Mulcture Hall
Drawing of main doorway to Mulcture Hall, Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Author: H.R. Oddy
Date: 1906
Location: Halifax
Format: Drawing
Document ID: 100854
Library ID: 14313753
Drawing [poss 1890s] by H.R. Oddy of Mulcture Hall, on Mill Lane (now Mulcture Hall Lane), Halifax. The hall was built about 1631 (carved on the keystone above the doorway) and is likely to have stood near the manorial corn mill on the Hebble Brook. 'Mulcture', or measure, refers to the portion of flour or corn that was due to the lords of the manor as a tax or tithe. Before this hall was built, there stood a timber building on this site belonging to the Prior of Lewes, under whose authority were the Halifax Parish Church and much local property.
The hall in the drawing was built by Sir John Power, merchant, who provided it with yard-thick walls and heavy mullioned windows and added a fine 16th century plaster ceiling. There is a story that when the plague hit Halifax in August 1645, all the occupants of the Hall fell victim to the epidemic. In the 19th century, the building was used as a common lodging house, and by the 20th it had fallen into severe disrepair and was demolished in 1937. The plaster ceiling was saved and preserved at Bankfield Museum. The phrase DISCE PATI above the doorway roughly translates as 'learn by suffering'.
Image taken from "The Yorkshire Coiners 1767-1783. And Notes on Old and Prehistoric Halifax" by H. Ling Roth, Honorary Curator of Bankfield Museum, Halifax. Published in Halifax in 1906 by F. King & Sons, Ltd.
Henry Raphael Oddy (1852 - 1907) produced landscapes, topographical and architectural pictures in watercolour, pastel and pencil. He was initially a carpet designer, and suffered long periods of paralysis of the limbs. He took up professional painting in 1890 and was a founder member of the Halifax Art Society. Brother-in-law to Halifax painter Richard E. Nicholson.
