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LOST HOUSES, YORKSHIRE

ACKTON HALL

A house with a fine reputation and family links to Nostell Priory. The advent of the industrial revolution altered its history and eventual loss.

Ackton Hall - AA Lamb
Ackton Hall, Featherstone. A rare photograph of the house in better times. A.A. LAMB.

According to Eilert Ekwall, in ‘The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names’, the name of ‘Ackton’ refers to an ‘oak-tree farmstead’. This appears far-removed these days, and a far cry from those days of the Victorian industrial revolution when Ackton was at the forefront of coal production. The hamlet grew up between Wakefield and Pontefract, then in the West Riding, but it was Ackton Hall that became the focal point for the area.

The first mention of Ackton Hall appears to have been in the Featherstone Parish Register in 1570, belonging to the Frost family and later passing by marriage to the Beckwiths, who sold it in 1652 to Langdale Sutherland for a price said to be £5,000.¹

The Winn family
The mansion passed to Edward Winn, the younger son of the second baronet of Nostell Priory, binding the two country houses together. Ackton Hall passed to his heir, Thomas Winn (1714-1780), who inherited a much larger house in 1765. Thomas married Mary Duncalf, daughter of Humphrey Duncalf, in 1753, and his only child was Edmund Mark Winn (1762-1833).²

The family of Winn was descended from a cadet of the house of Gwydir, who left Wales in the sixteenth century and settled in London. The immediate ancestor of this branch was George Winn, draper to Queen Elizabeth, who had issue Edmund Winn, of Thornton Curtis in Lincolnshire, who died in 1615, having married Mary, daughter of Rowland Berkeley of Worcester, sister to Sir Robert Berkeley, Knt, one of the Judges of the King’s Bench, by whom he had three sons.

George Winn, the eldest son and heir, whose residence was at Nostell Priory, was created a baronet by King Charles II in 1660. The title passed down the line until Sir Rowland Winn, High Sheriff of Yorkshire  in 1799, who died unmarried in 1803. The title was then devolved upon his cousin, Edmund Mark Winn of Ackton Hall.³

Ackton Hall - The Featherstone Chronicle
Ackton Hall, Featherstone. The date on this photograph is unknown. The house was rebuilt in 1765. THE FEATHERSTONE CHRONICLE.

History portrays Sir Edmund Mark Winn as “a truly worthy country gentleman, with all the politeness of the ancient school, and all the consideration of the kind landlord.” ⁴ He died unmarried in 1833 and Ackton Hall passed to his niece, Mary, eldest daughter of Colonel Duroune of the Coldstream Guards.

She had married Arthur Heywood (1786-1851), the son of Benjamin Heywood of Stanley Hall, in 1825. The Heywood family were descended from Nathaniel Heywood who settled in Drogheda. He had three sons, Arthur, Benjamin and Nathaniel, who all returned to England.

Arthur Heywood Snr, settled at Liverpool and, with his brother Benjamin, founded a bank, Heywood and Co, and by his second wife Hannah, daughter of Richard Milnes of Wakefield, a principal member of a distinguished Non-Conforming family, had four sons, two of whom settled at Liverpool and two at Wakefield.  Neither of the Liverpool sons had children, but Benjamin Heywood of Stanley Hall left a son, Arthur Heywood, who became Mary’s husband.⁵

The death of Arthur Heywood in 1851 was arguably the end for Ackton Hall as a rural mansion. His widow, Mary, remained until her death at Great Malvern in 1863. The estate was put up for sale and the sale catalogue describes the hall as an attractive stone built mansion on a moderate scale seated on a hillside and surrounded by a richly wooded and undulating country.

“Extending on the south and east is a tract of rich park-like land studded with noble oak and other trees of large growth and great beauty. The lawn and pleasure grounds slope gently to the south-west and are well-arranged with retired shrubbery and shaded walks embracing extensive views over luxuriant meadows and a magnificent country.

“In the ground floor are the entrance hall, inner hall, dining, drawing and morning rooms, and a library. On the first floor are a drawing-room and two large bedrooms, and on the second floor are another five bedrooms and three servants’ rooms. There are two water closets. Outside is a stable yard with accommodation for ten horses, a double coach house, a dovecote and farm buildings for the 42 acre farm. There are two kitchen gardens, a conservatory and a vinery, and the hall also has its own spring water supply.”¹

Despite the best efforts of the sales catalogue to find an occupant there was no chance that the hall was going to retain its charm.

