Historic manor house to be restored with lottery cash

A derelict house within a country park in Greater Manchester is set to become a visitors centre for a wildlife conservation charity with the help of National Lottery funding.

The Grade II-listed Rock Hall, inside the Moses Gate Country Park in Farnworth, was built in 1807 and has been empty for more than 10 years.

Sam Elliott, the head of culture at Bolton Council, said: "Rock Hall has got a lot of heritage and there's a lot of ambition in the restoration project but it does need a lot of work doing to it."

"The house would've looked very grand when it was built, surrounded by what would've been an industrial landscape of mills and factories."

"We want to tell the story of the Crompton family who built the hall and the tenants who lived in the building during the 19th century," he said.

Bolton Council has secured a grant of almost £4.5m from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to deliver the Rock Hall Revival project with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust.

The cash will be used to transform Rock Hall into a visitors centre which will celebrate the building's history and connect people with nature in the Moses Gate Country Park.

More money from different sources will be needed to complete the restoration work.

Rock Hall was built in 1807 by John Crompton, whose family owned the Farnworth Paper Mills, which supplied newspapers including the Morning Post.

The Farnworth Paper Mills were eventually demolished in the early 1970s and the surrounding area became the Moses Gate Country Park.

At one point, it was suggested that a ski slope could be built in the park.

More recently, Rock Hall was used by Bolton Council's countryside wardens until 2014 and since then the building has been significantly damaged by vandals.

The Moses Gate Country Park is Bolton's largest nature reserve, with birds including swans, the tufted duck, the great-crested grebe and the common tern.

Alan Wright, from the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, said: "I remember the Moses Gate Country Park in the 1980s and it blows my mind how much it has changed.

"There are bees, butterflies and dragonflies here, alongside a healthy family of swans, so its an amazing place to come for your health and well-being."

The park is also part of the Kingfisher Trail, which is a scenic 14-mile (22.5km) route connecting the rural West Pennine Moors to Bolton, Bury and Salford.

The Farnworth Paper Mills were built in the Croal valley - an area which included coal mines, cotton mills, printworks, and bleach works.

The mills were supplied with water from three lakes beside the River Croal, known as the Crompton Lodges, before the paper factory closed in 1883.

The lodges are now used for fishing, water sports and as a wildlife reserve for migratory birds.

The Moses Gate Country Park also includes the disused Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal, which was built in 1797 to carry coal from the local collieries.

A charity called the Banana Enterprise Network was working to bring Rock Hall back into community use but its contract with Bolton Council came to an end in 2025 and the Lancashire Wildlife Trust will now operate the building.

Ed Bailey, from the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, said: "We're looking to operate this building as a community centre, to tell stories about the area's heritage and to run activities which will encourage local people to explore nature within the park.

"People often associate us with nature reserves in the middle of nowhere - but green spaces within towns and cities is really valuable for people."

The restoration of Rock Hall will include preserving its original features and demolishing an extension to the rear of the building, which was built in the 1980s.

The project is due to start next year and is expected to be completed in 2029.