The history of Rufford Old Hall

Expert curated

View over the well tended lawn of the south front at Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire — View of the south front at Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire | © National Trust Images/Trevor Ray Hart

Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire was home to the Heskeths, an ancient county family, for over 600 years. The hall, outbuildings, cottages, gardens and 69 acres of agricultural land now in National Trust ownership, are all that remain of an estate which once covered 10,000 acres. To ensure its permanent preservation, Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 1st Lord Hesketh (1881–1944) gave it to the National Trust in 1936.

Medieval Rufford

Medieval Rufford is situated between Martin Mere to the west, and the tidal River Douglas to the south. From this conjunction it gained its name – ‘rough ford’. Chester Abbey once owned Rufford, and later it was held by Richard Fitton (c. 1206–37) and inherited by his daughters. One of them, Maud (dates unknown), married Sir William Hesketh (d. 1318), and Rufford was inherited by their son John.

The Hesketh family originated from nearby Hesketh, and later lived at Martholme, before building the house at Rufford. They made strategic marriages, increasing their wealth, status and land holdings significantly. This lineage was proudly captured in 1594 in an illustrated family tree, now in the British Library.

16th century

In the Tudor period, the Heskeths found wealthy and powerful patrons in the Earls of Derby. Around 1530, Sir Robert Hesketh (d. 1541) built a substantial house at Rufford. Built on an H-plan, the two wings of this earlier hall have disappeared, but the Great Hall which joined them, with its carved, hammerbeam roof, and a remarkable moveable screen, survive. (Screens divided the main body of the hall from the passage and the rooms – often domestic spaces like the buttery and pantry – beyond. Though extremely large, the Rufford screen is not fixed and, in theory, is moveable).

The Reformation

The Reformation which began in the reign of Henry VIII, initiated the turbulent process whereby England turned from Catholicism to Protestantism. Lancashire, a Catholic stronghold, saw many families only conforming outwardly to Protestant practices to avoid prosecution. Members of the Hesketh family retained their Catholic faith.

Sir Thomas Hesketh (1526–88) was knighted by Catholic Queen Mary in 1553 but also advanced under her Protestant successor, Elizabeth I, serving as High Sheriff and Mayor of Lancashire, and as a Justice of the Peace. Rufford Old Hall, which Sir Thomas used to entertain and cultivate his influence, was larger then to accommodate his household and his company of actors and musicians. He was not immune from prosecution, however, and was imprisoned in 1584 for failing to reform his household in religion. His wife, Alice Holcroft (d. 1604), had courted disaster by harboring Catholic priests and two of his kinsmen were executed in the 1590s as Catholic conspirators.

The Great Hall, Rufford Old Hall | © Mike Williams

17th century

Civil War & Commonwealth

Maintaining power and influence whilst adhering to the Catholic faith was a perilous task which the Heskeths continued to negotiate in the 17th century. Sir Thomas Hesketh (d. 1646) avoided involvement in the Civil War but lived with the threat of fines or confiscation of his income because of his religion.

6-year-old Thomas Hesketh (1647–89) inherited the estate in 1653. His mother, Lucy (d. 1688), a Protestant and the daughter of a distinguished Parliamentarian army officer, managed the estate with her second husband. In 1662, they extended the hall with a brick wing to accommodate family, servants, a large kitchen and service rooms. Thomas went on to marry Sidney (1642–1702), the daughter of Sir Richard Grosvenor of Eaton, Chester. Of their 8 children, only a son, Robert (1670–c. 1697), survived.

18th century

Rufford re-modelled and a New Hall built

Thomas Hesketh (1698–1735) re-modelled Rufford, re-using materials from Holmeswood Hall, creating the present Dining Room, Ante Room and upper floor on the site of the old east wing of the Tudor hall. His son, Thomas, 1st Baronet (1727–78), built a fashionable neo-classical house, known as the New Hall, about half a mile away. Times were changing and in 1781 the Rufford branch of the Leeds-Liverpool canal was completed, skirting close to the house and gardens of Rufford Old Hall, dividing it from the surrounding farmland and connecting the village of Rufford to the wider canal network. The Old Hall was no longer the Hesketh’s principal residence.

International Connections

Thomas’s brother, Robert (1728–96), who next inherited Rufford, was reputedly a wine merchant. He therefore may have been involved, particularly through commerce with the Portuguese, in the triangular trade which linked Europe with the transportation of enslaved people from Africa to the West Indies. Robert’s sons Thomas (1750–82) and Robert (1751–75), both served as captains in the British Army during the American War of Independence. Robert was killed in action at the battle of Bunker’s Hill. Thomas afterwards lived in England at Rufford New Hall with his wife Jacintha (d. 1802) and their American-born children. Jacintha’s father was Hugh Dalrymple (1727–74), Scottish advocate and Attorney General of Grenada, West Indies, where the trade and the forced labour of enslaved people was widespread.

Carved wooden spandrel in the hammerbeam roof of the Great Hall at Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire | © National Trust Images/John Millar

19th century

A family home again

When the New Hall became the family’s principal residence, Rufford Old Hall was tenanted. It briefly became a school before further remodelling around 1820 in the neo-Gothic style by architect John Foster. For a time, Rufford became the family home of Sir Thomas Henry Hesketh, 4th Baronet (1799–1843) and his wife Annette Bomford (d. 1879). Their son, Thomas George, 5th Baronet (1825–72) married Lady Arabella Fermor (d. 1870), and they lived at the New Hall. Momentous change came in 1867 when Lady Arabella inherited her family’s 5,000-acre estate at Easton Neston in Northamptonshire. Thereafter, the Hesketh’s Lancashire estates were sold. Failing to sell, Rufford Old Hall was once again tenanted until 1920.

American connections

Both Annette’s grandson and great-grandson made fortuitous matches with American heiresses. In 1885, Sir Thomas George Fermor-Hesketh (1849–1924) married Florence Emily Sharon (d. 1924), daughter of millionaire Senator William Sharon. Through her father, a San Francisco gold-rush financier, they inherited an enormous fortune in the gold, silver, banking and hotel business in California and Nevada.

20th century

From 1920, Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 8th Baronet (1881–1944) and his family made Rufford Old Hall their home, but for only four years. After succeeding as 8th Baronet in 1924, Sir Thomas moved to Easton Neston, and gave Rufford to the National Trust in 1936.

Inside the Drawing Room at Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire, which has exposed beams on the ceiling and is richly furnished with decorative wooden furniture and gold-framed portraits on the walls. — The Drawing Room at Rufford Old Hall | © National Trust Images/Andreas von Einsiedel

The Village Museum

On acquisition by the National Trust, Rufford was managed by a committee, and the hall was partly furnished and opened to the public. The collection of Philip Ashcroft, a local man, was later added. He was recognised as ‘honorary’ curator of Rufford until his death in 1959. Ashcroft envisaged Rufford Old Hall as a place to gather and preserve artefacts of local farming and country life. He established a ‘Village Museum’ at the Hall in 1939, the last of its kind in what had been a countrywide movement.

Under the care of the National Trust

Since 1936, we have continued to care for Rufford’s important collections, garden and grounds, preserving this special place for future generations. Recent projects include the restoration of lime plasterwork in the Great Hall, the re-building of the double-height bay window in the Dining and Drawing Rooms, conservation repair to the timber and glazing of the lantern above the Great Hall, and the conservation and re-framing of a painting by the artist Gommaert van der Gracht (c. 1590–1639), which hangs in the Dining Room.

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