Ackton Hall - Yorkshire (Featherstone in Pictures)
Ackton Hall, Featherstone. The mansion was later converted into flats. FEATHERSTONE IN PICTURES.


George Bradley and the price of coal
The surrounding area was now ripe for industrialisation, and coal was the valued prize for ambitious entrepreneurs. The Ackton Hall estate was bought by George Bradley, of the Castleford firm of Bradley and Sons, Solicitors, who had seen the potential for exploiting the mineral assets of the land. It is suggested that he bought the hall and estate in 1865 for £23,400, with another £20,300 used to buy additional land. The cash was borrowed from the University Life Assurance Society, a transaction he would later regret.

Before arriving at Ackton Hall he had been living with his father at Leeds. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1853, but his practice had gradually dwindled due to falling business. As well as the Ackton Hall estate, he later purchased freehold land in Essex, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Rutland and Yorkshire.

Initially, George Bradley leased Ackton Hall land to John Shaw†, who opened a colliery called Featherstone Main that soon became the largest pit in England. Encouraged by Shaw’s success, Bradley sank two of his own shafts to the Stanley Main Seam and opened his own colliery called Featherstone Manor. It was later extended to the Warren House Seam and at its peak was extracting about 200 tons each day.⁶

“The next and future returns cannot fail to give a much larger quantity, seeing that several very important estates with large areas of coal are now being opened out.” Sheffield Independent. 2 April 1870.

However, George Bradley’s coal-mining aspirations were hindered by lack of finance. In 1888, his dream ended when a writ was issued by the High Sheriff of Yorkshire on Ackton Hall. Bradley had been living in the mansion, but mounting debts were leading him into trouble.  His miners hadn’t been paid, he had defaulted on payment of rates and more importantly, he was behind on mortgage payments.

Ackton Hall north side - Featherstone in Pictures
The north side of Ackton Hall in happier times. FEATHERSTONE IN PICTURES.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - 9 Aug 1890 - BNA
A sale notice from the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 9 August 1890. THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE.


Samuel Cunliffe Lister, Lord Masham
In the summer of 1890, it was rumoured that Messrs Lister and Co, of Manningham Mills, near Bradford, had purchased the Ackton Hall estate, including the Manor Colliery, adjoining Featherstone Station on the Wakefield branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. The estate had been due to go to public auction, but the sale by private treaty was believed to have been £180,000.⁷

In the end, it turned out that the estate had been bought in a private capacity by Samuel Cunliffe Lister, and not on behalf of the shareholders of the company. He had bought the greater part of the estate, about 1,200 acres, and carried with it all the mineral rights. George Bradley could remain at Ackton Hall and kept some adjoining land, but the mineral rights right under the house had been acquired by Mr Lister. According to the Yorkshire Post, the output from the Ackton Colliery had been comparatively small owing to the want of development, but now that the property had come into the hands of a man of such well-known enterprise and energy as Mr Cunliffe Lister, a guarantee was at once forthcoming that a great change in this respect would shortly take place.”⁸

Ackton Hall Colliery - Author Unknown
Ackton Hall Colliery. It became a thriving colliery under Lord Masham. AUTHOR UNKNOWN.

Samuel Cunliffe Lister was one of the largest landowners in the North Riding, and in the previous nine years had expanded upwards of three-quarters of a million in purchasing the Swinton Park estate, near Masham, from the heirs of Mrs Danby-Vernon-Harcourt, Jervaulx Abbey from Lord Ailesbury’s trustees, and the Middleham Castle property, which he had bought a few months previous.

In time, George Bradley moved to Rectory House in Castleford and was declared bankrupt in 1897. The following year, the conveyance for Ackton Hall passed to Mr Middleton of Leeds, a transaction that was later brought before West Riding magistrates. In January 1906, four Leeds men were charged with having stolen a quantity of lead from Ackton Hall. It was also stated that the defendants had also engaged in removing furniture from the mansion. Thomas Middleton, a Leeds jeweller, told the court that he and his brother were the owners of the hall as trustees under their father’s will. Middleton stated that the defendants did not have permission to remove the lead. However, the case was most unusual due to the fact he claimed George Bradley had never asserted that he had a right to live at the hall, neither did he set up a right to the property. He said his father had taken possession of Ackton Hall after advancing George Bradley money. The case of theft was dropped due to insufficient evidence, but the affairs of George Bradley appeared ever more curious.⁹

Ackton Hall Colliery - Healey Hero (1)
The colliery took its name from the grand old mansion. HEALEY HERO.

