The Hall

Unless you have booked yourself on to a tour you will not see Moulton Hall but it is interesting to behold the size and location of the estate with its broad stone walls and great trees for maximum privacy. The building itself is a fascinating beacon of the town’s history that was designed and commissioned by John Hall in the characteristic Jacobean style in 1610.

The Hall family were influential in Bradford since 1170 and this building represents how greatly the family benefitted from the prodigious woollen industry of the town from the 14th -18th century. The house was passed down the male family line until it came into the hands of Rachel Baynton, Duchess of Kingston who renamed the Hall, Kingston House.

The Duchess’ son and heir married the infamous bigamist and lady courtier, Elizabeth Chudleigh, who abandoned the hall after his death and it fell into disrepair. The Hall was then bought by a London industrialist, Thomas Divett, who built up the woollen mills in the town and gave The Hall to accommodating the weavers.

By 1848 it was dilapidated. A dreary outlook descended on the town with the slow decline of the cottage industries, the increased use of factory workers in the North of England and a local bank crash, things were not looking up for The Hall. Fortunately, it was salvaged from obscurity by the Moulton family that very same year. Stephen Moulton converted the mills for rubber manufacture, replaced the decayed stone and reglazed the windows, modified the ground floor plan and called it Moulton Hall. The garden was planted with Great Californian Redwoods and landscaped by two of Spencer’s sons Horatio and John and the old barn and outbuildings were redesigned into grand stables.

Alex Moulton, son of John and designer of the Moulton bicycle and the hydromantic suspension system for the mini motorcar, built a cycle track around the periphery of the estate so that he could ride every day without bothering with the Bradford traffic! The Hall is now cared for by the Alex Moulton Charitable Trust and remains an attractive symbol of the towns history of industrial affluence. Walk down Mill Lane and right onto Kingston road to see more of the Moulton legacy on display.