Worsley, England
We embarked on a heritage tour today to Worsley, England where our ancestors derived their surname. We were told by our father that we have connections to the British Aristocracy in our ancestry and that one of our ancestors here in America turned down the inheritance of a property with a Great House or Hall in England and it was given to the commonwealth and that our family has a Crest and Coat of Arms. I do not have a lot of information to go on in the hopes of retracing steps of some of my ancestors here in the UK, so the logical starting point was the Village of Worsley.
Worsley is a picturesque town in Salford to the west of Manchester. It is famous for the Bridgewater Canal, it's mock tudor buildings and Worsley Delph.The canal linked the Duke of Bridgewater's mines in Worsley to Manchester, enabling enough coal to reach the city centre to kick start the industrial revolution. Beautiful black and white buildings, one of the oldest dry-docks in the country.
Worsley Hall
The largest estate in Worsley is Worsley Hall which is now home to the Worsley Park Marriott Hotel and Country Club, so we booked our stay in the Worsley Park Marriott. The New Worsley Hall old resident house is no longer standing and the only building from the original estate is Worsley Old Hall which is adjacent to the hotel and is home to a Pub and Restaurant. The Worsley Old Hall gives the ambiance of how the estate may have looked centuries ago. Our first meal in Worsley was in this restaurant.
WORSLEY OLD HALL
The building Worsley Old Hall is one of three substantial country houses that were built within Worsley Park over several centuries (each in turn called Worsley Hall), but it is now the only standing house to survive from these three phases. The present building on the site dates from the 16th or early 17th century. It was originally a timber-framed building which has been rebuilt in brick. It is thought that it originally consisted of a hall range on the south side, with wings extending to the north on the east and west sides. The house was remodelled in the 18th century with the addition of a range immediately to the north of the hall range. It was substantially extended in or around 1855 when an extension was added to the east wing.
WORSLEY NEW HALL
In its heydey, Worsley New Hall, standing in its glorious, formal landscaped gardens, was a notable residence of its era. Just as grand as the house, the magnificent gardens were landscaped over a 50-year period.the sloping grounds to the south of the hall were worked into a formal terraced garden. It was accessed by a series of steps and gravel paths and set off with ornate fountains, as seen in the image below.
Like many a fine garden in its era, there was a croquet lawn and a tennis court. An area of woodland towards the west of the hall separated the formal gardens from the gardener’s cottage and the 11-acre walled kitchen gardens. Queen Victoria visited the hall twice, in 1851 and 1857. For her first visit the Queen and her party travelled to the hall via the Bridgewater Canal. In honour of her visit, the canal was dyed blue and the Earl of Ellesmere commissioned a Royal Barge and built a landing stage on the banks.
WORSLEY DELPH
Worsley Delph is a historic landmark in the development of the canal industry in Britain. It began life as a quarry, but later became the start of the first industrial canal in the country, as well as being the entrance to a labyrinth of underground coal mines. Recently archaeologists and historians have re-examined the site, and it has been restored and made into a local heritage attraction.
The Delph existed as a quarry for 300 years before the canal was built. Records show that stone was removed to construct Barton Bridge in 1676. Some 4821 wagon-loads of rock were taken out of the quarry to do this. When the canal was planned, more stone was dug out to build the canal sides and its bridges.
The underground canal system had its entrance and exit at Worsley Delph and these can still be seen today. A one-way system was put in place so that boats could leave the mines fully laden of coal through the western tunnel, and empty boats could enter the complex through the eastern tunnel. The tunnels were very narrow, and the slim boats known as ‘starvationers’ were used to haul the coal. The unusual name was probably given to them because of their thin shape, and pronounced ‘ribs’.By 1880, the underground network had expanded to a huge extent, covering some 52 miles of tunnels
BRIDGEWATER CANAL
The Bridgewater canal opened in 1761 and in the next 50 years the local quiet farming community around it was transformed by the huge coal mining industry, centred around Worsley Delph.
The water is orange from the Iron oxide from the mining.
We tool a walk along the scenic canal for a couple of miles.
It was a peaceful and quiet walk that was filled with Narrow boats that were homes to some of the Villagers
We walked until we came to a restaurant that sat on the edge of the canal and had dinner before returning to our hotel
Worsley Park Golf Course
I had hoped to play the Worsley Park Country Club Golf Course and had a Tee time scheduled for our last day in Worsley. Unfortunately, the railway strike disrupted our plans to go to Liverpool the day before and there were no Tee times availble that day, so I had to cancel golf and take our trip to Liverpool that day instead.
The Worsley Park couse offers challenging Golf in a Beautiful Parkland Setting Founded in 1894 and redesigned in the 1930s by the legendary James Braid
I went to Worsley hoping to play golf at the Worsley Park Country Club and all i got was .... a golf shirt with their logo! ;(
