Extwistle Hall, Briercliffe, Burnley
Extwistle Hall is a historic Grade II listed mansion which stands high on Extwistle Moor in Briercliffe, Burnley in the ecclesiastical parish of Worsthorne St John’s.
Although no records exist at the office which looks after manorial records, extwistle Hall operated as a manor and so is deemed thus. More relevant, The Briercliffe Society do own some documentaion to show that the Hall was in fact a manor.
Extwistle Hall was built in the 16th Century in 1585 in the Tudor style by the Parker family, a prominent family at that time and although not medieval it does have medieval connections.
Robert Parker had bought the land, which had previously belonged to Kirkstall Abbey, in 1537 after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The Parker family occupied it for some 200 years before moving to Cuerden Hall around 1718. John Parker was High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1653 and Robert Parker for 1710. The house was remodelled in the late 18th century.
Extwistle Hall was, first and foremost, designed as a place in which to live. The family who lived there might have regarded it as a Manor House, with Manorial functions, but its primary object, when built, was to provide a home.
The Hall remained the home of the Parkers of Extwistle from the 16th Century to the early 18th Century when a fire at the hall, in which the head of the family was killed, resulted in the Parkers leaving Extwistle for the Cuerdale and Chorley area. They still retained ownership of the estates of both the Parkers, in Extwistle, and the Townleys, in Briercliffe, and it was not until the 1920s that the estate was sold off, by which time the Townley Parkers had died out in the male time, themselves, and the estate had passed to the Tattons of Wythenshawe.
The Hall has not been lived in by a Parker since c1718 but the agent for the Townley Parker estate resided there, briefly, until the building became a farm house for a large hill farm. As you will all know the building is in a poor state of repair
Extwistle Hall, owned by an Isle of Man based property company, has been unoccupied for more than 20 years and is listed in English Heritage's Heritage at Risk Register.
In early 2012, £2million plans were revealed to save and restore the hall to its former glory, then afterwards to be sold off.
Information from the following sites: