Greenhead Manor, Greenhead Lane, Reedley, Burnley, Lancashire. £925k

July 19, 2019

Greenhead Manor House, is listed grade ii* and I guess it has been sandblasted, because it is close enough to industrial Lancashire, though in the country, to be black, otherwise. These days conservation officers regard the sooty deposits as part of a property’s history, which is fair enough, but I can’t help preferring the un sooty ones. I think the old cleaning methods were also deleterious to the stone work, but about 10 years ago my father sat next to an architect at a dinner party who had invented a stone cleaning method they were using at St Pauls Cathedral, so sensitive methods are available, where their use is allowed.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-55928319.html

https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/search/?q=BB12+9NR#.XTIbbcrTWf1

The gardens are pleasant and well maintained. It is probably slightly too tame, one longs for a bit of Wuthering Heights style wilderness.

The whole property looks to have been well restored, hence the price. Burnley is hardly the most desirable place to live. But Lancashire is a rather expensive county altogether, considering how miserable and wet it is. I think this must be connected to Manchester and the football teams. Cheshire of course is even more affected by this problem. The large early fireplaces are attractive. Wood burning stoves are an efficient way of heating these early rooms, but an open dog grate is more authentic. The nanny state is planning to forbid us all from heating our homes with solid fuel or wood. In the future one will have to pay through the nose to heat one’s home with electricity generated from the wind turbines which cover every square inch of the landscape around your

country home, while the timber all around you lies rotting. As a child of two or three I used to take my little tiny chair right up to the open coal, glowing in the dog grate, in the huge inglenook

fireplace. No doubt social services would have had something to say to my mother about it these days.

I’m not sure I could keep a plain coloured fitted carpet in a country property of this period. I hope the flags are still in existence underneath, but who would lay carpet over flags? I like the early 17th century livery or food cupboard in the hall near the grand piano.