Picture postcard - "Worsley Hall Grounds" with the stamp cancelled by a partial ECCLES postmark 22.JU.06? Coal has been mined around Worsley from as long ago as 1376,The burgeoning village became a hub of commercial activity. Secondary schools include Worsley Golf Club was founded in 1894 on part of the Earl of Ellesmere's estate at Broadoak Park. In 1561 Thurstan Tyldesley was granted a licence for an oratory, and a private chapel was built inside the Gatehouse on the north side of the house.For more than two centuries Wardley Hall has been known as the ‘House of the Skull’; there have been two theories concerning the origin of the skull, which is kept in a niche at the side of the main staircase.One theory was that it was the skull of Roger Downes, who was buriedThe same legend added that his skull was sent to his sister at Wardley.However, this story has been rejected by most experts and was disproved about a century after his death when the vault was opened and his skeleton found to be intact, apart from the upper portion of the skull which had been sawn off above the eyes, apparently for some form of post-mortem investigations to ascertain the cause of his death.The most expert historical opinions favour the second theory – that it is the skull of St Ambrose Barlow, the fourth son of Sir Alexander Barlow, of Barlow Hall in Didsbury, and who was related to the Downes family.Edward Barlow – he took the name Ambrose on becoming a Benedictine monk – was born in Manchester in 1585. Worsley, the town from which they took their name, is now a suburb of Manchester. In 1961, the bunker was sold to The site of the New Hall and gardens remained in the ownership of Bridgewater Estates Ltd until 1984 when the company was acquired by Peel Holdings, now In 2011, an archaeological excavation of the site of the New Hall, funded by Peel and carried out by the Worsley New Hall's formal landscaped gardens were set out in the early 1840s, with further developments over the next 50 years.Landscaping included terrace gardens constructed by A croquet lawn and tennis court were near to the terraces. He was arrested and taken to Lancaster Castle escorted by a posse of 60 men. A branch of the Worsley family settled at Platt Hall, Lancashire, now within greater Manchester.The hall was bought by Ralph Worsley (1625) from the Platt family. They were an old Lancashire family; legend says they were descended from Elias, a giant who died fighting on the Crusades. It illustrates well the change from open-hall to 2-storey living in the C16. WORSLEY, a village, a township, a chapelry, and a sub-district, in Eccles parish, Barton-upon-Irwell district, Lancashire.