Hardly the gates of paradise

[lettie]

There was a lodge/reservoir off Blackburn Rd, where the new houses are being built now. Maybe at some stage those houses overlooked it.

[WillowTheWhisp]

Ah now that's an idea. It was probably the other side of those two houses that actually had the view.

[Mik Dickinson]

Savoy Street runnung parallel to Blackburn Road

[Atarah]

Hard to imagine we have had "Halls" in Accrington, eh?

Lower Antley Hall - Everything long since gone. Was situated near the railway line between Lonsdale Street and Newark Street. For many centuries the home of the Rishton family. In structure, Antley Hall was in the Tudor style of stone-built houses of the lesser gentry of the 16th and 17th centuries. This hall consisted of the middle block with two gabled wings. The windows were square-headed, divided by mullions with moulded head dripstones. There was no date on the hall itself, but the figures 1614 appeared on the stable wall. The west wing had two mullioned windows of six lights, with a window of three lights in the gable. The east wing had mullioned windows of three lights in the gable. The east side had a one-storey porch, probably built at a later stage than the hall itself. The row of cottages was built at a much later date, at a time when the hall itself had been divided into seperate tenements. Lower Antlley was one of the most ancient halls in Accrington

Many of our old halls have vanished from our view, and we have no pictures to look at, thank goodness this painting was done. An old book printed in 1928 says that a Mrs Mawer, who used to be landlady of The Antley Inn, used to have a painting of the hall. Maybe you know someone who is related to this person, the painting could still be in Accrington somewhere?

Higher Antley Hall - like many of the "lesser important" halls, this eventually became a farmhouse. It occupies a prominent position on the crest of the hill adjoining Bullough Park. It is one of the houses of the 17th century, so well built that it still survives today. It was from an old quarry, near this hall, that the stone for Broad Oak Mill (better known as The New Factory) was quarried. (Still there, top of Church Street, now used By Broughtons)


PS - Apparently Tewitt Hall (mentioned recently in a thread) was reputedly a building of a similar type to Higher Antley.
PPS - I am well interested in the tale of the Roman Road, just never heard of this before.

[jelly baby]

There was a lodge there, it went from the back of rists wires down to church traffic lights, now a new build housing estate. I spent many happy hours playing at the lodge when I was but a girl. I think it was called lower antley reservoir.

[diane]

there used to be lodge on the other side of the houses that belonged to Lower Antley Mill dont know what they made though

[jelly baby]

The lodge was behind the cottages, it stretched from Church traffic lights up to the back of Rists Wires & Cables,now a site for new build homes. We spent many happy hours playing at the lodge when we were children.

[Retlaw]

If you go back far enough in history, all that part of Accrington was known as Antley. I'm talking about back in the 1300's, it was eventually split into Higher & Lower when the copy holds were drawn up. Check the Halmote Court Rolls.
Retlaw

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

Wow A-b do you think we can persuade the council to dig down to the Roman Road - get Time Team in! We can have a real tourist attraction there, very historical.

It has always amused me that Higher Antley Street and Lower Antley Street are so far away from each other but it makes sense when you think that both are named after halls and originally there was probably very little in between.

I love these history lessons.