Baguley Hall

During our regular 'post run' coffee session in the courtyard tea room at Wythenshawe Hall, Jan mentioned that much good work has been taking place at nearby Baguley Hall. So I went along to see for myself and found an open day in full swing with musicians and stalls by way of perhaps the first chance for the public to enter the grounds since the sale in 2025 by Historic England to a charity called Heritage Trust North West. 

The internet reveals:

The manor was built in the 14th Century by a medieval knight called Sir William de Baggiley (also spelt Baguley), who lived during the reign of King Edward II (1307-1327), and the structure later became a farmhouse.

It was used as a council workshop for around 40 years before a decision was taken by the Manchester City Corporation in 1967 to demolish the building, which triggered a public petition that included over 6,000 signatures.

Later that year, the Wythenshawe MP Alf Morris spoke in Parliament against the planned demolition of Baguley Hall, urging that: "Everything possible should be done to preserve this historic building for posterity".

Since 1968, the building has been owned by the government and for more than 50 years the structure was maintained by English Heritage.

Tours of the Hall are now being arranged.

On my visit the grounds were lined by stalls and musicians, selling all manner of wares.

Several information boards indicated that the hall was part of the estate owned by the Tatton family, the first mention of which dates back to 1290, when they were living in the hamlet of Kenworthy, about a mile from the site of the current Wythenshawe Hall. 

Robert de Tatton had lands in nearby Northenden in 1297 and in 1370 a Robert de Tatton of Kenworthy received land in 'Wythinshawe' as part of the settlement when he married Alice, the daughter and heiress of William de Masey of Wythinhagh, and was given all her lands and tenements, rents and services.

So this building was part of the estate owned by the Tatton family, one of very few families who preserved an unbroken line as owners of a large estate from the 14th to the 20th Century.*

It'll be interesting to go inside the building. Here's another extract from the internet and a picture of the interior:

Baguley Hall includes one of the oldest surviving medieval timber-framed halls in England and some of the wooden beams are more than 50cm (20in) thick.

A central hearth once provided cooking and heating for the medieval household.

Catherine Dewar, the North West Regional Director at Historic England, said: "What's really special about Baguley Hall is that it's open to the roof, rather than a lot of medieval halls, which have been sub-divided and have another room above".

"It means your eyes just go upwards because you can see right up to the ceiling".

So ended a short but interesting visit. Thanks go to Jan for bringing this to my attention.

* Members of my own family may be interested to know that a line of their forebears can be traced back to the marriage of Rainaldus de Balliole to Aimeria in 1082 as part of the Weston of Weston Under Lizard pedigree that later merged with the Weston of Rugeley pedigree, so we can trace our family tree back about 30 generations. What was life like for all those generations - that's a project?!

Here's a video that includes film of the interior.

Saturday 4 July 2026 - Wythenshawe parkrun #673

Back to normal, after missing a few weeks - there are no parkruns in Romania, and very few people out running there - and it's one of Richard Evans' quick briefings before 404 runners and walkers set off on two laps of the nice dry course with no obstacles.

And they are off.

I was even closer to the back than usual as an Ischia bursitis (aka Pain in the Bum) problem means that for the moment running is out of the question for me. I tracked Mark Jones (yellow t-shirt below) all the way to the finish, my walking pace just matching his run/walk technique.

That gave me time for a short chat with Mark Critchley, who was marshalling at Far Bridge.

Looking back from there - there were very few people behind me as I walked round in 46:51, in position 396/404.

Full results are here, and Jeanette was able to brag about coming seventh in the age related results, just ahead of Paul and Sue. After being plagued with injuries for so long, this was a great achievement. (Don't overdo it Jeanette!)

Time for a well earned coffee and cake.

Rain and Run

9 June - a quiet time in Timperley. Except for the vegetation, which is growing at a furious rate.

I was looking out for Kingfishers whilst sheltering from a brief shower. They didn't oblige.

By Saturday, it was time for another 5km run. Parkrun's usual venue wasn't available, so we adjourned to the back-up route which is also the original route on which Paul once came in first. I think he still holds the record for the slowest first position.

And so we gathered in the field behind the running track.

