Venue Type & Location
Performance Spaces
Overview
Situated 2 miles NW of Bolton, a few miles from the Roman road that ran N from Manchester to Blackburn and Ribchester.
Occupies a defensive position, part way up the S side of Winter Hill in a wooded estate. S and E sides are bounded by streams; a moat formerly bounded the N and W sides.
The house is set in a formal terraced area, with woods to the N and E. The principal entrance to the hall is via a drive that runs E to the house.
An interesting house of mixed stone and timber, with buildings of different heights and periods ranged around a now incomplete 3-sided quadrangle.
Performance History
Household accounts kept by stewards for the Shuttleworth family survive from 1582--1621. Entertainment expenses during their occupancy at Smithills are noted from 1583/4--95/6.
The larger, more fashionable withdrawing room is more likely to have been the performance space used by renaissance performers entertaining the family. The small, dark great hall, with its central fireplace, would have been the principal space available to medieval entertainers, although records of the Radcliffe and Barton families of the period do not survive to prove such use.
Current Status
History of the Venue
1335 William Radcliffe took up residence. An open hall, the oldest part of the building, dates from the late 14th c.
1485 The estate passed by marriage to the Barton family. They and their heirs owned Smithills until 1721.
ca. 1579 Stone gabled wing facing S added to extend W of the courtyard range and probably the S wing enclosing the courtyard (Smithills Museum Guidebook 3).
1582 Margery, widow of Robert Barton, married Sir Richard Shuttleworth, Chief Justice of Chester.
1592 Margery died, leaving the Smithills estate to her nephew, Randall Barton, and his heirs.
1801 Ainsworth family bought the estate. Subsequently the S range (documented in 18th c. maps) demolished.
ca. 1856 Chapel reconstructed after a fire.
1874--8, 1882--6 George Devey was engaged to remodel the buildings, including the substantial extension to the W wing.
1938 Nigel Ainsworth sold hall to Bolton Corporation.
Record Source
REED Lanc 166--70
Patrons who owned this venue
[No data found.]
Bibliographic Sources
- Foster, Charles F. Seven Households: Life in Cheshire and Lancashire 1582--1774. Northwich: Arley Hall P, 2002
- George, David, ed. Lancashire. Toronto, Buffalo, London: U of Toronto P, 1991
- Pevsner, Nikolaus. Lancashire: I. The Industrial and Commercial South. Harmondsworth, Midd: Penguin Books, 1969
- Rimmer, Alfred. Ancient Halls of Lancashire. np: npub, 1852
- Robinson, John Martin. A Guide to the Country Houses of the North West. London: Constable, 1991
- Smith, W. John. 'Proceedings: Smithills Hall, Bolton.'. Archaeological Journal 144 (7 July 1987): 30--2.
- Smithills Hall Museum Guidebook. Bolton: Bolton Museums & Art Gallery, nd
- Taylor, Henry. Old Halls in Lancashire and Cheshire. Manchester: J.E. Cornish, 1884
- The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster. 8 vols. London: Archibald Constable, 1906--14
- Walker, J.S.F., and A.S. Tindall. Country Houses of Greater Manchester. Manchester: Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit, 1985