AUTUMN LEAVES AT THE HALL

As we watch the seasons turn and bid farewell to Autumn, we can finally take a rest from clearing the fallen leaves from the deciduous trees on The Hall Estate. With the leaf covering largely gone, views of town open up - as of course do the views of The Hall from the different places in Bradford. This year we can reflect on a gloriously golden treescape, with the Autumn shades more vivid than in recent years. The weeks of sunshine in the springtime followed by an intermittently damp summer have nurtured the brown and gold hues in the leaves, and the low sunlight has shown this off to good effect.

The Hall Estate has some magnificent Beech trees and a particularly grand Copper Beech almost right behind The Hall itself. Most interesting, however, is the great Cut Leaf Beech that stands near to the octagonal ‘Dovecote’ building on the south side of the Estate by the Kingston Road, its canopy spreading far onto the lawn. These leaves fall thickly, almost carpeting the grass, and the distinctive fern-like cuts in the leaves can easily be seen. John Moulton (Alex’s older brother) could remember being shown this tree - and its special nature explained to him - by his second cousin (once removed) Betty Coney in the 1920s. Betty was a niece of Alice Moulton; orphaned as a young child she spent much time at The Hall in the early years of the 20th century.

One of the finest views of The Hall is from beneath the Cut Leaf Beech tree. One can sit here and wonder of what the house has seen over the past 420 years, of how the trees have grown up around it and perhaps of those times - nearly a hundred years ago - when Betty picked up the leaves to show the young John Moulton.

His younger brother Alex was of too tender years for such nature lessons - although much later he would be an advocate of biomimicry - preferring to run daringly along the top of the wall by the Kingston Road shouting out to anyone who could hear him: “one day all of this will be mine.” Alex Moulton, even from an early age, always had a habit of being right.

The distinctive fern-like Cut Leaf Beech leaves.

The Hall from under the extensive canopy of the Cut Leaf Beech tree.

The West Lawn, with the Wesleyan Chapel beyond.

Beech trees tower above the stone pergola and the Croquet Lawn.

The Hall from the east, seemingly dwarfed by the tall trees.