The hall was the setting for William Harrison Ainsworth's 1842 novel Guy Fawkes, written around the plausible although unsubstantiated local story that the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was planned in the house.

As a reward for his service, the King allowed Sir John to take some Flemish weavers back to his Ordsall estate, where he built cottages for them to live in.

[4] Other alterations and additions were made during the 17th century, including a modest brick house added onto the west end in 1639, perhaps intended as a home for Sir Alexander's bailiff, as he himself no longer used the hall as his main residence by that time.

Reduced means eventually forced his heir, John Radclyffe, into selling the hall to Colonel Samuel Birch in 1662, thus ending more than 300 years of his family's occupation.

[7] The Oldfield family of Leftwich, near Northwich, bought the estate at the end of the 17th century, and in 1704 it was sold again, to John Stock, a trustee of Cross Street Chapel.

[4] The Great Hall was converted into a gymnasium after being cleared of the inserted floor and later partitions, and provision was made elsewhere for billiards, a skittle alley, and a bowling green.

Provisions for the school included the construction of a church dedicated to St Cyprian in the north forecourt, and a new servants' wing on the south side.

A White Lady who is said to appear in the Great Hall or Star Chamber is popularly believed to be Margaret Radclyffe, who died of a broken heart in 1599 following the death in Ireland of her brother, Alexander.

[12] In 2013, the newly restored building received a Bronze Award in the Small Visitor Attraction category organised by tourist body VisitEngland, one of 320 nominations from across the country.

Drawing on the earliest description of the house, from 1380, Salford City Council describes how it comprised "a hall, five chambers, a kitchen and a chapel.

The canopy at the dais end of the Great Hall was destroyed – although part of it can still be seen in the north wall – when a floor was inserted and new rooms were formed with lath and plaster partitions.

I was shown a door in Hanging Bridge Hotel cellar where the arches could be seen and a door made up ... it was the entrance to an underground passage under the Irwell, possibly to Ordsall Hall ... the owner had not traversed the passage himself, but the previous owner had, but had to turn back because of bad smells ....[15]Harrison Ainsworth, in his 1842 novel Guy Fawkes, wrote about the local story that the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was planned by Guy Fawkes and Robert Catesby in Ordsall Hall's Star Chamber.