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Bradshaw Hall, Bolton

All that remains of Bradshaw Hall is the articulate stone entrance porch. The Hall, standing adjacent to the woodland setting was in a prominent location alongside the entrance to Bradshaw Bleachworks, which was an expansive grouping of old mills and ancillary buildings.

The Hall was demolished by the Bleachworks Association in 1949. It had been the family home of the Hardcastle family who were previous owners of the site. Subsequently the property fell within the ownership of the Whitecroft Group plc through their purchase of the Bleachworks Association. Their long established subsidiary company George Longden Estates were instructed to ascertain the level of support from Bolton Council that a redevelopment would attract. By this time the site formed part of the Jumbles Country Park which reinforced its status within the Greenbelt.

We had established an excellent working relationship with the Whitecroft Group, previously undertaking redevelopment design proposals for Kendal Town Centre and completing several rural and semi-rural residential conversion developments such as the award winning Dunscar Fold Development in Bolton.

The concept of retention and conversion of several buildings into residential use enabled the Planning Authority to support our proposals for additional infill development in the form of new housing within this Greenbelt location. This was a large development over a substantial area of contaminated land and the site clearance and remediation was a lengthy and expensive process.

Our sensitive design philosophy was to be consistent with the simplicity of each individual dwelling on the basis that the completed development would consequently have a pleasing harmony, rhythm and human scale. This proved to be a successful decision, resulting in the development winning Five National Housing Awards and a Civic Trust Award. The Bradshaw Hall development opened doors for us as a practice with invites from neighbouring Local Authorities to participate in similar Regeneration proposals and initiatives.

This development has become iconic through the introduction of stimulating townscape techniques and use of local materials creating a sense of distinctiveness with strong identity and sequence of space.