Friends of GorseHall

WELCOME TO GORSE HALL.

On a hill overlooking the town of Stalybridge is the 35-acre site of Gorse Hall, grid ref: (SJ 9638 9778).
Once a private estate through which runs the boundary of Dukinfield and Stalybridge Cheshire. Now a parkland area, with woodland, opening into a meadow, with a pond and open moor land beyond. Panoramic views of the Cheshire Plains and the towns  
Of Ashton-u-Lyne, Oldham can be seen from the millennium Viewpoint, on the highest part of the site.
Undergrowth covers the many features of historical interest connected to the site, the earliest documentary evidence is in the will of Robert Duckenfield in 1621.
The Dukinfield family held the Manor of Dokenfeld, and Colonel Robert Dukinfield was a famous figure in the Civil War.
Ruins of the building named in the will as “Gorses” can still be seen. Part of the ruins were excavated in 1998 and capped for safety. The excavations revealed the remains of a 17th century fireplace and an earlier inglenook fire is visible. Other excavations by the University Manchester Archaeological Unit revealed that this had been built in two phases.

The site of the New Gorse Hall Mansion can now been with the remains of the foundation walls capped, the rest of the site a grassed area overlooking Stalybridge and over to Hartshead Pike. John and Jane Leech, the grandparents of Beatrix Potter, built this once impressive Mansion in 1835. John Leech was a wealthy cotton manufacturer in the mid 1800s, his mills being in the valley below. In its hey day the views from the mansion would have been of smoke and mill chimney’s, Stalybridge being the hub of the cotton industry due the river Tame in the valley, and the use of the canal to transport the cotton in and out.
After the death of Jane Leech in 1884 the mansion was left empty until bought by a wealthy local builder and given to as a wedding present to his son George Harry Storrs. Where on November 1st 1909 he was brutally murdered. The hall was ordered to be taken down by his widow in the summer of 1910, the stone re-used, and the site left for nature to cover over what was left. The famous unsolved murder can be seen in detail on other site pages. The huge stable block and out buildings with living accommodation above the laundry
Is the latest project with Tameside schools on a “Dig for History Project” involving over 600 local children learning real archaeology and history. This project will take place again in 2003.

Another feature on the site was an overgrown area that was originally a bowling green, sheltered by a bank of rhododendrons with views over to Hartshead Pike; this has been cleared and levelled, to be used as an open-air classroom for school visits.