Historians battle to save Manchester’s oldest building from ‘unscrupulous developers’

Manchester’s oldest building has been put up for sale- and a group of amateur historians are looking to save it from greedy developers.

Wythenshawe’s Baguley Hall is over 700 years old, and rumoured to be the last remaining Viking-built structure not just in Britain, but the whole world.

A working farm until the 1930s, the site was put into public ownership and saved from demolition 50 years ago, first by Manchester council, then Historic England.

The latter are now seeking to sell the property, and are seeking a buyer to ‘save’ the mediaeval hall. But according to Historic England’s Charles Smith, the person ‘cannot be the taxpayer’.

In response, a group of amateur historians calling themselves the Friends of Baguley Hall group have formed a committee to save the historic building from ‘unscrupulous developers’, according to chair Mathew Hopkins, 57.

Committee member Matthew Williams said: ‘It’s not just a nice building. It’s technically a unique building with the timber frame system.

‘If you go inside and look how it’s structured and how the timber frame is put together, it’s nationally and internationally important.

‘It’s a plank construction rather than a box construction,’ the chartered building surveyor explained. ‘These are bigger sections and the pattern is different to a normal timber frame mediaeval building. That’s why it’s grade-I listed.’

A longstanding rumour has suggested the structure may be one of the last remaining Viking-built buildings in the world, but there are doubts about that claim even amongst the committee members.

Colin G. Piggott, who has researched the Hall extensively, says the claim is unlikely to be true as the timbers date back to 1380, around 50 years after the end of the Viking era, but that doesn’t make the Hall any less impressive or mysterious.

‘The most fascinating thing is the great hall,’ said Colin. ‘A third is missing.

‘Then, great halls were one-and-a-half to three times longer than they were wide so that tells us a piece should be missing. We have no idea when it went.’

Brick extensions, thought to be Georgian, were later added to the mediaeval core in the centuries since, indicating that the building has remained at the heart of Wythemshawe’s community for hundreds of years.

Estate agents Colliers’ advert for the property says the buyer will need to ensure they ‘restore and operate the building in a sympathetic way’ and ‘require that the public is able to access the building at least occasionally’.

They suggest the Hall could be transformed into a hospitality venue such as a pub or restaurant, as the lack of traffic and footfall in the area positions it to be a prime commercial asset.

Catherine Dewar, North West Regional Director at Historic England, said: ‘Baguley Hall is a South Manchester historic gem.

‘Standing for nearly 900 years, it boasts the most incredible great hall with tall, mullioned windows and unusual timber frame. We’re looking forward to working with Colliers to find prospective buyers or long-term tenants to find an exciting new use for this stunning site.’

Former MP Alf Morris, who successfully campaigned to have the Hall publicly-listed in parliament, once described the building as ‘one of the finest timber buildings in Europe, and of outstanding historical and architectural importance, whose demolition would be emphatically contrary to the best interests of Manchester and Great Britain as a whole.’

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