A VACANT school hall that could be knocked down should be saved to honour the previous owners, according to a campaigner.

Ray Sandiford said Birtenshaw Old Hall, formerly Birtenshaw Hall School, in Bromley Cross, should be ‘given back to Bolton’ and turned into a museum honouring the Ashworth family.

The Ashworths used the building in Darwen Road as a home and owned the New Eagley Mill, Egerton Mill and John Ashworth’s Mill in Holland Street.

Mr Sandiford, who is researching to write a book on the family, thought the building should be turned into a cotton museum.

He said: “It is an historic building and should have had a conservation order on it. The Birtenshaw School should have kept it in good repair.

“It was the home of the Ashworth family, who owned the New Eagley Mill, Egerton Mill, along with John Ashworth’s Mill in Holland Street.

“After what they did for Bolton, they deserve to be more recognised.

“Come on councillors, pull your socks up and let Birtenshaw Hall be an historic cotton museum.

“The Birtenshaw School had the hall given to them, so why don’t they just give it back to Bolton and help save some of our heritage?

“The council should honour the Ashworth family and erect a statue at Birtenshaw and save the hall.”

Plans for the demolition surfaced earlier this year, but were withdrawn to allow the charity to carry out surveys requested by Bolton Council.

The required surveys have now been completed and the Birtenshaw charity has served notice that it intends to demolish the buildings.

David Reid, CEO of Birtenshaw, said: “In terms of the building it is not as old as people think.

“We had a full historical significance evaluation carried out and it was deemed that there was no historically significant element.

“The significant element was that it was owned by the Ashworth family.

“The building had been gradually falling into a state of disrepair. It was dilapidated in the 50s.

“Around 2006 and 2007, when we were looking at a complete refurbishment of the building, the surveys we had demonstrated that it was not possible to refurb the building to meet modern standards.

“Even if we spent millions on renovating it, it still would not be fit for purpose in terms of meeting modern requirements.”

The history of the site dates back to the 1500s but the current version of the hall was built in 1864.

The first documented occupiers were farmers Thomas and Anne Hough.

After Mr Hough died in 1623, Thomas Lightbowne, a member of a wealthy family in Bolton and Halliwell, acquired the lease from Mr Orrell.

His son Thomas then rented the property to tenants until he leased the house to John Battersby in 1664 or 1665, who married Mr Lightbowne’s daughter Alice.

Their son, also John Battersby, was the heir of the estate but after he died in 1740 his assets were given to his nieces and nephews, with Birtenshaw left to his nephew John Ashworth.

The estate remained in the possession of the Ashworths until 1954. In 1955, the building was in use as a residential school and was altered and extended.

The school then left the building in 2014 after a new school was built on an adjacent site in Darwen Road.