Barlow Hall

Barlow Hall is a manor house and Grade II listed building in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the suburbs of Manchester, England.^[1] A house has existed on the site since at least the 13th century, but the present building dates from the 16th century, with later additions.^[2][3] The house was built by Alexander Barlow in about 1574,^[4] and was home to the Barlow family until their estates were sold to the Egertons in 1785.^[2] It now serves as the clubhouse for the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Golf Club; the golf course itself occupies what were once the water meadows around the house.^[5]

Alexander Barlow’s grandson Ambrose Barlow
English Benedictine monk, venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.,^[4] a Catholic Benedictine monk executed at Lancaster Castle in 1641 – one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales – was born at Barlow Hall in 1585.^[6]

Architecture

What remains today is three sides of the building’s original quadrangle, the gatehouse range having been demolished in 1962. The remnants of the great hall are in the middle range, which has north and south wings; the north wing probably contained the family rooms. The hall is in two stories, although it is impossible to say whether it was originally built as such or was later divided horizontally, as the interior was destroyed by fire in 1879. It was lavishly rebuilt for Sir William Cunliffe-Brooks, but some 16th-century stained glass has survived, now in the hall bay.^[5]