The acquisition of Ackton Hall by Samuel Cunliffe Lister (1815-1906) was purely for commercial reasons. He was a rich man, born at Calverley Hall,  the son of Ellis Cunliffe Lister-Kaye, who had assumed the name of Lister on taking possession of the Manningham estate, near Bradford, under the will of Mr Samuel Lister of Manningham Mill.

He was one of the greatest Victorian industrialists, a man who went against his family’s wishes to enter the church and started out in the counting house of Messrs Sands, Turner and Co in Liverpool.

Samuel Cunliffe Lister - Lord Masham - NPG
Samuel Cunliffe Lister, 1st Baron Masham (1815 – 1906). NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY.

On attaining his majority, young Lister prevailed upon his eldest brother to enter the worsted spinning and manufacturing business at Manningham, where their father erected a mill for them. It was here that the attention of the future was directed to the problem of machine wool combing, which at that time was in the embryonic stage. Failures to construct an efficient machine wool-comb had been so numerous that any idea of an invention capable of supplanting the labours of hand-combers was regarded as a major obstacle.

Samuel Cunliffe Lister, however, was of a different opinion, and, finding that a machine upon which an inventor named Donisthorpe was working, although at the time in a very imperfect state, gave the greatest promise of success, he bought the machine for a good round sum, and then taking Mr Donisthorpe into partnership, set himself to work out the idea of the apparatus. In this task the partners succeeded after years of labour and the expenditure of many thousands of pounds. The success of the invention practically placed the wool-combing industry for a time in Mr Cunliffe Lister’s own hands, although to begin with he had to encounter litigation in connection with his patents.

This was typical of the man and during his lifetime patented over a hundred inventions which revolutionised the silk and wool trade; to carry out his ideas, he spent a fortune of £600,000 and was more than once on the brink of ruin. In due course, however, the patents brought in a great financial harvest, and for some years before the Manningham Mills were floated as a company, the average net profit was £2 million a year.

Few men lived a life of steadier application to business, and on one occasion he publicly stated that for twenty-five years, he was never in bed later than five o’clock in the morning.

Ackton Hall Colliery - My Featherstone Collieries
By 1924, Ackton Hall Colliery was at its peak employing 1,940 men underground and 636 on the surface. MY FEATHERSTONE COLLIERIES.

It was characteristic of the man that he should not care for public honours, and probably none of his intimate acquaintances were surprised when he declined to accept a baronetcy on the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1877. The Peerage was not conferred until 1891, when the veteran inventor was in his seventy-sixth year.¹⁰

In addition to investing large sums in landed property, the new Lord Masham successfully turned his attention to the working of collieries. He ploughed significant amounts of money into Ackton Hall Colliery and it soon became one of the most successful pits in the country. He began to provide social facilities and housing for the miners, and the new town of Featherstone was developed in the field between Ackton and Purston as a mining town with good quality housing and social services.¹¹

However, in this industry he had an unfortunate experience with his workpeople, and it was remembered that in the dispute in the coal trade in 1893 the military fired on rioters who were destroying property at the Ackton Pit Colliery.*

Ackton Hall Map - NLS
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND.
Ackton Hall Map - NLS 1
The old map shows the site of Ackton Hall. The house and colliery have long since disappeared. The modern-day satellite image shows that the site of the house has now been grassed over. GOOGLE MAPS.

Decline and fall
The rise of Ackton Hall Colliery also led to the demise of the mansion. Its proximity to the workings rendered it undesirable, the views obscured by the workings,  and it was eventually split into flats. The new town of Featherstone quickly developed in the field between Ackton and Purston but, by 1969, the mansion had become so dilapidated that it had to be demolished.¹²

Ackton Colliery was the first pit to close following the end of the 1984-1985 national miners’ strike.

Ackton Hall before demolition - Featherstone in Pictures
Ackton Hall in a derelict condition that inevitably led to its demolition. FEATHERSTONE IN PICTURES.

