Old Madam Of Egerton Hall

There was an Egerton Hall which dated from 1826 and was built by Edmund Ashworth. This building was demolished in 1956. However, in ‘Lancashire Legends’ (1873), John Harland and T T Wilkinson refer to a haunted, older Egerton Hall, which was all but demolished by their time of writing and dating from possibly the 17th century. Back then, Egerton was little more than a collection of farms, cottages and a few chapels.

According to Harland and Wilkinson ‘Egerton Hall, in the township of Turton, was a quaint old residence some two centuries ago; but most of it has been pulled down, and the rest converted into a plain modern cottage. There was a curious legend connected with the old house, which still clings to the site, respecting the occasional appearance of the form of an old lady, dressed in white silk, and who is known by the name of the “Old Madam” to the residents in the district. This tradition is a very common one in most parts of Lancashire, as well as in other counties, and answers to the “Lady in White,” who has become the common property of the folk-lore of nearly every country in Europe.’

I currently have not identified the location of the old Egerton Hall, therefore the map below just shows a generic location in Egerton.