Ordsall Hall in Salford is where Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes and their merry men came up with an audacious plan to blow up London’s Houses of Parliament, in the gunpowder plot back in 1605. Guy Fawkes et al may have been considered villains by many back then, and even to this day, and it’s not surprising there is only one street in the country named after any of them (AFAIK). Guy Fawkes Street runs down one side of Ordsall Hall which is itself an incongruous gem in a maze of somewhat mismatched housing stock which has developed in recent decades in the area.
My book for this week has to be the 1841 novel Guy Fawkes or The Gunpowder Treason by 19th century Mancunian author Harrison Ainsworth, who inspired Charles Dickens, among others.
I can’t condone violence but certainly many in the UK would agree that today’s Parliament has long needed plotting against or an overthrow of some kind... Enjoy the fireworks tonight folks - I'm off to the always awesome displays at Bowdon cricket club.
A very aptly named street and a very interesting story, enjoy the display!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun event Chrissy.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting post. Never knew about that street. Maybe I need to go and search it out as I am in Salford each month. Hope they have a spectacular firework display to go with the name.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post - but Ordsall Hall's claim is based on a novel? The plot is generally thought to have been hatched by the leader, Robert Catesby in Ashby St Ledgers, Northamptonshire. Not that I'm plugging a recent post on the subject...
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware of the Ordsall connection but Guy was always the fall-guy and scapegoat for Catesby and others.
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