Notes: –
† John Shaw (1843-1911), of Welburn Hall, Kirby Moorside, colliery proprietor, chairman of the South Kirkby, Featherstone, and Hemsworth collieries. Three times unsuccessful Conservative candidate for Pontefract, who died in 1911, only son of George Shaw of Brook Leys, Sheffield.

He went to Featherstone with his father in 1866, to open out the coal field. Subsequently the South Kirkby collieries were acquired, and in 1906 the Hemsworth collieries were added. The company became known as South Kirkby, Featherstone and Hemsworth Collieries Ltd. For some time, he lived at Newland Hall, near Normanton, but soon after he removed to Darrington Hall where he remained until about 1896, when he went to live at Welburn.

*In July 1893, a fall in the price of coal led to owners to stockpile output and ‘lock out’ their workers. In Featherstone, workers were increasingly restless and on September 7 rumours spread that coal at Ackton Hall was being loaded onto wagons and then transported to the owner’s mill in Bradford. An angry crowd gathered outside the pit and confronted Mr Holiday (the pit manager) and a work gang that was loading the wagons. Eventually troops were called in. Three officers and 26 men arrived from the First Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment. A local magistrate, Bernard Hartley JP, read the Riot Act. When the crowd didn’t disperse the troops were ordered to fire warning shots. The second volley of shots wounded eight people, two of whom died of their injuries. As a result of the debacle the Liberal Government lost much of its working class support.

¹ The Featherstone Chronicle – A history of Featherstone, Purston and Ackton from 1086 to 1885.
² The Peerage.
³ Leeds Mercury. 13 June 1891.
⁴ Leeds Intelligencer. 22 June 1833.
⁵ ‘The Rise of the Old Dissent, Exemplified in the Life of Oliver Heywood 1630-1702’ by The Rev Joseph Hunter, F.S.A. 1842.
⁶ Featherstone’s Three Collieries.
⁷ Yorkshire Evening Press. 21 June 1890.
⁸ Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 20 August 1890.
⁹ Leeds Mercury. 13 January 1906.
¹⁰ Leeds Mercury. 3 February 1906.
¹¹ Wakefield Council. Featherstone Delivery Plan 2014-2016.
¹² ‘Lost Houses of the West Riding’ by Edward Waterson and Peter Meadows. 1998.

Further reading: –
Featherstones Three Collieries
The Featherstone Chronicle

LOST HOUSES, NORFOLK

BEAUPRE HALL

Nothing remains of Beaupré Hall, an unloved manor house, that was eventually abandoned. In the 1960s, developers replaced it with a housing estate.

Beaupre Hall 1963
Beaupré Hall, Norfolk. WILLIAM SMITH COLLECTION.

In the late 1960s, the owner of a new bungalow in the long-straddling village of Outwell, that lie on both sides of the River Nene in Norfolk, gazed out at the remains of a stone building in his back garden. What to do with them? In the years to come, these would presumably have been removed and the gardens landscaped to match the modern house. The stones might well have come in handy.

Over fifty years later, there are no traces of those ancient stone relics.

Once upon a time, this was a house called Beaupré Hall, erected in the early sixteenth century by the Beaupre family, who also held the manors of Sautrey, Wells, Norton, Hakbech and Thurning. The estates became the property of Edmund Beaupré, and eventually absorbed into the Beaupré estate.1024px-Beaupre_Hall_Outwell_Norfolk

The house was built between 1500 and 1530, added to later with a castellated gate house, and subsequently extended and altered by members of the Beaupré and Bell families. Dorothy Beaupré had married Sir Robert Bell in 1559 and succeeded to the manor. He was a speaker in the House of Commons of England and the Beaupré estate stayed in his family for generations.

Beaupre Hall - Norfolk - Lost Heritage (1)
Beaupré Hall, Norfolk. LOST HERITAGE.
Beaupre Hall - Norfolk - Lost Heritage (2)
Beaupré Hall, Norfolk. LOST HERITAGE.

By the end of the eighteenth century, the house had fallen into disrepair, the family fortune squandered by Beaupré Bell in the late 17th century onwards. He was said to have been a keen antiquary, more interested in collecting relics than spending money on the upkeep of the old manor house.

His son, also Beaupré Bell, died unmarried in 1741 and the house passed to his sister, Elizabeth, and her husband William Greaves. They made repairs to the house and demolished those parts beyond restoration. It was inherited by their daughter, Jane Greaves, who had married Charles W. Townley of Fulbourn in Cambridgeshire.

