Tourist guide to Samlesbury (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Tourist guide to Samlesbury

12:00pm Tuesday 18th May 2010 in Leisure By Ron Freethy

Samlesbury is situated on the outskirts of Blackburn on the road to Preston.

Signed from the busy road, Samlesbury Hall is a splendid half-timbered building and open to the public.

It has its own very special atmosphere as it is a cross between a museum and the antiques roadshow.

This is the place to have your treasures valued and to enjoy a meal in pleasant surroundings while enjoying Samlesbury New Hall, which is actually very old.

The old hall was situated close to the Ribble but it was too close to the invading Scots in 1322.

The New Hall was the replacement built by the staunchly Catholic Southworth family.

In the days of Queen Elizabeth the family built holes in the structure in which their priests could hide and these can still be seen today.

After periods of serving as a coaching inn and a school, the hall was saved from demolition in 1925 by the Samlesbury Hall Trust.

Nature Trails are now a feature of the area and arches can often be seen demonstrating their skills from the butts built specially for the purpose.

Some of the gardens on the opposite side of the A59 have been restored by volunteer workers from BAe Systems who now build parts of the Airbus on land close to the hall estate.