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Hoghton Tower is fortified manor house in the town of Chorley about 6 miles east of Preston, Lancashire. It has been the ancestral home of the De Hoghton family since the time of William the Conqueror. It features a mile long driveway to the main gates. The original driveway extended far further and the cost of lining it with red carpet for the arrival of King Charles nearly bankrupted the Family.
The Hoghton family has been at Houghton since the 12th century, but the dramatic manor house that you can see today is primarily a product of the mid-Tudor period. The house is shaped like a figure-8, with two inner courtyards entered through a gatehouse.
The house was completed by Thomas Hoghton in 1565, but Thomas, a Catholic, stayed in it only 4 years before fleeing to the Low Countries, where he died. Thomas' nephew Richard enjoyed rather more politically correct views, and earned the favour of James I, who visited Hoghton in 1617.
Sir Richard, who hoped the king would relieve him of money-losing alum mines, laid out the red carpet for James' visit - literally. Red carpeting was laid for the entire length of the half mile avenue leading to the house. The king must have been impressed by the lavish welcome and the feasting, because he bought the mines. Richard's good fortune did not last long; only a few years later he was imprisoned in Fleet Prison for debt.
Richard's son, Gilbert, fought for Charles I in the Civil War, though Gilbert's own son (named Richard, like his grandfather), chose the Roundhead cause, and Hoghton Tower was besieged by Parliamentary troops in 1643. Eventually the defenders capitulated, but when the Roundheads entered the house the powder magazine in the tower between the two courtyards exploded and killed over 100 Parliamentary men. The tower was never rebuilt.
The banqueting hall was often used as a 'dissenting' chapel as succeeding generations of Hoghtons were Presbyterian dissenter. Hoghtons were interested in parish affairs and they moved from Hoghton Tower to be closer to the political action. The house was no longer used Charles Dickens found it in a state of disrepair when he visited it in 1854. The mood of the place did prompt Dickens to write a story "George Silverman's Explanation", in which the house features prominently.
Hoghton Tower was not restored until 1870, after a century of neglect. Despite the loss of many family portraits and collectibles in a fire, the work was finished in 1901.
Submitted by Robby Robinson
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