In 1889, a correspondent, known simply as H.K., wrote in The Methodist Recorder:

“Far back into centuries I should have to go in imagination to find the man who built Beaupré Hall, with its gabled and mullioned windows and beautiful gateways and courts and porches, with its picturesque towers and chimneys outside, and its wilderness of oak-panelled rooms and passages inside.”

Charles Townley thought the house surplus to requirement and had unsuccessfully attempted to dispose of it at auction in 1888. The house was probably tenanted because, at this time, Beaupré Hall was occupied by three ladies – the Misses Wilsons – who kept an open house for visiting Methodist preachers.

In the 1890s, Beaupré Hall was finally sold to the Newling family who remained until the twentieth century. On hindsight, the problems for the old manor house started here. A gale in 1915 severely damaged the building, and a chapel in the north-west range had its roof torn off and allowed to become derelict.

Christopher Hussey, the architectural writer, visited Beaupré Hall in 1923, its condition was such that he anticipated its eventual destruction.

Beaupré’s biggest problem came in the form of the Royal Air Force, who requisitioned the hall during the Second World War. Afterwards, the mansion was in serious disrepair, with substantial roof damage.

Beaupre Hall - Norfolk - Lost Heritage (3)
Beaupré Hall, Norfolk. LOST HERITAGE.

There were those who almost loved the house and might have saved it. In 1947, the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, gave it listed status, but little else. A fire in 1953 worsened its condition, and it was left to Mrs Kingsman, (formerly the wife of Edward Newling, who had married Stuart Kingsman), to offer the hall to the National Trust. It declined the offer, becoming the second heritage body that turned its back on Beaupré Hall.

The house and 13-acres of land was put up for sale and had two subsequent owners. Nevertheless, Beaupré Hall was quickly becoming a ruin.

Beaupre Hall - Norfolk - Lost Heritage (4)
Beaupré Hall, Norfolk. LOST HERITAGE.

During the 1950s, barrack huts left over from RAF occupation were used to house students on the ‘Holidays with Pay Scheme’, the ruins of Beaupré Hall no doubt providing an adventure.

The ‘Victoria County History’ reported that much of the building was still standing, but the development of a modern housing estate in its former grounds was a shadow quickly advancing on the house. A photograph taken by Country Life magazine in 1963 showed new bungalows in front of the broken-down house.

Nine years later, the Ministry gave permission for the house to be demolished, the only reminder being the name of the road on which the housing estate stands… Beaupré Avenue .

Beaupre Hall - Norfolk - Country Life Archives (1)
Going. COUNTRY LIFE.
Beaupre Hall - 1966 - Smith, Edwin (1912-1971)
Going. EDWIN SMITH COLLECTION.
Beaupre Hall - Norfolk - Google Maps (1)
Gone. GOOGLE MAPS.
HERTFORDSHIRE, LOST HOUSES

OFFLEY HOLES HOUSE

One hundred years ago, fire claimed another country house, one that was barely twenty-five years old.

Offley Holes House - A History of Preston in Hertfordshire (1)
A HISTORY OF PRESTON IN HERTFORDSHIRE.

February 1919 was a bad month for country house fires. One hundred years ago, this week, Offley Holes House, near Hitchin, in North Hertfordshire, which had been used for some time as a German prisoner-of-war camp, was totally destroyed by fire. The fire started in the orderly room and spread quickly through the mansion. The Hitchin Fire Brigade quickly arrived but found no water available due to a heavy frost, and so could only watch the progress of the flames.

All the prisoners were safely evacuated and taken to other quarters in Hitchin, but one of the guards was overcome by smoke and was in a critical condition in Hitchin Hospital, to which he was taken by a fire engine.

Offley Holes House was built after the death of Robert Curling in 1894. His will stated that no more than £4,000 should be spent erecting a house for the use of his nephew, Robert Sumner Curling, for life. Unfortunately, Robert “had no interest in the country and preferred to live in London.”

The terms of the will were nevertheless followed and W.A. Lucas was engaged to build the house.

In 1898, the house was tenanted to Percy St Clair Matthey on a twenty-one-year lease. The lease was re-assigned to Joseph Childs Priestley in 1904 and then to Major Robert B. Mervyn Richardson four years later.

