Extwistle Hall
Extwistle Hall stands high on Extwistle Moor between Haggate, east of Brierfield, and the village of Worsthorne. It is a Grade II* listed former gentry hall-house, built principally during the 16th and 17th centuries by the Parker family, and is now in a ruinous condition.
The Parker family's association with Extwistle predates the construction of the surviving hall. In 1446 John Parker of Monk Hall and Richard Towneley of Towneley Hall were recorded as jointly holding land in Extwistle. John Parker, who died in 1507, held the capital messuage of Monk Hall together with other property in Extwistle and Briercliffe.
Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Robert Parker acquired former monastic land in Extwistle in 1537, consolidating the family's holdings in the township. Extwistle Hall subsequently became the principal seat of the Parker family.
The surviving building is described by Historic England as a 16th- and 17th-century gentry hall-house, built of coursed sandstone and arranged irregularly around three sides of a small courtyard. The hall range on the south side rises to three storeys, with the first-floor hall above a service basement. At the east end is a lower two-storey cross-wing, probably dating from the 16th century, while the west end incorporates a four-storey stair wing which survives from what was once a substantially larger later-17th-century cross-wing.
Notable architectural features include a large hall window of thirty lights divided by a king mullion and two transoms, a 16th-century window of three round-headed lights, king-post roof trusses and surviving decorative plasterwork. The hall contains a moulded arched fireplace and a foliated overmantel bearing the Latin inscription CRAS NESCIO CUIUS.
The Parkers became prominent members of the Lancashire gentry. John Parker of Extwistle served as High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1653 and Robert Parker held the same office in 1710. Robert Parker married Elizabeth Banastre, a co-heiress of Christopher Banastre of Bank, through whom property at Cuerden passed into the Parker family.
The Parkers also had longstanding connections with the Towneley family. Members of the two families were joint landholders in Extwistle by the 15th century, and in 1561 John Parker of Extwistle and John Towneley of Towneley jointly confirmed regulations governing the use of Extwistle Moor. John Parker of Extwistle also married Margaret Townley, daughter of Lawrence Townley of the Barnside branch of the family. Several generations later Robert Parker of Cuerden married Anne Townley, heiress of the Townleys of Royle, and their descendants became known as the Townley Parkers.
The Parker family's occupation of Extwistle as its principal residence ended in the early 18th century. On 17 March 1718 an explosion of gunpowder occurred in the dining room of the hall. Captain Robert Parker, his daughters Mary Townley and Betty Atkinson, and a child were seriously injured, and two rooms caught fire. Parker died from his injuries on 21 April.
According to the later account of the incident, the accident occurred after Parker returned from shooting in wet weather and placed his greatcoat near the fire to dry without first removing a quantity of gunpowder from it. The family subsequently ceased to use Extwistle Hall as its principal residence and established itself at Cuerden Hall, although Extwistle and the surrounding estate remained in the ownership of the Parkers and their descendants.
The family's move westwards did not end its ownership of land in Briercliffe and Extwistle. Through later marriages and inheritances the Townley Parker estates came to include Cuerden, the former Townley estate at Royle and Astley Hall, while Extwistle remained part of the family's East Lancashire holdings. By the 19th century Extwistle Hall was principally used as an estate property and farmhouse rather than as the family's main residence.
The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, published in 1911, described Extwistle Hall as a farmhouse and recorded the continued ownership of substantial land in the township by the descendants of the Parker family. Historic England records that the hall was altered, partly destroyed and remodelled during the later 19th century with what remains being around half the footprint of the house at the start of the 19th century.
Extwistle Hall was designated a Grade II* listed building on 1 April 1953. By the late 20th and early 21st centuries the building had fallen into serious disrepair. It was reported in 2012 to have been unoccupied for more than twenty years and to be owned by an Isle of Man-based property company. That year plans costing approximately £2.4 million were announced for a development intended to enable the restoration of the hall.
The proposed restoration did not proceed and Extwistle Hall has remained on the Heritage at Risk Register. Burnley Borough Council's 2023–24 Authority Monitoring Report recorded the building's condition as "very bad" and placed it in priority category A, stating that no progress had been made on temporary or permanent repairs or refurbishment and that no solution for its repair and reuse had been agreed.
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