The Hall
An outstanding example of early Jacobean architecture
One of the finest houses in the West Country.
‘The Hall’ in Bradford on Avon is an outstanding example of early Jacobean architecture. It was built around 1610 by John Hall, whose family had been in Bradford on Avon since medieval times. It replaced an earlier house on the site and is built of freestone from the quarry on the estate. The building has a spectacular three-gable south front, it is tall, compact, and almost entirely glazed, and has been described as one of the finest houses in the West Country.
Bradford on Avon was a notable centre of the woollen industry in the 14th - 18th centuries and the quality of buildings in the town, including The Hall, reflect the affluence of those involved. The Hall family are known to have been active in the town’s weaving industry as early as 1170 but over subsequent centuries the family enhanced its wealth and status by renting out land and buildings and by extending its landholdings by acquisition and by marriage.
After John Hall’s death in 1631, the mansion passed down the male line until the estates passed to a daughter, Rachel Baynton. She became the Duchess of Kinston with The Hall subsequently renamed Kingston House. In 1722, her son inherited Kingston House and in 1769 he married Elizabeth Chudleigh (the notorious Duchess of Kingston). After his death in 1773, she inherited the estate but spent little time at Kingston House and in 1805 it was bought by Thomas Divett a London industrialist. He replaced the old grist mill that stood to the south-west of Kingston House with the five-storey Kingston Mill. Kingston House was then used as a workshop, store, and accommodation for weavers. By 1848 it was said to be sadly decayed and dilapidated.
In the early part of the 19th century the woollen industry in Bradford on Avon was in serious decline. The introduction of factory working in the north of England, the failure of the local bank, unemployment, and the subsequent emigration of many of the workforce had a disastrous effect on the town’s economy.
The house and the town were rescued in 1848 by Stephen Moulton who purchased Kingston House and the adjoining mills. Stephen spent two years carefully restoring the fabric which included replacing decayed stone to the south front and reglazing the windows. He also made various changes to the house, primarily alteration of the main access from the south side to the north and associated modification to the ground floor plan.
Earlier Stephen had moved to America to pursue his business interests. There he became acquainted with Charles Goodyear who discovered the vulcanising method of treating rubber to make it a useable material. Stephen returned to England to manufacture rubber under licence and was encouraged by his friend, Captain Palariet of Woolley Grange, to establish his new venture in Bradford on Avon. With vacant woollen mills, water power, and a willing but unemployed workforce Bradford on Avon was an ideal choice and the business prospered.
In 1891 Spencer Moulton was formed by a merger with London based engineers George Spencer and in 1956 Spencer Moulton became part of the Avon Rubber Company. The rubber industry in the town ended in 1992. Kingston House, later to be re-named once again ‘The Hall’ became the family home of four generations of the Moulton family and remained so until Stephen’s great grandson, the engineer Dr Alex Moulton, died there in 2012. The Hall, and its setting, as seen today reflect these 150 years of occupation by the Moulton family.
The Hall Estate
The Hall Estate is central to the town of Bradford on Avon, yet it is almost completely hidden away - a secret, almost mythical space mixing industry and nature, creativity and innovation. The Hall Estate is multi-faceted and provides interest and delight to all who visit. History runs deep here – in people, culture, architecture, industry and landscapes. Overlooking all of this is The Hall itself, a magnificent Jacobean mansion that for over four centuries has stood like a lighthouse overlooking and directing a sea of industrial change.
The Hall Estate appeals to many interests - architects, designers, historians, engineers, industrial archaeologists - and, of course, all of those inspired by the life and works of Dr. Alex Moulton in fields as varied and diverse as bicycles, cars, kayaks, and in the rubber industry itself. The Hall was never a landed estate, but rather was built as a grand town house for the wealthy clothier John Hall. As such it is a house of industry rather than aristocracy and the gardens reflect that, being modest in scale yet perfectly proportioned with the size of the house itself.