In January 1918, despite fierce opposition from Percy Matthey, the War Office took possession of Offley Holes House and converted it into a German POW camp. The house was never rebuilt, the result of inadequate fire insurance.

A comprehensive history of the house can be found at A History of Preston in Hertfordshire.

DENBIGHSHIRE

POOL PARK

“The hall was last occupied by Sir Ernest Tate, who would see to it that the place was left in a good state. The interior is in exceedingly good condition.” Unfortunately, a lot has changed since 1932. 

Pool Park - 2019 - JS (3)
The Pool Park estate was once a deer park belonging to nearby Ruthin Castle. The house was established in the 16th century and later belonged to Thomas Needham. Thereafter the estate became the property of the Salusbury family. JACKSON-STOPS.

In 1932, Mr A.O. Evans of the North Wales Counties Mental Hospital Committee, attempted to calm his colleagues over the potential purchase of Pool Park, near Ruthin, in Denbighshire.

“The hall was last occupied by Sir Ernest Tate who, is one of those gentlemen who, regardless of any obligation, would see to it that the place was left in a good state. The interior is in exceedingly good condition.”

These words might well echo around the empty corridors of Pool Park today. The former country house is up for sale at Jackson-Stops with offers wanted in excess of £1.75 million.

Any buyer is going to get a bit of a shock.

Pool Park - 2019 - JS (4)
The present house and buildings were laid out between 1826 and 1829 by architect John Buckler for the 2nd Lord Bagot. JACKSON-STOPS.

The property has stood empty since 1989, when it closed as a hospital. It is not surprising that the sales brochure doesn’t include any internal photographs, the external images are concerning enough. However, urban explorers have produced a raft of photographs that can be found across the internet. In short, the interior is in exceedingly bad condition!

Pool Park - c1910 - Nicholas Kingsley (1)
Pool Park originally had mock half-timbering to the upper storey. This was removed in the 1930s. NICHOLAS KINGSLEY.
orders.tif
The half-timbering was removed and replaced with plain white stucco. RCAHMW WALES.

Pool Park was rebuilt by the William Bagot, 2nd Lord Bagot(1773–1856)) in 1826-29 to the designs of John Buckler, and assisted by local architect Benjamin Gummow. The family chose to live at Blithfield Hall in Staffordshire, often renting Pool Park to tenants. These included George Richards Elkington, a Birmingham electroplater, Robert Blezard, a Liverpool brewer, and Sir Ernest Tate, president of Tate and Lyle, sugar refiners.

William_Bagot_2nd_Baron_Bagot_by_George_Clint
William Bagot (1773-1856), the eldest son of 1st Baron Bagot and his second wife Elizabeth Louisa St. John. He died at his home in Blithfield, Staffordshire. Portrait by John Hoppner. BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON.
Pool Park - 2019 - JS (6)
In the 17th century, the Salusbury estates were divided between two sons of William Salusbury, with Bachymbyd and Pool Park passing to his daughter, Jane, who married Sir Walter Bagot of Blithfield in 1670. JACKSON-STOPS.
Pool Park - 2019 - JS (7)
Lord Bagot never used Pool Park as a main residence, the house often tenanted. Its last tenant was Sir Ernest Tate who stayed for about twenty years. JACKSON-STOPS.

It was sold in 1928, no doubt anticipating the purchase by the North Wales Counties Mental Hospital Committee, who were looking for an overflow for the Denbigh Mental Asylum. It wasn’t until 1937 that the hospital actually opened, but it would serve its purpose until 1989.

Pool Park - 2019 - JS (9)
Pool Park was sold to the North Wales Counties Mental Hospital for £12,000 in the early 1930s. At the time it was a controversial decision and it didn’t open until 1937. JACKSON-STOPS.

It was sold by the National Health Service (NHS) in 1992, but very little has happened to it since. In 2012, planning permission was submitted to turn it into a care village with 38 homes and 60 apartments. This came to nothing and the house has deteriorated since.

According to the estate agent, this property is perfect for further redevelopment, subject to planning permission, but requires major renovation.

