The Hall
Wythenshawe Hall was a family home for nearly four hundred years. The original Hall was built around 1540 by Robert Tatton, possibly on the site of an earlier medieval building. It was further developed over the following centuries by fourteen generations of the Tatton family until 1926, when the estate was sold to provide new housing for the people of Manchester. The Hall and parkland became an art gallery and public park and have been open to the public ever since.
The bed in the Withdrawing Room
Today, Wythenshawe Hall is a reminder of four centuries of local history. The original oak timbers of the Tudor Hall can still be seen in places, and an intricate painted plaster wall celebrates the marriage of Robert Tatton and Dorothy Booth in 1539.
A century later, however, during the English Civil War of 1642-49, the Hall was at the centre of a bitter struggle, beseiged by Parliamentarian troops. Royalist Robert Tatton defended his home for over three months during the winter of 1643-44, with the help of more than fifty servants, tenants and neighbours. It was only the arrival of two cannons from Manchester that finally forced his surrender. The Hall was confiscated and a detailed inventory drawn up of all its contents, whilst Tatton somehow escaped to Chester. Two years later Wythenshawe was returned to him, on payment of a hefty fine totalling £707.13s.4d.
The following centuries were quieter and much more prosperous. As the Tatton family acquired more land, the Hall expanded to become a much grander home, with the addition of the Library in the 1790s and Tenants Hall during the 1860s. By the 1920s the Tatton estate comprised some 2500 acres of farmland worked by tenant farmers, many of whose families still live locally.
The Dining Room reflects life during Tudor times and the Civil War
Today, although Wythenshawe Hall is no longer a family home, it is still a centre of activity. The farmland is now one of the largest housing estates in Europe, designed in the 1930s as a 'garden city' with plenty of green spaces to provide a healthy living environment. Different City Council departments have offices in the Hall and surrounding buildings, and since 1997 wedding ceremonies have been held in the Library. Only a small part of the Hall is now open to the public, but these few rooms provide an atmospheric reminder of the changing history of Wythenshawe.
