Astley Hall

Today I should have been on duty as a room steward in the Long Gallery at Astley Hall.  Welcoming visitors and, hopefully, entertaining them with stories of the families who had lived at Astley.   As we all trying to keep safe either self isolating or social distancing this is not possible but I have put together this illustrated family tree which I hope will interest those who intended to visit us  today. I have recreated here the mantled Coats of Arms of two of the earliest resident families using blazons from Papworth's Armorials and Rick Macmurchie's   Armorial Gold heraldry art collection .  All put together with the free Inkscape graphic art software . The Brookes The Charnocks These have all been combined in an illustrated family tree dating back beyond the reign of Tudor Queen Elizabeth 1, "Gloriana" and the Stuart Charles 1 who was supported by the Charnock's. You can support the work of the Friends of Astley Ha...

The Brooke Window The visitor walking along the landing of the west wing of Astley Hall will find the stained glass window overlooking the internal courtyard.  A stained glass window that was thought to have been brought to Astley when Richard Brooke married Margaret the Charnock heiress.   The religious imagery leads you to believe that the older, coloured pieces of glass, were brought from Norton Priory that the family had purchased following the dissolution of the monasteries in the time King Henry VIII. In the top left and right corners the diamond shaped pieces of glass contain the letters, IHS representing the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek capital letters, ΙΗΣ.  More fully ΙΗΣΟΥΣ or Ιησους. These are also incorporated in the symbols of the Jesuits, The Society of Jesus The Brooke Window The Society of Jesus The window is dated 1600 and below this can be seen the image of a badger though it often...

By order of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I, landed families in Lancashire and Cheshire were visited  during 1567  by Norroy King of Arms William Flower accompanied by Robert Glover, Portcullis Pursuivant.  They were visited again  in 1613  during the reign of James I by Richard St George.   Their task was  confirming the genealogy of the families to support their right to bear coats of arms.  In the words of the time the visit was to "correcte, cumptrolle and refourme all mann' of armes, crests, cognizaunces and devices unlawfull or unlawfully usurped, borne or taken by any p'son or p'sons.  They were authorised to pull down or deface arms that were displayed without the authority of the Crown or belonged to another family. Timothy Duke Norroy and Ulster King of Arms Today the position of Norroy, now Norroy and Ulster King of Arms is filled by Timothy Duke and  families to the South of the River Trent are the respon...

Susanna Brooke inherited the Astley estates on the death of brother, Peter, in 1767, O.S.P - O bit Sine Prole , or died without issue as the legal documents would have put it.   Her great grandmother had been born Margaret Charnock, the last of Charnock’s who had moved to Astley when their old home in Charnock Richard had been ruined by fire in the mid 17th century.   Thomas Townley Parker and Susanna Brooke The ladies of the Brooke family were always considered beauties and Susanna soon caught the eye of Thomas Townley Parker of Cuerden. They had three children, including Robert Townley Parker who later moved to Cuerden Hall.  Robert Townley Parker He was Guild Mayor of Preston in 1861 and a prominent Freemason having two masonic lodges named after him in Chorley and Manchester. He was Unionist Member of Parliament for Preston in 1837    Lady de Hoghton Following the death of Susann...

It is my privilege to act as a volunteer room steward in the Long Gallery at Astley Hall which is not only a wonderful survivor of an Elizabethan Manor House but also houses a wonderful collection of paintings gathered by the families that lived there. The art website www.artuk.org depicts most of the collection of paintings held at the Hall including many which are in storage or undergoing conservation. Delving a little into Art History we can discover more about some of the paintings that hang in the public rooms of the Hall. One the west wall of the Great Hall is the painting of King CharlesI  with his wife, Henrietta Maria and their children Prince Charles (later Charles II) and Princess Mary.   Princess Mary was married to William, Prince of Orange, at the age of 9 in1641 when he was 14.  Her only child, born in 1650, became William III of England. Some doubt has been cast on the parentage of Charles II, rumours amongst the couriers at the time ...