Pool Park - Catherine Jackson Photography (1)
The interiors of Pool Park are not shown in the sales brochure. However, the current state of the house can be found on various urban explorer sites. CATHERINE JACKSON PHOTOGRAPHY.
Pool Park - Derelict Places (1)
The Imperial staircase is thought to be from the early 20th century. Some of the wood was said to have come from another house called Clocaenog. ROLFEY/DERELICT PLACES.
Pool Park - Derelict Places (2)
Dark and decaying. Pool Park still contains original features, but painstaking work will be needed to restore them. ROLFEY/DERELICT PLACES.
Pool Park - Derelict Places (3)
The staircase contains fine case-shaped oak-carved balusters and figurative panels. ROLFEY/DERELICT PLACES.
Pool Park - 2019 - JS (10)
Pool Park continued as an hospital until 1989. It was sold to a developer, but has been empty ever since. JACKSON-STOPS.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE

SHUDY CAMPS HALL

Unlike many country houses requisitioned by the military in World War Two, this property survived and has even had parts of its former estate reinstated.

Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (1)
Shudy Camps Hall, in the farming village of Shudy Camps, Cambridgeshire, had remained in the same family — the Dayrells — for three generations, and later, in the prewar years, was home to the Rev Canon Thornton, the Vicar of Shudy Camps and canon emeritus of Ely Cathedral. SAVILLS.

Despite the positive noises from estate agents, there appears to be a slowdown in the sale of large country houses. Take Shudy Camps Hall in Cambridgeshire, featured here two years at a guide price of £5 million, later dropped to £4.5 million, and now available to buyers at Savills for a much reduced £3.75 million. However, the latest price has stripped out the Elizabethan House and Park Lodge, now available as separate lots.

Shudy Camps Hall is a Grade II listed Queen Anne House. It is fundamentally a 17th century house with later 18th and 19th century additions.

Also referred to as Shudy Camps Park, it was built by Marmaduke Dayrell about 1700 and remained with the family for three generations. The Rev. Richard Dayrell offered the debt-burdened Shudy Camps Park estate for sale in 1898.

Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (2)
Shudy Camps is close to the village of Castle Camps, an area steeped with interesting history, which lies 15 miles south east of the city of Cambridge. SAVILLS.
Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (4)
Standing in the centre of 29 acres, Shudy Camps Hall, has seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms and seven reception rooms. SAVILLS.
Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (5)
Shudy Camps Hall. SAVILLS.

Shudy Camps Hall was bought by Arthur Gee, who perhaps thought his surname not grand enough and changed it to Maitland. He died in 1903 and the house, along with 300 acres, was sold to the Rev. Cannon F.F.S.M.Thornton, Vicar of Shudy Camps and Canon Emeritus of Ely Cathedral.

On his death in 1939 the estate was broken up – the parkland was requisitioned by the British Army and the house occupied by the Royal Air Force. It has now returned to private ownership and over the last few years the estate has been gradually pieced back together with the acquisition of various cottages within the grounds.

Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (7)
Shudy Camps Hall. SAVILLS.
Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (9)
Shudy Camps Hall. SAVILLS.
Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (12)
Shudy Camps Hall. SAVILLS.
Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (17)
A striking well-proportioned Grade II listed house with a particularly long symmetrical façade of 19th Century paired twelve pane hung sashes flanked by 18th Century wings, it was originally a 17th Century house with later 18th and 19th Century additions. Notable external features include symmetrical arched windows in the wings to either side and a central pillared porch believed to be part of the 19th Century alterations. SAVILLS.
Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (18)
When Shudy Camps Park was requisitioned by the War Office in 1939, members of the Royal Air Force moved into The Hall, a handsome Queen Anne house that nestled in the park grounds. SAVILLS.
Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (19)
The present owners have acquired other cottages in the grounds: the four-bedroom Elizabethan House, which forms part of the courtyard to the rear of The Hall; and The Lodge, another well-appointed four-bedroom house nearby. SAVILLS.
Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (21)
The Hall is a quintessential Queen Anne country house with views over its own park like grounds and surrounding rolling countryside. SAVILLS.
Shudy Camps Hall - 2019 - Savills (22)
Shudy Camps Hall. SAVILLS.
LONDON

SUNDRIDGE PARK

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When the previous house on the site was demolished around 1796 John Nash became involved in the project to create Sundridge Park alongside landscape architect Humphrey Repton who was already working on the site.

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First mentioned in a charter dated 987, Sundridge (or Sundresse, as it was originally known) was in the hands of the Le Blund family for several centuries from around 1220. CITY & COUNTRY.

