Sleeping Well at Ordsall Hall

In late 2022 Ordsall Hall started working with the Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World team at the University of Manchester, led by Professor Sasha Handley. The two-year project looked at how the early inhabitants of the hall would have slept and looked after their health and was funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Dr Anna Fielding from the University of Manchester designed a series of hands-on workshops with schools, community groups, families and adult learners, together with Ordsall Hall staff and volunteers. The emphasis has been on learning about history through making and doing. We’ve been exploring what’s special about doing these activities within the wonderful setting of Ordsall Hall and its gardens.

Visitors to the hall have tried out creative activities like mattress stuffing, making sleepy salves, ointments and medicinal plasters, and recreating historical recipes such as milky drinks, herbal infusions, and even bedbug treatments! All these workshops have incorporated ingredients grown in the hall’s gardens.

The workshops explored Tudor and Stuart approaches to health and sleep and how people thought about their health and their environment. Some interesting themes have come out of our evaluation with the people who’ve joined in with the Sleeping Well activities over the last two years.

Some of the feedback illustrated how calming and connecting creative activities can be for us:

• ‘Making [paper] flowers seemed like meditation.’
• ‘More like this – crafts for wellbeing with an educational spin.’
• ‘[I liked] the practical involvement. Learning from…each other.’
• ‘Enjoyed learning about this practically. Enjoyed mind body connection.’
• I loved the practical aspect. Experimental learning also calmed me down.’
• ‘The whole experience was useful and I made friends.’
• ‘Great session. Informative, calming and fun.’

People also commented on Ordsall’s grounds as a really special place to do these activities – particularly in a built-up, urban area around Salford Quays:

• ‘We have always loved Ordsall but these sessions have made the hall come alive.’
• ‘[The] building and grounds and locality in the heart of the city [is] so positive.’
• ‘A wonderful space, to share history, health and wellbeing in a fantastic environment. Warm and friendly, very educated.’
• ‘It is already one of my favourite places and these sessions are making it even more important to me and my wellbeing.’

The Sleeping Well at Ordsall Hall project has, since 2022, been funded by the Wellcome Trust. We are delighted that the project has now entered the next phase of its development, with new funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council until September 2025.

Dr Fielding, the Sleeping Well university team, and the staff and volunteers at Salford Community Leisure are now working more directly to connect the Sleeping Well offer to local adults dealing with a history of poor emotional health and wellbeing, including poor sleep.

Partners from the local community health sector include Living Well (talking therapies for mild to moderate conditions) and Wellbeing Matters (Salford’s social prescribing service).

The aim is to see how we can further develop Ordsall Hall as a place where local people can explore health and wellbeing using history and creativity, alongside 21st century methods such as the Five Ways to Wellbeing.