The Great Hall at Mains is a timber-framed building, built to replicate an original Banqueting Hall that was on this exact spot over 500 years ago and - despite its new appearance, beneath us, lie several hundred years of history...if not more.

Famous Local Family Links ~ Rebels and Religion

Cardinal Allen

Cardinal Allen was always welcome at the Mains estate, his sister Elizabeth Allen being married to William Hesketh, a descendent of the Heskeths who also owned Rufford Old Hall (now a National Trust property).

As well as the priest hole discovered in the 'old' Great Hall at Mains, there are still priest holes contained within the main Hall. These carefully concealed hiding places were used by priests during the raids that were mounted repeatedly by the Protestant authorities.

No doubt Cardinal Allen and other persecuted priests, spent many an hour hiding here in fear of their lives.

As well as providing a sanctuary for the persecuted Catholic priests, a later member of the Hesketh family 'unwillingly' gave food and shelter to a marauding party of Scots troopers during the Jacobite rebellion in 1715. Her husband, a possible sympathiser of the 'Old Pretender', wisely, kept himself in seclusion for fear of retribution.