OUR HISTORY

The story of Wistaston Hall goes back to King Harold, whom William the Conqueror defeated at the Battle of Hastings, although there is not much know about the history of the Hall during this period.

In 1607, the Walthalls became Lords of the Manor, and the family continues to reside at the Hall until 1922. In 1694, and inventory was drawn up and contains the first description of what the house would have looked like. There was a main house with a parlour, a buttery and a pantry on the ground floor, and an attic room and bed chamber above on the first floor.

A number of owners have followed since 1922. Firstly, the Pralls, whose daughter ran a school at the Hall. The next owners were Rolls Royce, who used the Hall as a country club, until it was bought for the Oblate Mission. Since the Oblates took over in 1943, many additions and alterations have been made and many people in Wistaston now know it from the inside.

The area of Wistaston that the Hall is situated in is known by locals as ‘Joey the Swan’, named after a large aggressive swan that lived here in the 1930s, and was known to the people that lived here as Joey. Although he was pampered by the villagers he was know to deliver a vicious peck from time to time. Joey had a routine of flying on to the driveway of the Hall every day as the bakery van made its deliveries, he liked to eat the crumbs that were left behind. This is how he met his end, when the driver of the van reversed over him. The villagers later buried him in the nearby woods.