Have you been to Ordeal Hall in Salford? I have blogged about Ordsall Hall previously, but last week, I finally got to go and explore without the kids in tow. This left me free to actually appreciate what I was seeing.
I’m a huge history geek, and am a big fan of wood in general. (That’ll be the 200+ years of Carpenters my Dad descended from, I suspect)! Sights like this literally leave me breathless…
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What are the Ceiling Spaces at Ordsall Hall in Salford?
The two empty spaces in the Ordsall Hall in Salford ceiling really set my teeth on edge, so I had to ask why the Quatrefoils hadn’t been replaced during the recent restoration work. It turns out they were never part of the wooden ceiling to begin with – there used to be a chimney in that space, as there was previously a fire in the centre of the room.
The pale piece of wood in the ceiling is part of the extensive restoration work – in case you spotted that too.
Amazing isn’t it?
I think the building speaks for itself. I am sure you don’t need me to tell you this part of the building dates back to Tudor times…! The cut out section really annoyed me – until we got upstairs and I realised it was a viewing window. That was a really cool detail!
Said window allows you to see right down into the great hall from the first storey of the building. No need for CCTV back then…! (Speaking of CCTV, did you spot the camera above the Ordsall Hall door frame?)
I can imagine my Dad spending hours looking at these carved window frames, and studying the types of joints used. The tables and the furniture would have amazed him too. He appreciated old wood too. Imagine how long it must have taken to carve these by hand, and how many people have looked out of them over the hundreds of tears they’ve been in situ!
Look at this Graffiti from 1665 at Ordsall Hall in Salford
We spotted this carved into the wood in the kitchen door frame… It’s possibly the year the kitchen was built, as it’s in the newer part of the building. Just think… While this extension was being built in the North, The Black Death was taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of people down in London.
The Bubonic Plague didn’t take hold this far North, really – the most notable Black Death outbreak was in Eyam, in Derbyshire. An entire Village put themselves in quarantine, and as a result, they prevented the plague spreading further North.
I have taken dozens of photos from my visit to Ordsall Hall in Salford, but I will save the rest for another post.
Today is day 7 of Blogtober, and the prompt is Gross Motor Skills, in honour of Dyspraxia Awareness Week. Honestly, I don’t feel like I know enough about Dyspraxia to do it any justice, so instead, I decided to leave the link here for you to read all about Dyspraxia, and instead, share my recent trip to Ordsall Hall.
You can find blog posts from other bloggers via the Big Family Chaos linky, by clicking the badge below. I’m also linking up with My Sunday Photo today as well.
