Hall in a day's work as hundreds of years of history laid bare

Hidden behind trees between Preston and Blackburn lies Samlesbury Hall, a medieval manor house steeped in history.

- by Mike Hill

For 700 years, this striking black-and-white timbered manor house has witnessed love, loss, betrayal, reinvention, and more than a few ghostly encounters.

Now, a new book offers a richly detailed portrait of this extraordinary building.

Titled Samlesbury Hall - A Journey Through Time, it's a celebration of the hall's past and a fresh invitation for readers to connect with its present.

Author Jason Karl is a trustee of the hall and spent hours delving into the building's archive of historical documents, records, maps, hand-written accounts and cross-referencing with published books and online materials.

He said: "A clear story presented itself and is told here for the first time.

"History is often nuanced, personalised, and incomplete, and the sense here is that of a continuing narrative.

"Due to the constraints of space, some material could not be covered, perhaps for a second volume in the future."