Qualla: Samlesbury Hall

Samlesbury Hall: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter I. Vardy, Public domain. In 1322 a Scottish army crossed the border under Robert the Bruce's lieutenants and burned its way south through Lancashire. The Great Raid devastated everything in its path. Three years later, a knight named Gilbert de Southworth started building a new manor house six miles east of Preston, possibly to replace something the raiders had taken. He was 55 years old by the standards of the day, married into the d'Ewyas family who already held half the manor, and apparently determined to put up something that would last. Seven hundred years later, his Great Hall is still standing — having survived being stripped for parts, run as a coaching inn, taught a Pestalozzian girls' school, sat empty for sixteen years, and been bought by builders who planned to knock it down for the timber.

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Image: Peter I. Vardy | Public domain

Samlesbury Hall: Built After the Burning

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Gilbert de Southworth of Warrington married Alice d'Ewyas and acquired half of Samlesbury manor with her hand. He is credited with building the Great Hall around 1325. The d'Ewyas family had held the land before him; Gilbert's contribution was to put up the timber-framed centrepi...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Samlesbury Hall: Catholics and Crisis

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JohnArmagh, Public domain. The Southworths held Samlesbury until 1677, when Edward Southworth sold to Thomas Bradyll. The family had been notorious recusants, refusing to abandon Catholicism through the centuries of post-Reformation persecution. Jane Southworth was one of the women tried in 1612 as a Samle...

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Image: JohnArmagh | Public domain

Samlesbury Hall: The Bradyll Years and the Bradyll Arms

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim Green from Bradford, CC BY 2.0. Thomas Bradyll never lived at Samlesbury. He stripped what he wanted of its interior fittings to use at his main residence at Conishead Priory on the Furness coast, then rented the building out to handloom weavers. In 1830 the hall was converted into a coaching inn called the Bra...

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Image: Tim Green from Bradford | CC BY 2.0

Samlesbury Hall: Saved From the Wreckers

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexander P Kapp, CC BY-SA 2.0. Joseph Harrison, a prosperous Blackburn industrialist, bought the hall in November 1862 and substantially renovated it. His eldest son William lived there until January 1879, when a fall on the ice gave him brain and leg injuries that produced severe depression. He took his own l...

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Image: Alexander P Kapp | CC BY-SA 2.0

Samlesbury Hall: A Working Medieval House

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael D Beckwith, CC BY 3.0. Today, Samlesbury Hall is Grade I listed and welcomes more than 50,000 visitors a year. It is open daily except Saturdays, when it is often booked for weddings and private events. The Great Hall, the chapel, the long gallery and the gardens are all accessible. The chapel still fa...

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Image: Michael D Beckwith | CC BY 3.0