Heskin Hall

In 1506 the lands were sold to Edmund Dudley who was Minister for king Henry VII. Dudley was executed by the king for treason and the land passed to his widow Elizabeth who later married Arthur Plantagenet. The land passed to John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, in 1511, who was later executed by Queen Mary, and his son Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, was a favourite of Elizabeth I. In 1556 the estate was bought by Richard Molyneux who also bought lands from Mary Seymour, the widow of Thomas Seymour who was the father of Jane Seymour (wife of Henry the VIII). In 1885, it was purchased by Henry Rawcliffe of Gillibrand Hall. Lord Lilford was the last person to occupy the house with…

The present house although has a date of 1670 on the front wall, was first constructed in 1545 of red brick with blue diapering and sandstone dressings. The roofs are blue slate. It has an L-shaped plan and is on three storeys. The south-facing front façade has gables, and is asymmetrical. There is a spout head on this front wall bearing the date 1679 and the initials of Alexander Mawdesley. The house has been designated a Grade I listed building on the National Heritage List for England database since 1952. The Grade I designation—the highest of the three grades—is for buildings "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important". Hartwell and Pevsner (2009)…