Old Moreton Hall.

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Last weekend I went to a friends wedding up near Manchester read (@Aslyum land) and although the weather was cloudy and dry for the wedding day the Sunday was abysmally rainy. Nothing unusual for Asylum land but we Southerners who live in the South are not used to such wet weather. I was going to visit the National Arboretum but the weather was just too horrible to visit there so we went to visit some National trust historical houses. I chose to go to Old Moreton Hall which is in the county of Cheshire. It was built in 1504 and is a Tudor designed house of oak beams which were assembled and transported to the site to build the house. The house is surrounded by a small moat and you have to cross a stone cobbled bridge to gain entry to the house. Once you enter the portal it leads into a cobbled courtyard. The house is built of three floors. The ground floor with the large reception hall, a private chapel, the kitchens and other reception rooms. The next floor contained the bedrooms and the top floor contained the long gallery which meant that the gentry could walk even when the weather was awful outside. The top floor was too heavy for the floors below which has resulted in some of the lower floors and walls buckling with the excess weight. The house was owned by very rich land owners but it was seized during the English civil war and used by parliamentarian soldiers as a billet. The house was returned to the family but when the owner William Moreton died in 1654 he had debts of around £3000-4000 which is equivalent to around £12- 16 million pounds at today's rates. The Moreton's bought much of the land just after the black death at very cheap rates. He owned thousands of acres of prime farming land with watermills and small farms. The family could not afford to live in the place so they rented it out to tenants and they gradually increased their wealth again. Today it is owned by the National Trust. Many of the very large houses were handed over to the National trust to be cared for, for the Nation. It is well worth a visit to this beautiful house. A visit will take less than two hours. It was beautiful but it was a shame that the sun did not come out which would have enhanced its beauty with blue skies behind it.