Hollinshead Hall (ruin)

Hollinshead Hall was the home of the Brock-Hollinshead family until it was sold on in 1845 to Eccles Sharrock, a local mill owner from Darwen. By 1900 the hall had fallen into disrepair and was finally demolished by the Liverpool Corporation Waterworks when the area was taken over for water catchment.

It is said that much of the stone from the old Hollinshead Hall was taken for local walls and as building stone for cottages in the nearby village of Belmont.

Much of the remaining walls and cellars on the site of Hollinshead Hall were probably from the buildings used for farming and animals on the Southwest side of the current track with the actual hall having stood to the Northeast where there is less to see on the ground.

The earliest building on this said is said to have been the old manor house for the Tockholes area but little is known of this building.

Probably the most interesting part of the site today is the Wishing Well building that is located away from the main ruins at the East side of the area. The building itself is of a very haphazard architecture within and it may be that some of the odd-looking stonework could be from an earlier building on the site or indeed from the older hall or manor house as mentioned above.

The ruins of Hollinshead Hall and associated farm outbuildings that can be seen today were re-discovered and exposed by the Central Lancashire Archaeology Unit after work started in 1983. A community program was started in 1987 to continue the work and preserve the site.

In recent years a good number of stone flags have been removed or displaced from the site but I am not sure if this is to do with the archaeology work or by private enterprise.

Created: 8  May  2019  Edited: 29  November  2023