Scarisbrick Hall is a country house situated just to the south-east of the village of Scarisbrick in Lancashire, England. History Scarisbrick Hall was the ancestral home of the Scarisbrick family and dates back to the time of King Stephen (1135–1154). The moated site of the original Scarisbrick Hall lies north-west of the present building. A tree-covered island measuring is flanked on two sides by a still waterlogged moat, with the north-eastern arm formed by Eas Brook. This half-timbered, manor house is recorded in an early 13th-century deed. The area is protected by scheduled monument status. The Scarisbrick family lived on the site from 1238 until the house was sold in 1946 to become a training college. Parts of the present building, which is considered to be one of the finest examples of Victorian Gothic architecture in England, were designed by the architect Augustus Pugin. The most notable feature of Scarisbrick Hall is the 100-foot tower, which is visible from many miles around. Ann Scarisbrick Eccleston (Lady Hunloke) inherited the Scarisbrick estate – previously owned by Sir Talbot Scarisbrick, 1st Baronet – from her brother Charles in 1860 at the age of 72. At about this time she assumed by Royal Licence the surname Scarisbrick, and was thereafter known as Lady Scarisbrick. She had earlier fought a long legal battle with Charles, after the death of their elder brother Thomas Scarisbrick in 1835, over the inheritance claim to the Scarisbrick estate. She lost the case to Charles after five long years of litigation. Ann was known to be a woman of great character and resolve and is credited for the extensive enhancement and restoration of the Scarisbrick Hall in the lavish Gothic style, employing E. W. Pugin as the architect. Ann Scarisbrick, born in 1788, was a great beauty in her youth. In 1807 she married Sir Thomas Windsor Hunloke (1773–1816), of Wingerworth Hall Derbyshire, who was 15 years her senior. Her husband died nine years after their marriage. They had four children, two sons and two daughters. After the birth of these children, the family went to live in Paris. It is there that Sir Thomas Windsor Hunloke died in 1816. Their daughter Eliza married the Marquis de Casteja afterwards, also in Paris. It was only in June 1861 that she returned to Scarisbrick and made Scarisbrick Hall her home for the rest of her life. When she returned to