Orford Hall

The original hall at Orford was a timber and plaster building, with ornate chimneys and a thatched roof, which was built for the Le Norris family in 1232. The Norris family occupied the hall until 1595 after which it was acquired by Thomas Tildesley, who rebuilt it in the Jacobean style. At that time the building was known as Norris House. In 1638 the property was purchased by Thomas Blackburne, a wealthy Cheshire salt merchant, and afterwards inherited by his son Jonathan (1646–1724), High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1715, who made extensive improvements to the house. It was afterwards occupied by Jonathan's son John Blackburne (1694–1786), a well-known naturalist and horticulturalist, whose…