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Alford Manor House is now closed until 2006 for restoration.
Description
Alford Manor House was given to the town by Dorothy Higgins, whose Grandfather had once lived there. In 1967 Alford Civic Trust was formed with the aim of preserving the House, and it is now owned by Alford and District Civic Trust Ltd., a Registered Charity No. 252330.
Alford Manor House is a Grade II* listed Building, and we think it could be one of England's largest thatched Manor Houses. Recent research by a York University archaeological team has dated the House to 1611. We now also know that the building was erected from the start as a timber and masonry structure. There is now no question of it having been a mud and stud house. Alford Manor House is the historic focal point of the town, along with St. Wilfrid's Church. It has links, through its American Connections exhibition, with many notable figures of the past: Anne Hutchinson, the famous female preacher and founder of Rhode Island; John Smith, who was a pupil at the local grammar school and the founder of the American colony of Jamestown, and the first governor of Virginia; and with Thomas Paine, the author of the influential "Rights of Man". Both Presidents Roosevelt and Bush were direct descendants of Anne Hutchinson. The Manor House was for many years the possession of the descendants of Sir Robert Christopher, whose effigy can still be seen in the chancel of St. Wilfrid's Church.
Collections description
To the rear of the Manor House is the Hackett Barn, which is a museum of memorabilia and bygones: it contains lovingly restored examples of agricultural and other machinery, as well as a fine Victorian hearse, the original Alford town stocks, carts, a horse-drawn fire engine, and many other fascinating exhibits.
