described in the will of the second William Davenport. It fell into disrepair after its closure between 1869 and 1890, and was restored by the council following their purchase of the property in 1935, and religious services began to be held there again. On the north wall are unglazed windows which face the wall of the Library, showing that the south wing was once separate from the Great Hall. The Ten Commandments
are written on the west wall. Underneath the Commandments, an older, pre-Reformation
Passion
painting, is visible. Such depictions were banned during the Reformation, and whitewashed over. It was not until the 20th century that efforts were made to restore Passion paintings, but very little of this particular painting survives.
The Ballroom
, also known as the Upper Banqueting Hall, has an arched roof and according to Dean likely dates from the 16th century. It contains rare 16th-century wall murals, including one which according to Dean may depict the nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse
", and another along the east wall depicting a man playing a mandolin
. Above the Chapel is the Chapel Room, also known as the Queen Anne Room, the Priest's Room, 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.
North of the Chapel Room is the Paradise Room, whose name derives from the bed hangings which include embroidered images of Adam and Eve
and their fall from paradise, as well as the use in Tudor times of the name "paradise" for a favourite room, often a bedchamber. This room has panelled walls, and a fireplace with a cupboard on the right hand side. On the other side there is a small recess, which was described in a 1882 newspaper as "a dark passage which is said to lead to some region unknown". 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 frieze of the Withdrawing Room incorporates shields of arms representing marriages of the Davenports.
The northern wing of Bramall came to be the service wing with the kitchen, scullery, butler's pantry, dairy and store rooms on the ground floor and the servants' bedrooms in the attic.
The house is set in 70 acres (28.3 ha) of parkland, only a part of the estate originally attached to the house, which was at one time around 2000 acres (809.4 ha). The park was used for hunting, and the grounds were home to cattle, deer and horses, until the 17th century, when it was used as agricultural land. Two water courses run through the park: the Ladybrook
, a part of the Micker Brook river, and a stream known as the Carr Brook. In the 1880s, Charles Nevill remodelled the grounds in the style of Capability Brown
by altering the course of the Ladybrook and creating artificial lakes. The lakes were filled with trout
(though they are no longer fished), and around this time, many trees were planted. In 1888, a new drive was made through the park, further south of the house than the previous drive, with the east entrance to the house itself becoming a private doorway leading into the garden, where 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.
Tudor style architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
in Bramhall
Bramhall
Bramhall is a suburb of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of about 25,500.Research by the University of Sheffield has placed Bramhall as the "least lonely" place in Britain. Bramhall is also regarded as an affluent area where most residents...
, within the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport
Metropolitan Borough of Stockport
The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in north west England, centred around the town of Stockport. It has a population of about 280,600 and includes the outyling areas of Cheadle and Cheadle Hulme, Marple, Bredbury, Reddish and Romiley...
, Greater Manchester, England. It is a timber-framed
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
building, the oldest parts of which date from the 14th century, with later additions from the 16th and 19th centuries. The house, which functions as a museum, and its 70 acres (28.3 ha) of landscaped parkland with lakes, woodland, and gardens are open to the public.
Dating back to Anglo-Saxon England
History of Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror...
, the manor of Bramall was first described in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
in 1086, when it was held by the Masseys. 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 before selling the estate of nearly 2,000 acres in 1877 to the Manchester Freeholders' Company, a property company formed expressly for the purpose of exploiting the estate's potential for residential building development. The Hall and a residual park of over 50 acres was sold on by the Freeholders (though not the lordship of the manor) to the Nevill family of successful industrialists. In 1925 it was purchased by John Henry Davies
John Henry Davies
John Henry Davies was a wealthy brewery owner who in 1902 took over the British football club Manchester United, which was then called Newton Heath. The club had massive debt at the time....
, and then, in 1935, acquired by the local government authority for the area - Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council. Bramall Hall is owned now, following local government reorganisation in 1974, by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority for the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. The council is currently in no overall control since the 2011 local elections when the Liberal Democrats lost their majority. The Liberal Democrats now have 31...
(SMBC), which describes it as "the most prestigious and historically significant building in the Conservation Area".
Early history
The name "Bramall" means "nook of land where broom grows" and is derived from the Old English noun brōm meaning broomBroom (shrub)
Brooms are a group of evergreen, semi-evergreen, and deciduous shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the legume family Fabaceae, mainly in the three genera Chamaecytisus, Cytisus and Genista, but also in many other small genera . All genera in this group are from the tribe Genisteae...
, a type of shrub common in the area, and the Old English noun halh, which has several meanings – including nook, secret place and valley – that could refer to Bramall. The manor of Bramall dates from the Anglo-Saxon period
History of Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror...
