Scale Hall
Scale Hall is named after the Hall that existed at Scale, with Scale coming from the Old Norse word of ‘skali’ or ‘temporary hut, shieling’. A ‘skali’ would have been used when minding animals on the salt marsh pasture.
Scale was first mentioned in 1577 on Saxton’s map of Lancashire, although it was possibly held by a man called Thomas Travers in 1324. It was confiscated by Parliament in the mid-1600s from the Bradshaws of Preesall and Wrampool for treason during the Civil War. The present Scale Hall is a small manor house building of around 1700 with adjoining farm buildings. It is likely to be on the same site as the medieval manor house.
Scale Ford across the Lune was originally used or owned by the monks of the Priory and was referred to as Priestwath – a wath (or vað) is the Old Norse word for a ford, usually it was a tidal crossing that would involve crossing salt marsh, mud flats and river channels.
From around the First World War there was a small airfield at Scale Hall where the current Grosvenor Park housing estate sits. It seems to have gone out of regular use probably just before the Second World War. Scale Hall was also used for the Royal Lancashire Agricultural Show in 1925.
The photograph shows the front of Scale Hall in 1889 – rather smarter than the sides and back!