Salford Hall Hotel

Dating from 1470 and built as a guest residence for the monks of Evesham Abbey, the Grade I listed Salford Hall is now a luxury hotel in the Best Western group. ‘A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 3’ (1945) gives a detailed description of Salford Hall, the following a small extract. ‘Salford Hall at Abbots Salford, 7/8 mile south-west of the church, is a large house with some timber-framing, but mostly of stone and with tiled roofs. The plan mainly consists of three ranges about a rectangular courtyard, the entrance front and hall facing north, and a wall closing the south side of the courtyard. The west range probably belonged to a late-15th-century house built by the Abbots of Evesham, and is said to have had a chapel east of it which disappeared in later alterations. The north and east ranges were added by John Alderford, whose motto appears above the north porch, with the date 1662, a restorer’s mistake for 1602. He used the local blue lias, Cotswold oolite, and sandstone. The work of enlargement was completed by his son-in-law and successor, Charles Stanford. The Stanfords were a Roman Catholic family and early in the 18th century converted the ground floor of the north range to its present use as a chapel, which was served by Benedictine monks from 1727 until nearly the end of the century. From 1807 to 1838 the house was occupied by a community of English Benedictine nuns from Cambrai, whence it is still locally known as the Nunnery.’

The nuns who had returned to England during the French Revolutionary War and eventually moved on from Salford to Stanbrook Abbey.

It has been suggested that a nun, one who was possibly murdered at Salford Hall still haunts the hotel.