, when it was held as two separate estates owned by the Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
freemen Brun and Hacun. The manor was devastated during William the Conqueror's Harrying of the North
Harrying of the North
The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate Northern England, and is part of the Norman conquest of England...
. After William subdued the north-west of England, the land was divided among his followers and Bramall was given to Hamon de Massey
Hamon de Massey
The first Hamon de Massey was the owner of the manors of Agden, Baguley, Bowdon, Dunham, Hale and Little Bollington after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, taking over from the Saxon thegn Aelfward according to the Domesday Book....
in around 1070.
The earliest reference to Bramhall was recorded in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
as "Bramale" at which time the manor was part of the Hamestan Hundred
Hundreds of Cheshire
The Hundreds of Cheshire, as with other Hundreds in England were the geographic divisions of Cheshire for administrative, military and judicial purposes. They were introduced in Cheshire some time before the Norman conquest...
in Cheshire. With Cheadle
Cheadle, Greater Manchester
Cheadle is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester, England. It borders the districts of Cheadle Hulme, Gatley, Heald Green and Cheadle Heath in Stockport, and the East Didsbury area of Manchester. As of 2001 it had a population of 14,261.-Early history:There has...
and Norbury
Norbury, Greater Manchester
Norbury is a locality in Greater Manchester, England. It formed a civil parish in Cheshire from 1866 to 1900 and now forms part of the Hazel Grove area of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport....
, Bramall was one of three places described in the Domesday Book that today lie within the modern-day Metropolitan Borough of Stockport
Metropolitan Borough of Stockport
The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in north west England, centred around the town of Stockport. It has a population of about 280,600 and includes the outyling areas of Cheadle and Cheadle Hulme, Marple, Bredbury, Reddish and Romiley...
. Whereas its value was 32 shillings before 1066, it was worth only 5 shillings by 1086.
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 the family name was changed.
Early Davenports
The Davenports were a family of significant landowners in the north-west of England whose antecedents can be traced back to the time of the Norman conquest. Orm de Davenport lived close to what is now MartonMarton, Cheshire
Marton, Cheshire is a small village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England on the A34 road 3 miles north of Congleton ....
, and his name derives from the Norman French
Norman language
Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified as one of the northern Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon...
Dauen-port meaning "the town on the trickling stream", referring to his home on the River Dane
River Dane
The River Dane is a river mainly in Cheshire in the north west of England.The river rises in Derbyshire, close to the source of the River Goyt just to the south west of Buxton, on Axe Edge Moor...
. In 1160, the family became responsible for Macclesfield Forest
Macclesfield Forest
Macclesfield Forest is an area of woodland, predominantly conifer plantation, located around south east of Macclesfield in the civil parish of Macclesfield Forest and Wildboarclough, in Cheshire, England. The existing woodland is the last substantial remnant of the Royal Forest of Macclesfield, a...
, and in the early 13th century Vivian Davenport became its Grand Sergeant. The family's coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
includes a man'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
Henbury, Cheshire
Henbury is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census, the entire civil parish had a population of 594....
, Woodford
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford is a suburban village at the southern extent of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies south of Stockport, north-northwest of Macclesfield, and south-southeast of Manchester...
and lastly at Bramhall through marriage.
The Davenports held the manor for around 500 years, and it is likely that after their accession they built the current house. The first William Davenport was lord of the manor from 1478 to 1528, 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
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
at Bosworth and thereby instrumental in gaining the crown for Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
, 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 third William Davenport, who succeeded his father of the same name in 1541, took part in what later became known as The Rough Wooing
The Rough Wooing
The War of the Rough Wooing was fought between Scotland and England. War was declared by Henry VIII of England, in an attempt to force the Scots to agree to a marriage between his son Edward and Mary, Queen of Scots. Scotland benefited from French military aid. Edward VI continued the war until...
, a series of attacks against Scotland ordered by Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
. He was knighted for his efforts in this campaign. 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
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
at Newark
Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands region of England. It stands on the River Trent, the A1 , and the East Coast Main Line railway. The origins of the town are possibly Roman as it lies on an important Roman road, the Fosse Way...
(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. During the tenure of the fifth William, many alterations were made to the building, including the addition of a room above the Great Hall (which would later become the Withdrawing Room), and a long gallery
Long gallery
Long gallery is an architectural term given to a long, narrow room, often with a high ceiling. In British architecture, long galleries were popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses. They were often located on the upper floor of the great houses of the time, and stretched across the entire...
. 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
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
broke out. He was a Royalist
Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of government, but not necessarily a particular monarch...
, 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
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
, and ordered to pay a fine of £750 (equivalent to £ as of ), and soldiers continued to use Bramall Hall because of its convenience.
