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Chorley, with its grim industrial atmosphere, is
the indirect source of a great art collection: Henry Tate,
founder of the sugar firm, was born here in 1819, and with the
fortune he made, he endowed London's tate gallery. After five minutes' walk from Union Street car park you escape through the big
gates of Astley Hall into spacious and peaceful parkland. It takes three or four
times as long to stroll across to the Hall (open to the public).
This Renaissance structure is superbly set beside placid water. |
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The oldest part dates back to the 16th cent.,
the main front having been rebuilt in the 17th. The entrance
leads into the great hall with its wooden panel portraits,
including those of Drake and Columbus. The drawing-room has a
fantastically decorated ceiling and tapestries with scenes from
the story of the Golden Fleece. Astley Hall's many interesting features and fine furniture include the
long gallery's shovel-table, 23^ ft long. In one bedchamber is a bed Cromwell
is said to have slept in after the battle of Preston. An upper room has been
converted into a modern art gallery.
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