Then & Now 1800s-2022. Hale Manor House.

The building started life as the Parsonage of Hale estate, sitting just across the road from St. Mary’s Church. The Rev. William Langford added the impressive west face to the house in the 18th century, and his coat of arms and monogram sit carved in stone over the entrance. Later on, alterations to this part of the building reduced the storeys from three to two, so increasing the ceiling height of the rooms. The Fleetwood-Heskeths family moved in to the Parsonage in 1947 because of the poor state of the adjacent Hale Hall that they had bought from the Ireland-Blackburne family. It is a much smaller building than Hale Hall, the grand manor of the estate which was demolished nearby in 1981. It became a Grade II* listed building in May 1958. 

Like the rest of the village, Hale Manor, once built as part of a south lancashire estate in Whiston Rural District, became one of the northernmost villages of Cheshire in 1974 as part of Halton Borough. Outside the hall stands the Childe Of Hale statue, a sculpture that was designed by artists Phil Bews and Geoff Wilson who carved the giant out of a dead beech tree in 1966, and after deterioration replaced by a three metre bronze statue in 2013 by Halton Council, cast by Castle Fine Arts Foundry, after villagers were consulted for their views. It celebrates the life of John Middleton (1578-1623) who was said to be the same size as biblical warrior, Golilath. o The archive image is taken from an undated 19th century postcard.