Alexander Nowell was an English theologian who was born in Read Hall in the Elizabethan age who was also in popular story the inventor of bottled beer on a fishing expedidition.

[1] The estate passed to his grandson, Roger (1605–1695), who raised an army during the Civil War at his own expense to help defend Lathom House for the Royalists.

During the Civil War a skirmish in 1643 known as the Battle of Read Bridge in the vicinity of the hall ended in a decisive victory for the Parliamentarian forces.

John Fort died in 1842 and was succeeded by his son Richard who was High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1854 and M.P.

[6] The rest of the park includes Home Farm and Lodge in Whalley Road, both by Webster at the same time.