If you follow my Instagram feed, then you might have seen that over the weekend we made a visit to Clayton Hall. Now, I have known that Clayton Hall existed, but I didn’t know it was a place that is a true hidden gem that is open to the public twice a month.
Location
Clayton Hall is located in East Manchester, just outside of the city centre. It is walkable from the City Centre (A few miles) but you’d be as well to take the Metrolink or one of the many bus services. It has its own Metrolink stop!
The hall itself is in Clayton Park and to access it you need to take the entrance into the park which is opposite Coatbridge Road and follow the path to the right, where there is a bridge over what would have once been the moat. You’ll soon spot Clayton Hall (and also the Manchester Bee!)
It’s very easy to get to by public transport, but if you are driving there’s on-street parking around the park but do watch out for match day restrictions when Manchester City are playing at home.
At Clayton Hall
We went into the first set of doors. You enter into a corridor where there is a short spiral staircase upstairs and some doors opposite into an very reasonably priced cafe. We went straight up the stairs to have a look around.
You enter into the memories room where there are all manner of memories on display from typewriters to papers from key moments in history (Dunblane, Diana’s death and 9/11) as well as a range of other items. From this room there are another four rooms; three of which are set up as rooms from days gone by and another where there was a thirty-minute talk about the history of the hall.
The rooms are all really well done and packed full of interesting things. We went into the drawing-room first where we saw some needlework set up as well as afternoon tea and a fireplace. Next, we went into the children’s bedroom complete with a doll’s house, toys and jewellery. Finally across from here is a room packed with dressing up clothes and sewing machines. It was interesting to see the different versions of the sewing machines as well as the many items of clothing for dressing up in.
Downstairs it’s a living Victorian Museum with all manner of things to check out and explore. It is truly hands-on for children, from the cold store with backets of fruit, veg and eggs and a table with dough for playing with to the dining room with piano and rocking chairs all the way to the kitchen. The children loved exploring around here. As you exit here there is a washroom outside where there is all manner of things from irons to mangles and maidens for the children to look and explore.
Each room was staffed with a very knowledgeable volunteer and they all engaged fabulously with the children and they were encouraged to dress up and try things out.
The Talk
The talk that we listened to was really good and the lady who gave it is clearly very knowledgable and passionate about the hall and the local history. It has links to the Byron family and to the Chetham Family (of the famous Chetham’s School of Music). It was interesting to hear about this building’s place in history and to get a reminder of the various factions that have fought during the history of the building. I lasted around half an hour and it was really interesting and well worth attending if you get the chance.
Cafe
There is a well-sized on-site cafe which we popped into before we left for a drink. The cakes looked delicious and weren’t overly expensive (we didn’t sample any as we had been at a coffee morning earlier in the day for the local Beaver group). There’s also homemade soup available which I am sure is good.
We will definitely be back to Clayton Hall – it was a really fascinating place to visit and a real credit to the efforts and enthusiasm of the local volunteers.
You can read more about Clayton Hall here.
To confirm open day dates and times see here.
