The North West’s Hidden Treasure: Baguley Hall and the story of Wythenshawe
Standing in the middle of Wythenshawe, Baguley Hall is a spectacular early 14th century hall on a site lived in since Anglo-Saxon times which was still a working farm till the 1930s . One of the most important timber framed houses in Europe it was saved by public petition fifty years ago, when Wythenshawe’s MP Alf Morris urged Parliament to save ‘one of the finest timber buildings in Europe, and of outstanding historical and architectural importance, whose demolition would be emphatically contrary to the best interests of Manchester and Great Britain as a whole.” But the hall remains closed, though there are still hopes it can be turned into a resource for the community, and an education centre for schools.
In this talk TV historian Michael Wood looks at the story of the site going back before William the Conqueror’s Domesday Book in 1086, bringing it to life with medieval farming documents and 17th c wills which tell us about people’s lives before Wythenshawe became part of Greater Manchester. The story leads on to Wythenshawe’s social history, and the development of the estate in the 1950s.
Michael Wood grew up in Wythenshawe and went to Benchill Primary School. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester and is the author of many books and over a hundred TV documentaries, the most recent last year’s Story of China on BBC2.
This talk is brought to you in partnership by Wythenshawe Local History Group, Manchester Libraries and Manchester Museum
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