Wardley Hall

Wardley Hall stands in Worsley, Salford, as an early medieval manor house with a moat recorded since 1292. The present building dates from about 1500 but was rebuilt in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is a Grade I listed structure and serves as the official residence of the Catholic Bishop of Salford. The house contains a surviving portion of its original moat on the west side. Its quadrangular timber frame and slate roof reflect its long history. The hall preserves the skull of St Ambrose Barlow, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Barlow was executed in 1641 after refusing to leave Britain during a ban on Catholic priests. His skull, rediscovered in 1745, rests in a niche above the main staircase. Legend claims moving the skull brings misfortune to the house. Forensic work in 1960 confirmed the skull belonged to a man aged fifty to sixty with a spike wound. Visitors find the Great Hall, one of the earliest parts of the building from the late 15th or early 16th century. A private chapel was added in 1561 inside the gatehouse to the north. The hall once contained more than twenty bedrooms in the early 17th century. Major restorations by John Douglas in 1894 and other works in 1734 and 1904 shaped its present form. The surrounding grounds include the remaining stretch of the historic moat.