Hyde Hall in 1794

Hyde Hall in 1794

According to Pigot & Company's Trade Directory of 1834

Hyde Hall, the seat of Hyde John Clarke, Esquire, is a building of some considerable antiquity; recent improvements have deprived the exterior of its ancient appearance, but a greater part of the interior is in its original state. It is pleasantly situated on the river Tame, but the rapid progress made in manufacture, and the introduction of machinery to such a vast extent and power has materially deteriorated from the beauties of the adjacent scenery.

Hyde Hall (not to be confused with its surviving namesake in Denton) was situated on the left bank of the river Tame, a short distance to the east of Clarke's Bridge over the river (not to be confused with Captain Clarke's Bridge over the Peak Forest Canal). The drive to the hall was off Mill Lane, just above the bridge. On the opposite side of the river in Glass House Fold, Haughton, Lancashire, the Clarke family worked coal pits where a company of refugee Flemish glass makers and blowers had settled during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Around 1793, George Hyde Clarke built Clarke's Bridge over the river Tame at the bottom of Mill Lane. He did this in order to improve the supply of coal into Hyde and also in anticipation of the opening of the Peak Forest Canal, in which he was a major shareholder. The lower level of the canal opened in 1799/1800. However, this single-arched bridge was seriously damaged, and possibly destroyed, by the great flood that occurred on the 17 August 1799. (The present Mill Lane bridge over the River Tame was erected in 1895).

Notwithstanding this, a tramway was constructed from Glass House Fold, over this bridge, or its successor, along the side of Mill Lane for a short distance and then up the field by Hyde Hall to a wharf on the canal where coal from the pit, carried in horse-drawn waggons, was loaded into boats. The date of abandonment of this pit is unknown but there is no reference to it in the 1888 Distance Table of the Peak Forest Canal.

The original Hyde Hall, dating from the seventeenth century, was considerably altered in the mid eighteenth century creating the Georgian country house pictured above. The hall was demolished in 1857, but the farm building, on the left in this picture, survived into the twentieth century. The site of the Hall was purchased by Hyde Corporation in 1924.

A map dated 1882 appears to show Hyde Hall itself occupying the land that is now Kingston Recreation Ground. Hyde Mill is shown adjacent to the river in an area now occupied by a Fairhaven caravan park.

A fuller account of the Clarke Family of Hyde can found at http://www.pittdixon.go-plus.net/clarke/clarke.htm

Recent photographs of Kingston Recreation Ground can be found on Hyde Daily Photograph and also on Hyde DP Xtra.

I'm indebted to Paul Hyde-Clarke for bringing some of this material to my attention.