Later Davenports
The sixth William was briefly succeeded by his son Peter, who was followed by his son William. William the seventh's son was the eighth William Davenport, and an inventory of his property made shortly after his death in 1706 shows the gallery and gatehouse of Bramall were still intact. His two eldest sons each inherited the estate but both died young and heirless, so the estate passed to their younger brother Warren Davenport. Warren became part of the clergy, and during his tenure at Bramall set up a school close to the entrance of the estate. 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 HumphreysSalusbury Pryce Humphreys
Sir Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, CB, KCH was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, rising to the rank of rear-admiral....
, the husband of his illegitimate daughter Maria.
Humphreys, a Naval captain, had married Maria Davenport in 1810, and lived at Bramall Hall long before he succeeded his father-in-law. 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. He moved with Maria to Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
in 1841, most likely because living at Bramall had become expensive or because of health concerns. Salusbury died there four years later and was buried in Leckhampton
Leckhampton
Leckhampton is a district in south Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The area constitutes a civil parish and is part of the district of Cheltenham.-History:...
.
Over the next decade the house was likely to have been let, as Maria Davenport preferred to live elsewhere. Her eldest son, William Davenport Davenport married firstly to Camilla Maria Gatt, then secondly to Diana Handley, whom he lived with at Bramall for four years before the estate was passed to him. Maria moved to London where she lived with her youngest son, Charles, and died in 1866. 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 rented out 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.
Later history
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 ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
property development firm, on 3 August 1877 for £200,000 (about £ as of ). 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 carried out substantial restoration and remodelling, making the interior more comfortable while retaining most of the building's external features. The landscape of the grounds was redesigned, and a new stable was built along with a west and east lodge, housing the coachman and head gardener respectively. 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 decided to sell it following financial difficulties after the First World War. In 1923, many items of furniture were auctioned off, 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
Kate Douglas Wiggin
Kate Douglas Wiggin was an American educator and author of children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878...
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
John Henry Davies
John Henry Davies was a wealthy brewery owner who in 1902 took over the British football club Manchester United, which was then called Newton Heath. The club had massive debt at the time....
, president of Manchester United, later offered £15,000 (about £ as of ) for the house; this was accepted. He lived in the house until his death in 1927, and his widow Amy remained there until 1935, when she sold it to Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council
Hazel Grove and Bramhall
Hazel Grove and Bramhall was a civil parish and urban district in north east Cheshire, England from 1900 to 1974.It was created in 1900 covering, from Stockport Rural District, the former area of the civil parishes of:*Bosden*Bramhall*Norbury*Offerton...
for £14,360 (worth about £ as of ) with the intention that the house and park be open to the public.
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
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
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
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority for the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. The council is currently in no overall control since the 2011 local elections when the Liberal Democrats lost their majority. The Liberal Democrats now have 31...
(SMBC), which acquired it in 1974, following local government reorganisation.
Present day
Cash in the Attic
Cash in the Attic, also Cash in the Celebrity Attic, is a UK television show on the BBC. The show, made by , premièred in 2002 and has run for sixteen series; as of February 2010, the seventeenth series is currently in production, along with the fifth celebrity series...
, Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
and The Last Vampyre.
Although the house and the park are known by the name "Bramall", both have been spelled 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 and continued by Stockport Council. There remains, however, confusion over spelling, most often with the house being referred to as "Bramhall", the name of the village in which Bramall Hall is situated.
House
The house is built with stone foundations, and the main structure is made of oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
timbers, joined together using mortice and tenon joints
Woodworking joints
Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining together pieces of wood, to create furniture, structures, toys, and other items. Some wood joints employ fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, while others use only wood elements. The characteristics of wooden joints - strength, flexibility,...
, and held in place with oak pegs. Wattle and daub
Wattle and daub
Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw...
or lath
Lath
A lath is a thin, narrow strip of some straight-grained wood or other material, including metal or gypsum. A lattice, or lattice-work, is a criss-crossed or interlaced arrangement of laths, or the pattern made by such an arrangement...
and plaster
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
are used to fill the spaces between the timbers. The black and white appearance from the timber framing
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
construction dates from the Tudor period, though some parts have been repaired in later years.
Ground floor
The Great Hall is the central part of Bramall Hall. As with typical great hallGreat hall
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, nobleman's castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages, and in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At that time the word great simply meant big, and had not acquired its modern connotations of excellence...
s in the Middle Ages, this would have been the room where the business of the house, estate and its villagers was conducted as well as a communal eating room for the household. It was originally an open-roofed, single-storey building, with a fireplace situated in the middle of the floor. It was probably first built around the end of the 14th century when the Davenports became lords of the manor. Towards the end of the 16th century, the Great Hall was substantially rebuilt, and the Withdrawing Room was created above it. A long gallery
Long gallery
Long gallery is an architectural term given to a long, narrow room, often with a high ceiling. In British architecture, long galleries were popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses. They were often located on the upper floor of the great houses of the time, and stretched across the entire...
was also added as a third storey. The history of the gallery is uncertain; it was intact in 1790 but was taken down before 1819, because it was believed to be unsafe. A similar gallery was built at Little Moreton Hall
Little Moreton Hall
Little Moreton Hall is a moated 15th and 16th-century half-timbered manor house southwest of Congleton, Cheshire. It is one of the finest examples of timber-framed domestic architecture in England. The house is today owned by the National Trust. It has been designated by English Heritage as a...
