Bradford museum celebrates 100 years of being open to public with new exhibition

Bolling Hall, Bradford's oldest surviving building, and also its most haunted, opened its doors to the public for the first time since it was built in 1370 in September 1915.

The hall had been a private residence until it was sold to the Bradford Corporation, a predecessor of Bradford Council, in 1912. The plan was to refurbish the then declining hall as a place members of the public could visit for free to see a grandeur not normally seen in the industrial city.

These plans were brought forward in 1915, when the hall was opened earlier than planned as a way to lift the spirits of the city that had suffered the loss of many of its men who had gone to fight in the Great War.

The hall's opening, on September 22, was seen as a "good news" story at a time when local papers were filled with lists of deceased soldiers.

This period is subject of an exhibition starting at the hall on Saturday. To Turn from This Horrid War will see artefacts from World War One on display throughout the museum, information boards about Bradford in the period the hall opened, and a replica of the type of tent soldiers would live in while training in nearby Bowling Park. Children will be able to enter the tent, try on period costumes and handle replica artefacts.

The hall will also display a "field" of 2,000 hand made poppies that has been on display in Bradford Industrial Museum.

Bolling Hall has remained a free museum since its opening, and still attracts visitors eager to see its ghost room, where the spirit of a woman in white is said to have changed the city's fortunes during the civil war, and exhibits like a cast of the death mask of Oliver Cromwell, one of only three known to still exist.

Since 2013 it has also been home to the local council library, and holds annual Halloween events that invite the public to tour round the hall, chased by "ghosts."

The museum also remains popular with ghost hunters and historical re-enactors.

It is no normal museum - although it has artefacts on display, the hall's charm is seeing the historic building bought to life, and it recalls the way the National Trust turns its properties into walk through exhibits.

Walking through the hall is in itself like travelling through time. The oldest part of the hall, dating back to the 1300s when it was owned by the De Bolling family, represents the stark living conditions even well off people lived in at the time, when they would share a room with numerous servants. Other rooms reflect the early Tudor way of life that are grander, but still far removed from modern living.

The museum's most famous room is the "Ghost Room." Legend goes the Earl of Newcastle was sleeping in this room during the civil war, when the house was a royalist base. He had given the order for his men to slaughter every person in Bradford, a town with sympathies toward Parliament the following morning. The night before the attack the mysterious woman in white appeared to him, asking him to "pity poor Bradford." He told his men of the ghoulish encounter, and they agreed to only kill armed men that put up a resistance, saving countless lives. The room remains decorated as the grand bedroom it was at the time of the encounter.

Other highlights of the hall include a balcony overlooking a grand dining room and the Civil War room, where military strategies were discussed.

Liz McIvor, Curator of Social History and Technology at Bradford Council, said: "When Bolling Hall was opened to the public it was intended as a moral boost. There was a push to open it before it was really ready. Most of the rooms were empty when it opened and the restoration work was still going on. But it was still popular, because at the time there weren't many houses like this that were open to the public.

"People loved looking round a house they previously would never have been able to set foot into. They would have to pay to go outside of Bradford to see anything like this. On Sundays when everyone was off work there would be three or four thousand people passing through the hall. There was the land outside if it was sunny and they could look round the hall. It gave people the chance to see things they would normally have to go to the capital to see."

The artefacts collected since the opening all have a link to the city, or were donated by Bradfordians.

Many of the visitors 100 years ago, and ever since, were attracted by the hall's ghost story, but as time went on many other stories had been "transplanted" to the hall by its visitors, despite the fact they happened at other places or did not even happen at all. Suddenly the hall became the scene of a gruesome murder that actually happened at Calverley Hall, and a short tunnel under the property had been turned into a three mile tunnel linking the hall and Bradford Cathedral thanks to Chinese whispers.

Mrs McIvor added: "One of the most important things is it has been free from the day it opened. Many local authorities either charge for museums or don't have them open all year. The point of Bolling Hall is it is an educational, inspiring place to visit that doesn't cost to visit, and I'm proud we still have that ethos."

The exhibition runs until Friday December 18 and will include a celebration to mark the day the hall was opened in September.