Clayton Hall

Clayton Hall
Clayton Hall
Location within Greater Manchester
General information
Town or city	Clayton, Greater Manchester
Country	England
Coordinates	53°29′01″N 2°10′46″W / 53.483513°N 2.17945°W / 53.483513; -2.17945
Completed	15th century

Clayton Hall is a 15th-century manor house on Ashton New Road, in Clayton, Manchester, England. It is hidden behind trees in a small park. The hall is a Grade II* listed building, the mound on which it is built is a scheduled ancient monument, and a rare example of a medieval moated site (grid reference SJ88099857). The hall is surrounded by a moat, making an island 66 m by 74 m. Alterations were made to the hall in the 16th and 17th centuries, and it was enlarged in the 18th century.

The building has a Georgian and a Tudor half and is the remaining wing of a larger complex. The Hall is reached across the moat over a listed stone bridge. The building is now run by the Clayton Hall Living History Museum Trust. The trust has been set up to administer the hall and to get funds to maintain and improve the hall for the public.

The trustees have dressed the Georgian side of the hall as though its Victorian occupants still live there. They usually open the hall for free to the public on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of most months. However, when there are events these are usually paid entry.

Clayton Hall was built in the 15th century on the site of a 12th-century house built for the Clayton family. When Cecilia Clayton married Robert de Byron in 1194 it passed to the Byron family, of which poet Lord Byron was a member. The Byrons lived there for more than 400 years until they sold it for £4,700 in 1620 to London merchants, George and Humphrey Chetham, who originated from Manchester. George Chetham died in 1625, leaving his share to his brother Humphrey who founded Chethams School and Library in the centre of Manchester. Humphrey Chetham died at the hall in 1653 and ownership passed to his nephew, George Chetham, son of his brother James.

George Chetham was High Sheriff for 1660 and died in 1664. In 1666 James Chetham had 18 hearths liable for hearth tax, making it the largest house in the area. Clayton Hall then passed to Edward Chetham, and from him to his sister Alice, who had married Adam Bland. Their daughter Mary married Mordecai Greene, a Spanish merchant and their only son James was MP for Arundel in 1796 and died in 1814. Clayton Hall then passed with Turton Tower, the other Chetham seat to one of James' five daughters Arabella Penelope Eliza Greene, who had married banker Peter Richard Hoare.