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 Georgian and Tudor sections which form the remaining western wing of a once larger complex. The hall is reached across the moat over a listed stone bridge, thought to be dated around the late 17th Century.
The oldest section of the remaining wing of 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 later 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 Chetham, who later died at the Hall in 1653. Ownership then passed to his nephew, George Chetham, son of his brother James and part of Humphrey's legacy was used by his family to found Chethams School and Library in the centre of Manchester, close to the Cathedral. This had long been a dream of Humphrey's, as depicted in one of artist, Ford Madox Brown's, Manchester Murals which are held in the Great Hall of Manchester Town Hall.
George Chetham was High Sheriff in 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.
From 1863 to 1897 the Hall was the rented to Lomax (1863–1867), W. H. Burns (1872–1890) and John White (1890–1897), clergy of St Cross Church. In 1897 the Hall was sold by Charles A. R. Hoare to Manchester City Corporation and it was restored in 1900. The 16th-century part of the Hall was rented to tenants. The 18th-century part contained the dining room, kitchen, larder, scullery and pantry. The oldest structure on the site is the sandstone bridge crossing the now empty moat. Dating from the late medieval era, it was built to replace the original wooden drawbridge.
During the Civil War, Parliamentary cavalry were stationed there, before the attack on Manchester. Afterwards, according to legend, Oliver Cromwell was said to have spent three nights there.
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