The Grounds at The Hall
When Stephen Moulton came to The Hall in 1848, the grounds were very different to what we see today. A significant area was given over to orchards and there were substantial buildings both behind and in front of the The Hall itself. These buildings were likely used by the cloth trade and Moulton wasted little time in demolishing them and clearing the land as he restored The Hall from its derelict state. Moulton’s new business in the manufacture of rubber could not be carried out on the scale of a ‘cottage industry’; the heavy (and expensive) machinery would be installed in the Kingston Mill and hence the small buildings were no longer required. Fortunately he spared the Dovecote, a former wool-drying store built to an octagonal pattern, and this still stands in the corner of the grounds today, down by the Kingston Road gate,
Stephen Moulton planted the great Californian Redwoods that are on the site, but it was his sons Horatio and John who are largely responsible for the garden as we see it today. Horatio was only resident at The Hall for fifteen years but it is understood that during this time he transformed the garden with formal terracing, retaining walls and landscaping, as well as extending the lawns and planting many new trees. Following Horatio’s death in 1894, Stephen Moulton’s youngest son, John, was entrusted with The Hall and the grounds. Like Horatio, John was keen to build up the stature of the estate and turned his attention to the east of the house, where the old Kingston Farm stood. Down by the mill stream that led to the Kingston Mill stood an old dye-house. As this was no longer required, Moulton had the land levelled and a Dutch Garden was created on the site with greenhouses and an attractive stone shelter - the latter survives but sadly the Peach House and the Orchid House are long gone. When ‘Country Life’ visited in 1899 they praised the “wonderfully compact garden” and what had been done with it: “Though opportunities are fewer here than in many places for elaborate and extensive gardening, the gardens of The Hall, Bradford, may be classed as amongst the most interesting of their kind in England and afford an excellent example of what intelligent and loving care can accomplish, where casual interest and indifferent attention would have achieved very little.”
John Moulton’s work was not complete, and at the dawn of the new century he engaged Harold Brakspear as his architect and set about transforming the old barn and outbuildings of the Kingston Farm into a Stable Block and yard worthy of the grandest of country houses. In parallel with this he created a landscaped garden down to the mill stream and the River Avon.
John Moulton’s new Stable Block, built in Scottish Baronial style under the direction of the architect Harold Brakspear.
In the image above one can see the Pergola on the left, with the Motor House in front of it. The barn has been gentrified by the addition of a dormer and a belfry cupola which may have been intended to mirror that on the Kingston Mill.
The stable block in the centre, complete with round tower, is all new and reminiscent of the Scottish Estates that John Moulton so liked to visit every year.
In the background are the Estate cottages that back onto the Holt Road.
The hillside beyond, today covered with housing, is completely clear except for the trees. The trees on the Estate itself are freshly planted, whereas now they tower above the buildings.
The Alex Moulton Charitable Trust are lucky enough to possess a whole series of these wonderful panoramic photographs depicting the building of this new stable block, with images of the rustic farmyard of the 19th century through to the stables of John Moulton’s self-created country seat.
The Stone Shelter in the Dutch Garden
The Dutch Garden with the Dovecote
The Garden Temple and the Rock Garden
These three images show The Hall Estate at the height of its glory during the golden age of Edwardian England.
John Moulton is shown in the ‘Stone Shelter’, in the Garden Temple behind the Rock Garden (the photograph is carefully framed to also show the new Belfry Cupola on the Barn), and the Dutch Garden with the octagonal ‘Dovecote’, with the Peach House on the right.
The origins of the Garden Temple are unknown; certainly it was erected on this site around 1901, but clearly it was relocated from elsewhere. All of these buildings (except the Peach House) still survive on the Estate; the Stone Shelter and the Garden Temple are largely unaffected by the passage of time and have lost little of their charm.
Sadly the Dutch Garden has disappeared, but fortunately the 17th century ‘Dovecote’, built as a wool-drying store, remains.
The more formal gardens nearer to The Hall are kept in the style favoured by Alex Moulton, that of ‘green shapes and gravel.’ There are lawns for Archery and Croquet, and one of the terraced lawns was once laid out for bowling. The entirety of the garden is encircled by Alex Moulton’s cycle path, constructed so that he could cycle every day without tackling the busy roads of Bradford.