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Hall i'th' Wood is a wealthy
yeoman's/merchant's house and is famous for its later association
with Samuel Crompton, who invented his spinning mule here in
1779.
The earliest surviving part
of the house is probably the kitchen and buttery, although its
date is uncertain. This was a timber-framed building but its
north and west walls have been rebuilt in stone. Lawrence Brownlow,
who fulled and sold woollen cloth, had property in Bolton in
1483 and by 1500 the Brownlow family held land here in Tonge.
The House or Hall in the Wood was certainly in existence before
or by 1550 in the reign of Edward VI, when it is named in a will.
The timber-framed hall section was erected as a separate structure
c. 1580-1600 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 on the evidence
of dated timbers and was then linked to the earlier building.
A two storey stone extension was added to the west end of the
kitchen in 1591. After 1610 the Brownlow family had financial
difficulties and in 1635-1637 sold the house to Christopher Norris,
a Bolton woollendraper. Christopher Norris died in 1639 and his
son, Alexander, inherited his lands and properties. |
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Alexander Norris, a puritan,
handled the confiscated estates of Royalist families in Lancashire
during the Civil War. In 1648 he added the final extension to
the house on the south west in stone. This extension comprised
two grand rooms, one above the other, an imposing two storey
entrance porch and a front staircase. The west wall of the hall
section was largely rebuilt in stone with a new fireplace with
four tall chimneys serving the fireplace flues of the two new
rooms, the earlier hall and the chambers
over it.
Hall i'th' Wood shows the
development of a house in the 16th and 17th centuries and comprises
elements of Tudor, Elizabethan, Jacobean and Renaissance architectural
styles.
Alexander Norris's daughter,
Alice, married John Starkie in 1654 and she was given Hall i'th'
Wood as part of her dowry. John Starkie inherited the Huntroyde
estates in 1664/1665. Hall i'th' Wood was no longer the main
family residence and from c. 1697 the house was let out to various
tenants over a period of two hundred years the most famous tenant
being Samuel Crompton.
Samuel Crompton was born at
Firwood Fold, Bolton in 1753 and in 1758 his parents rented a
part of Hall i'th' Wood. His father died soon afterwards, but
his mother continued to lease part of the Hall and to enage in
fanning, spinning and weaving to keep herself and her children.
Samuel Crompton experimented for several years to improve the
quality of spun cotton yarn and in 1779 he produced a spinning
machine which spun cotton yarn strong enough for a warp on a
loom, yet fine enough to weave muslin. This machine, called at
first the Hall i'th' Wood Wheel or Muslin Wheel, became known
as Crompton's Mule or the Spinning Mule. It revolutionised the
textile industry and laid the foundations for Bolton's and Lancashire's
prosperity in the 19th century. In 1780 Samuel Crompton married
Mary Pimlott and they lived in one of two cottages, which by
then had been built on to the north wall of the house, until
c. 1785 when they moved elsewhere.
During the 19th century Hall
i'th' Wood was let to the Bromley family, who were farmers. The
house was gradually falling into a state of disrepair and decay.
A landslip on the north side of the house in 1890 damaged the
attached cottages so severely that they had to be demolished
and the north wall of the house itself was partly rebuilt.
After hearing about the state
of the property and that a public subscription had failed to
raise enough funds to buy it, William Hesketh Lever, later Lord
Lever and lst Viscount Leverhulme, an eminent Boltonian, purchased
the house and some land from the Starkie family in 1899 as a
memorial to Samuel Crompton. He gave the house to Bolton together
with a sum of money for repairs, and it was opened as a museum
in 1900 and officially opened by Mr. Lever in 1902. From 1900
Mr. Lever generously bought pieces of furniture suitable for
the house. From 1915 when it was decided that Hall i'th' Wood
should be a folk museum as well as a memorial to Crompton, he
kindly purchased and gave various domestic items almost up until
his death in 1925. |
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Hall i'th' Wood closed to the
public in 1994 and for the first time in over ninety years was
emptied of nearly all its contents. During 1995 the building
underwent a major conservation programme involving the removal
of the roof, repairs and reinstatement, and work on the masonry
and timber-framed walls. At the same time the furniture and other
items were conserved. Hall i'th' Wood reopened as a museum in
April 1996. |
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Three rooms over the hall
are devoted to Samuel Crompton, 1753-1827, who lived in part
of the house from 1758 to c. 1785. It was apparently in Room
8 where he worked from 1774 to improve the quality of spun cotton
yarn. Crompton had used a Spinning Jenny, a multi-spindled machine,
invented by James Hargreaves in 1764, but had found it unsatisfactory
and incapable of producing a fine and strong enough cotton thread
for weaving muslin. In 1769 Richard Arkwright invented the Water
Frame, a spinning machine which had pairs of drafting rollers,
but Crompton always maintained that he had no knowledge of this.
In 1779 in Room 8 Crompton built his spinning machine, which
had a moving spindle carriage like the Jenny and drafting rollers
like the Water Frame, but with the drafting roller system apparently
worked out by Crompton from first principles.
Crompton was the son of a
skilled man, had received a certain amount of education, was
good at mathematics and was an accomplished musician. Unfortunately
he was not a businessman and was not in a position to be able
to patent his invention. He had not long completed his machine
when the machine-breaking riots of 1779 forced him to dismantle
it and hide the pieces. A rectangular box in the roof, which
still survives, above the west end of Room 8 is said to be the
place where he hid it. Before long he was able to reassemble
the machine and use it. His first machine has not survived but
it probably had 48 spindles and was largely made of wood with
a few metal parts. It was very successful and spun yarn of an
excellent quality. Crompton was able to spin 40s, then 60s and
then 80s count yarn, which commanded a high price and enabled
him to buy a silver watch and to get married in 1780. The quality
of his yarn had not passed unnoticed and he realised that he
could not keep his invention secret for very long. He agreed
that he would make his invention known for the money raised via
a subscription list. The results were disappointing and in the
end he only received about £60. |
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His machine, which became known
as the Spinning Mule, because it combined the features of the
Jenny and the Water Frame, had been intended by Crompton for
home use but to his dismay he saw it become part of a factory
system, making a great deal of money for the growing number of
industrialists and mill owners. |
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From 1791 Crompton worked
as a muslin weaver in Bolton and when prices for weaving fell
by 1800 he was helped by a subscription to set up a business
in spinning. In 1811 he petitioned Parliament for a grant to
recognise the value of his invention and in 1812 he was awarded
£5,000, which was much less than he had expected. Most
of this sum vanished in expenses and in businesses which failed
in partnership with his sons George and William. Towards the
end of his life Crompton was in impoverished circumstances and
a final subscription raised sufficient money in Bolton to give
him an annuity of £63, on which he was dependent until
his death in 1827.
The story of Samuel Crompton's
life is told in: H.C. Cameron, Samuel Crompton, Blatchworth Press
1951.
Gilbert J. French, The Life and Times of Samuel Crompton, Simpkin
Marshall 1859, reprinted 1970.
T. Midgley, The Spinning Mule, Bolton 1979 (a reprint of Samuel
Crompton: A Life of Tragedy and Service, Bolton 1927.)
Open April - September. Tuesday
- Saturday 11.00 am to 5.00 pm. Sunday 2.00 - 5.00 pm. Closed
Monday except Bank Holidays. Adults £ 3.00 Children £
1.50. Closed to the general public October to March.
For further information Tel:
01204 301159
Bolton Museums, Art Gallery
and Aquarium Tel: 01204 332211
Compiled by Angela Thomas,
Senior Keeper of Human History, Bolton Museum & Art Gallery. |
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