After a slow start, I passed Jeanette near the end. Here she is, finishing in front of a lady with a hair problem.

And here's her bag man.

We were slowed down by the grass, but we benefited from what appeared to be a 4.9km course. Full results are here.

Sue finished in 25:11, position 84 out of 317 participants.

I was in position 224 in 32:25.

A nice bit of exercise...

In the garden this morning (16 June), I turned on Seek to identiy a most persistent noisy bird that turned out to be a coal tit, and after a few minutes the following birds had passed within earshot:

Blackbird
Coal Tit

Dunnock

Goldfinch

Robin

House Sparrow

Carrion Crow

Starling

Jackdaw

Black-headed Gull

Barn Owl

Sunday 3 May 2026 - The Mike Dunne Memorial 10 km Run

Mike sadly succumbed to cancer in 2023. He was a stalwart member of Sale Harriers and was committed to helping out in whatever way he could at Wythenshawe Park's Community runs of 2km and 5km held every Sunday at the running track. This was the third Memorial Run and was completed by 195 runners and walkers in perfect conditions

My report on the 2024 event is here, and on the 2025 event, it's here. All my '10km' postings are here.

Sue and I are pictured near the 9 am start.

Off we go. I'm nearly last as usual and have a brief chat with 'Tail Runner' Alison before continuing at a modest pace.

Organiser Paul was on hand to cheer people past the bike track corner.

The course has a couple of sections where slower runners like me meet faster ones who may be 1 to 2 km ahead. I seem to meet the same folk - Paul Lockett, Frank Cordingley, Jan Williams, Tris Pocock, for example, every year. Not so many photos this year as I was battling for position with three fit ladies.

Paul was too fast for me, and I'd have had to wait a couple of minutes for Sue to pass.

Below, Paul Wood was one of only two VM70 runners, whereas there were five of us in the VM75 category. I chatted to Paul afterwards, we may encounter him on a Spunch event.

Mike Curley, one of the VM75 runners excelled himself by finishing in a time of 47:23. Well done Mike and friends.

Afterwards we lingered at length in the courtyard, whilst Jan almost bankrupted himself as coffees were ordered and re-ordered. It won't be his round again for a long time!

Sue and my results are shown below, together with my splits - despite a desire to walk after reaching the 5 km point, I seem to have gone a bit quicker after that (trying to stay ahead of the three fit ladies...)

The full results are here.

That's it for now - after another great (and successful) fundraising event.

18 to 21 April 2026 - A parkrun, a marathon, and a Spunch

 

Saturday 18 April - Wythenshawe parkrun #662. Run Director Dan nearly gets mown down by 378 runners dashing off on their Saturday morning run.

I stayed at the back for a while.

Beside the football pitches and along to Far Bridge. Soon after that we start to be lapped, the leaders finishing in a little over 17 minutes today.

I passed a few folk and finished in position 296 out of 378 participants, in 33:38. Here are some of those I overtook, at the finish.

Sue wasn't running today. Yoga took priority. Coffee and cake as usual afterwards. Full results are here.

Sunday 19 April - The Manchester Marathon

With all our local roads closed for this event, I took a stroll into Timperley village and Brooklands Road. Found Fechin, who used to run marathons in under two and a half hours, glad that he wasn't in today's race despite perfect conditions. I wished I'd been running/walking, it was a great event. I took a few snaps of random runners, and I saw Richard Evans storm past at well under three hour pace. Well done, Richard.

Here are the snaps I took on the day, including throngs of folk coming along Park Road, seemingly hours after the leaders had sped through.

Tuesday 21 April - Spunch Cheadle Hulme

This running/walking event was a nice activity for a sunny but cool evening. Here's Sue beside a pond that rather blocked our way to a certain satellite point. We lost time here.

Back at the Pointing Dog pub after our 120 minute outing, we enjoyed a beer and a meal whilst waiting for Alistair Pooler to return to base with a very creditable haul of 920 Spunch points. Here are the results:

Here's the 12km route that I took. Sue did the same but picked up a couple of outliers whilst I had a rest.

Spunch turns out to be good fun. We will book some more events shortly.