We were very excited to support an event at Baguley Hall in Wythenshawe, near Manchester. This stunning Grade-I listed building medieval manor house includes one of the oldest surviving medieval timber-framed halls in England. Built in the 14th Century, the building has been owned by the government since 1968 and for more than fifty years was maintained by English Heritage. It was sold in 2025 by Historic England to a charity called Heritage Trust North West, which aims to reopen the hall and restore it to its former glory.
We were delighted to be invited along to an open day in support of HTNW’s work. As the community got the chance to walk the grounds of the hall, our members chatted to local people about the civil war history of the site and enjoyed themselves with some food and drink provided by local businesses!
Let our Lieutenant of Pike, Ian, tell you all about the day…
@english.civil.war History, cocktails, chilling, and dancing – what a day we had at Baguley Hall! We were very excited to support this event at Baguley Hall, a stunning medieval house in Wytenshawe near Manchester. Recently taken over by Heritage Trust North West, the event was part of efforts to open the hall back up and restore it to its former glory. Our merry band had a great day meeting the local community, who are super enthusiastic about bringing the building back to life. And what a great way to begin that process – a fun day in the sun with lots of stalls, food vendors and a bit of live music too! A huge thanks to Heritage Trust North West for the invite to be a part of the festivities and we hope we can help support their work to restore the hall again in the future! #Manchester #Wythenshawe #History #Reenactment #LoveManchester
The day at Baguley Hall was a bit different from our usual reenactment outings. Normally we’d have our weapons on hand, pre-planned displays for the audience and a backdrop of canvas tents bringing the English Civil War atmosphere to life.
This event however felt a bit different but in a very good way. The community around the hall had come together to celebrate a piece of their local history been given back to them. Our presence at the event was to provide a visible connection to the history and we had a wonderful time posing for photos and improvising different skit the hall inspired.
Of course, there were lots of questions about us and the 17th Century history of the hall which we were happy to answer. Big shout out to David from The Friends of Wythenshawe Hall for bringing us up to speed with the local history and its importance.
One of our highlights of the day was visiting each of the stalls and speaking with each of the traders. I started the day with a coffee from Java Johns. Lunch was a peppered steak baguette and dessert was the biggest wedge of carrot cake you can imagine, could have easily served the whole pike block with that thing.
All the traders were great sports when we wanted to take pictures with them and some even embraced our chaos and let us take over for a little bit too. The cocktail bar even rewarded us for our ‘hard work’ (or was it a bribe to get their bar back who knows).
Why not join us and experience an event like this for yourself — you could be taking part for as little as £10, with your kit provided! Message us now and you could: