Festival to mark historic hall's centenary

Astley Hall has undergone a two-year £1.1m restoration

A Grade I listed hall is celebrating the centenary of the date it was handed over to the public with a weekend of events.

Astley Hall first opened its doors to the public in 1924, two years after Reginald Tatton gave it to the people of Chorley as a memorial to the local men killed in World War One.

Now a museum, it will host celebratory events including a parade, food and drink festival and a picnic in the grounds on 1 and 2 June.

Caroline Scott from Chorley Council said people's memories of Astley Hall were also being collected for a special year-long project.

Astley Hall circa 1700

"We are running a project all year where we are inviting people to come and tell their stories about the hall," she said.

"We've got wonderful conversations with people who did work on the plasterwork to maintain it, or they came in as an electrician and think they saw a ghost and ran away, we get all sorts of connections.

"We've got some footage, some recordings and letters that span the last 100 years."

She said some people had spoken about having their wedding at the Hall, or came to "play hide and seek when we weren't there to police it".

The building itself is over 450 years old.

The original part was built in the Tudor period with additions over the centuries.

When it was handed to the people of Chorley "it was a war memorial as well as a home so it came with all the furniture and furnishings", Ms Scott said.

"It was rare for a family to hand over a home like that, so for the last 100 years people have been able to come in and have a look at the wonderful ceilings and the tapestries and get an idea of what it may have been like to live there."

The hall has also undergone a two-year £1.1m restoration, re-opening in 2022.

Work included removing the grey exterior render to the front of the hall to reveal the original 17th Century brickwork.

A sketch of Astley Hall in 1600

Astley Hall

• Manor house built in the early-mid 1500s by the Charnock family

• Houses the Cromwell bed, said to be where Oliver Cromwell slept after the Battle of Preston in 1648

• Grade I listed since 1966

• In 1922 the house and its contents were given to Chorley Corporation by Reginald Tatton, as a memorial to the local men killed in World War One

• In 2020 work began on a two-year, £1.1m regeneration project to restore the house to its original state

• In 2021, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle chose the Hall for the G7 Speakers' Meeting