Astley's listed buildings reflect its history and include farmhouses and ancient halls, two with moated sites. Damhouse or Astley Hall, which for centuries was the manor house for the township, is included in this list although it is just across the boundary in Tyldesley. Astley's second chapel was destroyed in an arson attack in 1961 but the vicarage stands and is listed. Industry in the 20th century is represented by the former engine house and headgear at Astley Green Colliery Museum.
In the United Kingdom "listed building" refers to a building or structure designated as being of special architectural, historical, or cultural significance. They are categorised in three grades: Grade I consists of buildings of outstanding architectural or historical interest, Grade II* includes significant buildings of more than local interest and Grade II consists of buildings of special architectural or historical interest. Buildings in England are listed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on recommendations provided by English Heritage, which also determines the grading.[2]
Damhouse or Astley Hall was the manor house for Astley though it is inside the Tyldesley boundary. It was used as the administration block for Astley Hospital. Since 1991 Morts Astley Heritage Trust has renovated it for office use and tea room.[4] The house is built of rendered brick with stone details and a slate roof. The three-storey frontage has five unequal bays with stone mullioned windows and crosswing gables. The central three-storey porch bay has a studded oak door with Doric columns, pediment and a fanlight. The frontage is largely as built but the plaque over the door is a replacement. The east wing dating from the early 19th century is of rendered brick and has a chapel on the first floor.[5] Restoration in 1999-2000 discovered the attic contained a "short" long gallery that had subsequently been subdivided.[6]
Morleys Hall, now a private residence, is a moated hall converted to two houses on the edge of Astley Moss. The hall which was largely rebuilt in the 19th century on the site of a medievaltimber-framed house, incorporates elements from the 16th and 17th centuries.[7] The moat a scheduled monument.[8]
Morleys Hall Barn comprises an early 19th-century threshing barn, byre and overloft and a lower range to south. It is built in red brick in English garden wall bond and has a slated roof. It has a recessed entry bay above which are stacked decorative ventilation panels.[9] The moat a scheduled monument.[8]
Astley Vicarage is built in English garden wall bond brick. It has three storeys and its twin-gabled front has five bays and a central door. The house has had few alterations since it was built and is a combination of early Classical and vernacular architecture.[10] Pevsner considers it a "very attractive and interesting house" possibly dating to 1704.[6]
Manor House Farmhouse is a three-storey house built in brick with slate roof. Originally built with three bays a fourth was added later. The doorway has Ionic half-columns and plain entablature. The house has sash windows to the front and casement windows to the rear.[15]
Sales House is a mid-to-late 17th-century farmhouse built in English garden wall bond brick with a stone slate and slate roof. The two-storey house has a T-shaped plan and four bays one of which is a gabled crosswing. It has its original boarded door with strap hinges.[16]
Peel Hall was built in the 16th century but rebuilt in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It is built on a moated site of English garden wall bond brick with slate roof on a projecting stone plinth from an earlier building on the site once owned by Cockersand Abbey.[17]
Pevsner, Nikolaus; Pollard, Richard; Sharples, Joseph (2006), Buildings of England: Liverpool and the southwest, Yale University Press, ISBN0-300-10910-5
