It was a two-storey Victorian Italianate building with fifty rooms, very grandly furnished and with a fine art collection.
It stood in 80 acres (32 ha) of exotic gardens with artificial lakes and many greenhouses in which orchids were grown.
Born in Liverpool of Jewish origin he was the so-called "Merchant Prince" of Manchester's textile industry, who made a fortune by providing the fastest export routes round the Cape of Good Hope to India and Australia.
[1] When the Suez Canal opened in 1869 he lost his commercial advantage and in 1875 was forced to sell Manley Hall and its contents.
[2] In 1879 a company formed to buy the estate and turn the gardens into a public pleasure park which failed after two years.