, and it is still intact, causing the lower storeys to buckle under the weight. The Great Hall has a bay window
Bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room, either square or polygonal in plan. The angles most commonly used on the inside corners of the bay are 90, 135 and 150 degrees. Bay windows are often associated with Victorian architecture...
with leaded windows, common throughout the building. William Harrison Ainsworth
William Harrison Ainsworth
William Harrison Ainsworth was an English historical novelist born in Manchester. He trained as a lawyer, but the legal profession held no attraction for him. While completing his legal studies in London he met the publisher John Ebers, at that time manager of the King's Theatre, Haymarket...
wrote about a right of way through the Great Hall, in his 1834 novel Rookwood
Rookwood (novel)
Rookwood is a novel by William Harrison Ainsworth published in 1834. It is a historical and gothic romance that describes a dispute over the legitimate claim for the inheritance of Rookwood Place and the Rookwood family name.-Background:...
. 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.
The Lesser Hall leads off the southern end of the Great Hall. Its walls are panelled with oak, and the timbers that the ceiling is constructed of are decorated with cross and rose shapes dating from the Victorian era. The Banqueting Hall, which leads off the Lesser Hall to the west, 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. The Nevills used this room as a billiards room. The Chapel, opposite the Banqueting Hall, was the only place of public worship in Bramhall for many years. Its existence was first recorded in 1541, when it was described in the will of the second William Davenport. It fell into disrepair after its closure between 1869 and 1890, and was restored by the council following their purchase of the property in 1935, and religious services began to be held there again. On the north wall are unglazed windows which face the wall of the Library, showing that the south wing was once separate from the Great Hall. The Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
are written on the west wall. Underneath the Commandments, an older, pre-Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
Passion
Passion (Christianity)
The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
painting, is visible. Such depictions were banned during the Reformation, and whitewashed over. It was not until the 20th century that efforts were made to restore Passion paintings, but very little of this particular painting survives.
First floor
Ballroom
A ballroom is a large room inside a building, the designated purpose of which is holding formal dances called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions contain one or more ballrooms...
, also known as the Upper Banqueting Hall, has an arched roof and according to Dean likely dates from the 16th century. It contains rare 16th-century wall murals, including one which according to Dean may depict the nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse
Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
"Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross" is an English language nursery rhyme connected with the English town Banbury. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 21143.-Lyrics:Common modern versions include:Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,...
", and another along the east wall depicting a man playing a mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
. Above the Chapel is the Chapel Room, also known as the Queen Anne Room, the Priest's Room, and Nevill's Room. It had been two rooms, a state bedroom and ante-room
Antechamber
An antechamber is a smaller room or vestibule serving as an entryway into a larger one. The word is formed of the Latin ante camera, meaning "room before"....
, 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
Priest hole
"Priest hole" is the term given to hiding places for priests built into many of the principal Catholic houses of England during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law in England, from the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558....
, 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.
North of the Chapel Room is the Paradise Room, whose name derives from the bed hangings which include embroidered images of Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
and their fall from paradise, as well as the use in Tudor times of the name "paradise" for a favourite room, often a bedchamber. This room has panelled walls, and a fireplace with a cupboard on the right hand side. On the other side there is a small recess, which was described in a 1882 newspaper as "a dark passage which is said to lead to some region unknown". 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 frieze of the Withdrawing Room incorporates shields of arms representing marriages of the Davenports.
The northern wing of Bramall came to be the service wing with the kitchen, scullery, butler's pantry, dairy and store rooms on the ground floor and the servants' bedrooms in the attic.
Grounds
Micker Brook
Micker Brook is a minor river in Cheshire and Greater Manchester, England.Known early in its course as Bollinhurst Brook and Norbury Brook, then Lady Brook, the river runs westward and northward through Hazel Grove, Bramhall and Cheadle. It joins the River Mersey close to Junction 3 of the M60...
, a part of the Micker Brook river, and a stream known as the Carr Brook. In the 1880s, Charles Nevill remodelled the grounds in the style of Capability Brown
Capability Brown
Lancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...
by altering the course of the Ladybrook and creating artificial lakes. The lakes were filled with trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
(though they are no longer fished), and around this time, many trees were planted. In 1888, a new drive was made through the park, further south of the house than the previous drive, with the east entrance to the house itself becoming a private doorway leading into the garden, where 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.