-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
The Rangers and the Friens of Alkrington Nature Reserve (ANR) have given permission for these caches to be placed. Please use the paths provided and take care of the environment and watch children near to the water. Some of the paths are suitable for wheelchairs and buggies but please use your own discretion. Please help the "Friends" by practising CITO - thanks for your co-operation.
Within the Reserve is Alkrington Hall which was built in 1736 by Sir Darcy Lever and designed in the Georgian style of the time by Giocomo Leoni. There was probably another more ancient Hall on the site previously, similar to Middleton's Tudor Tonge Hall nearby, the remains of which can still be seen today but there is little record of this. The manor of Alkrington was purchased by the Lever family in 1627 who went on to buy several surrounding estates making them one of the wealthiest families in the south of Lancashire. The last family member John Lever died with no heirs in 1834 and the Hall and estate was then sold on to owners who reduced the estate by selling off much of the land.
In 1942 the house came into the possession of the local council and was in time converted into bedsits to be rented out. Then a decision was made by the council to sell the building, the tenants were re-housed and the house was bought by developers who in the early to mid 1990's restored and converted the Hall into three luxury private dwellings.
This has been something of a loss to the people of Middleton to have a historic Hall inaccessible due to privatisation. However, apart from this little else has changed and the Hall still sits within the beautiful Alkrington Woods with all its natural beauty, lodges and wildlife, and can still be viewed in all its splendour.
There used to be an Italian ice cream dairy in the outbuildings just behind the hall, very tasty, the ice cream was made and sold there. There are also local ghost stories associated with the hall and woods. Most of these originate from the early owners, the Lever family. Mr Lever was a collector of curiosities including strange and deformed animals. The collection eventually went to the British Museum.
Sir Ashton Lever of Alkrington (1729-1788) Born on the 5th March 1729 of Lady Darcy Lever of Alkrington, and baptised at Middleton Church, Ashton Lever was born into landed gentry and occupants of Akrington Hall - a family of considerable local wealth and power. His father, Darcy had, since student days, been a close friend of John Byrom of Manchester and had also served as High Sheriff of Lancashire. Sir Darcy died in 1742 when Ashton was just 13, and he was educated by the Reverend John Clayton at St. Cyprians in Salford - one of his classmates was Charles White.
Lever's predilection for horse racing led him to be active in re-establishing the Manchester Races at Kersal Moor in 1761. Lacking the firm hand of a father, in his youth Ashton was somewhat of a wastrel, such that his courtship of Mary Assheton, the eldest daughter and heiress of Sir Ralph Assheton of Middleton came to nothing when her father refused consent to their marriage. In the event, at age 35 he married the 18 year old Frances Bayley of Withington, at Prestwich Church in1764.
Ashton's interests also included ornithology, and he pursued this interest until he had collected nearly four thousand live birds. He also collected stuffed specimens and held a public display of his collection was made in 1766 at the King's Arms in Manchester. His extensive collections of the rare and exotic included a squirrel monkey, the arctic fox, the flamingo, bird of paradise, saw fish, corals, tomahawks, scalping knives and other weapons. These became the basis of the museum which he established at Alkrington Hall in 1772. Later were added 1000s of medals, plaster casts, more than 200 drawings, and over 200 "warlike instruments - over 3,000 glass cases in all. Later, plants and insects were added. Ashton's obsession with the museum did not preclude an involvement in public life.
In 1766 he became a Justice of the Peace for the Salford Division, he served on the Grand Jury at the Lancaster Assizes in 1766 and again in 1786, and in 1771 he served his term as High Sheriff of the county. He was also a Freemason of the Unanimity Lodge at Manchester which then met at Crompton's Coffee House.
He also prospected for coal on his Alkrington estate, and found several seams of inferior quality and had established Alkrington Coal Pits by June 1772. They were closed in 1841. Public recognition of his work as a collector came in 1778, when Ashton's Museum was visited by the Royal Family. The following week, King George III bestowed a knighthood on Ashton. By this time his museum was regarded as second only to the British Museum in London. Sir Ashton became the first President of the Toxophilite Society , a position he held until his death.
By 1784 the museum collection amounted to a total of 26,662 exhibits of which 2,654 were birds contained in 1,972 glass cases. Rising costs saw years of appeals for finance, a national lottery, and one government enquiry and a bill before parliament. Meanwhile, at Alkrington, Ashton lived for just a few more years, and died of a chill a few weeks before his fifty ninth birthday. His funeral was held at Prestwich. The Lever connection with Alkrington came to an end in 1845, when the hall and estate were sold to the Lees brothers of Clarksfield, Oldham, for £57,550.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Fghzcrq