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Rock Hall, in the Moses Gate Country Park in Farnworth, Greater Manchester, is a country house built in about 1807 for John Crompton, a local paper manufacturer. He died before the house was completed, and it was occupied by his eldest son, also called John, who took over the management of his father’s Farnworth Paper Mill. The mill, established in about 1783, was demolished in the 1970s, and the area established as a country park, with Bolton Council taking ownership of Rock Hall.[1]
The hall was by then in “a considerable state of disrepair”. Renovation work was completed in 1982, and it was then opened as a visitor centre at the heart of the Moses Gate Country Park.[1] Rock Hall was used by Bolton Council’s countryside wardens until 2014, after which the building was significantly damaged by vandals.[2]
The building is now managed on behalf of Bolton Council by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, which plans to operate the hall as a community centre. In conjunction with the Trust, in 2026 Bolton Council secured a grant of almost £4.5m from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for the restoration of the hall.[2]
Rock Hall was designated a Grade II listed building
Structure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. in 1986.[3]
Architecture
Rock Hall is a five-bay two-storey house built in brick on a stone base, and has a slate roof with gable-end stacks. The central three bays project outwards under a pediment
Low-pitched gable above a portico or façade..[3][4]
