A fire at a mansion outside Manchester reported in The Daily Telegraph on March 19 led Alistair Lexden to recall an earlier tragedy in a letter published in the paper on March 21.
SIR--Wythenshawe Hall’s recent fire (report, March 19) is not the first grave misfortune to befall it. During the Civil War, Robert Tatton, a somewhat lukewarm royalist, decided to resist the local parliamentary forces when they advanced on the house in November 1644. The defenders’ resolve was stiffened when they were barred from the nearby churchyard, forcing them to bury their dead in the unconsecrated garden. An enraged woman killed the parliamentarians’ second in command. Two cannons had to be brought from Manchester to “reduce” the Hall in February 1645. The Tattons later got it back from the Roundheads for £707 and restored it. This time the task falls on the people of Manchester who have owned the Hall and its grounds since the 1920s.