Extwistle Hall

Now in ruins, the Grade II listed, Tudor style Extwistle Hall was built by the Parker family in the 16th century.   Once land owned by Kirkstall Abbey, Exwistle passed to William Ramsden following the Dissolution of the Monasteries and then to Robert Parker. The Hall remained their seat until the tragic event of 1718.

According to ‘An History of the Original Parish of Whalley, and Honor of Clitheroe’ (1818) by Thomas Dunham Whitaker, ‘Thursday March 20th 1717-18, Captain Robert Parker, two daughters, Mary Townley, Betty Atkinson and a child, were much damnified by gunpowder and two rooms much damaged. Monday April 21st 1718 Captain Parker died’

Other sources suggest this event happen on 17 March 1718, either way Captain Robert Parker had been out shooting when the weather turned very wet.  After reaching home he apparently hung his coat in front of the fire forgetting that he had a flask of gunpowder in the pocket which subsequently exploded.  Extwistle Hall was damaged by the explosion and the fire it caused, so the family abandoned the Hall following his death and moved to Cuerden Hall.

There is a bit of folklore associated with this tragedy.  The story says that Captain Parker was a Jacobite and just a few weeks before his death, whilst returning from one of their meetings, he came across a goblin funeral procession at the top of Netherwood Fields.  His own name was inscribed on coffin lid and this he saw as an omen of his own death if he did not renounce the Jacobite cause.  According to the story he severed his Jacobite connections but alas he could not save his life.

Extwistle Hall has been empty since 1975.