Winstanley Hall

Winstanley Hall is a Grade II* listedStructure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. late 16th-century manor house in Winstanley, in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It was built in about 1573 by Thomas Winstanley.^[1]

The Winstanleys owned the hall until 1596, when the estate was sold to James Bankes, a London goldsmith and banker.^[2] The hall was well-maintained until the 1960s, but has been unoccupied since the 1980s and has fallen into a state of disrepair.^[3]

Historic England has included Winstanley Hall in its Heritage at Risk register, describing the building’s condition as “very bad”. They note in particular the extensive dry rot and roof leaks, which have resulted in the collapse of some stacks and internal floors.^[4]

The last member of the Bankes family to live in the hall left in 1984.^[5] The family retained ownership of the hall until its sale in 2000, along with 10 acres (4 ha) of land, to the property developer Dorbcrest Homes.^[2][6] The hall is now owned by Kingswood Homes, who have announced their intention to restore the hall and its outbuildings and convert them into residential accommodation, subject to receiving approval from Wigan Council.^[3]

Architecture

Extensions and alterations were carried out by Lewis Wyatt from 1818 to 1819, and there were further extensions in the 1840s.^[1] The hall’s present symmetrical form of a central, projecting four-storey tower preceded by a single-storey porch, is entirely Wyatt’s work.^[7] The Doric porch to the entrance has Ionic entablature with a pulvinated friezeHorizontal central band of an entablature, known as a pulvinated frieze if it has a convex profile. and parapet.^[1]