Few London golf courses can boast such an impressive architectural legacy as Sundridge Park in the London Borough of Bromley suburbs.

In grounds laid out by renowned 19th-century landscape designer Humphry Repton stands the Grade I-listed John Nash mansion where Edward VII attended shooting parties at the estate, before the golf course was cut out of the valley.

The refurbished house is now The Mansion at Sundridge Park, with 22 flats by heritage developer City & Country, including some in a new annexe, priced from £425,000 to £2.5 million.

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From the 17th century a succession of wealthy Londoners lived here and a three-storey brick house was built on the southern slope of the Quaggy River valley early in the 18th century. Sir Claude Scott purchased that house in 1795 and demolished it on the advice of Humphry Repton, building the present mansion on the opposite slope and creating the park. CITY & COUNTRY.
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Owners of properties within The Mansion will benefit from the exclusive setting of the development within the Sundridge Park golf course, beautifully maintained landscaping and excellent specification. CITY & COUNTRY.

From the 17th century a succession of wealthy Londoners lived here and a three-storey brick house was built here early in the 18th century. Sir Claude Scott purchased that house in 1795 and demolished it on the advice of Humphry Repton, building the present mansion on an opposite slope and creating the park. The stuccoed stately home was designed by John Nash and the work was completed under the direction of Samuel Wyatt.

The park became a golf course, with a new clubhouse opened by prime minister Arthur James Balfour in 1903.

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When the railway line to Bromley North opened in 1878 the Scott family had a station built for their private use. Sir Edward Scott won fame for breeding pheasants and his namesake the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) was equally well-known for his love of killing them. Understandably, the two men became friends and the prince often visited Sundridge Park for game-shooting weekends. CITY & COUNTRY.
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Near the end of the century Sir Edward began to sell off the estate and a rebuilt station opened to the public as Sundridge Park in 1896. The park became a golf course, with a new clubhouse opened by prime minister AJ Balfour in 1903. What began as a nine-hole course has since grown into a pair of what Nikolaus Pevsner calls “unusually umbrageous” eighteen-hole courses. CITY & COUNTRY.
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Sundridge Park mansion functioned as a luxury hotel until after the Second World War and became a management centre in 1956. A new block of residential accommodation was completed in 1970. The mansion until recently hosted meetings, events, team building exercises and the like. CITY & COUNTRY.

Sundridge Park mansion functioned as a luxury hotel until after the Second World War and became a management centre in 1956. A new block of residential accommodation was completed in 1970.

The grand staircase, plasterwork and 18th-century paintings have now been restored. The homes are reached via the estate’s lodge entrance and a half-mile drive beside the fairways.

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Each of these grand properties has been meticulously designed to optimise natural light and make the most of the period features which have been expertly restored. CITY & COUNTRY.
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The last of the Scotts to live at Sundridge was Sir Samuel Edward Scott (1873-1943), the sixth baronet. Sir Samuel Edward made two unsuccessful attempts to sell the estate and at the turn of the century the farmland to the south-east and south-west was sold off as building plots. In 1901 the park was leased to a company who formed a golf club. CITY & COUNTRY.
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The mansion was again put up for auction in 1904 but failed to reach its reserve price and was leased as an hotel, the owners of the hotel eventually purchasing the freehold in 1920. CITY & COUNTRY.
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Original features include restored shutters and windows, beautiful ceilings with ornate plasterwork, restored wall panelling and an impressive oak fireplace with decorative surround. CITY & COUNTRY.
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Sundridge Park became one of the premier hotels in the south London area until the Second Word War when it was closed for the duration of hostilities. Re-opening in the post-war period, it failed to prosper, and the company went into voluntary liquidation. The entire contents were sold and the mansion remained empty for two years until it, along with 16 acres of surrounding parkland, was bought by Ernest Butten as a management training centre. CITY & COUNTRY.
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The last of the Scotts to live at Sundridge was Sir Samuel Edward Scott (1873-1943), the sixth baronet. Sir Samuel Edward made two unsuccessful attempts to sell the estate and at the turn of the century the farmland to the south-east and south-west was sold off as building plots. In 1901 the park was leased to a company who formed a golf club. CITY & COUNTRY.
LANARKSHIRE, LOST HOUSES

ORBISTON HOUSE

A country house built from wealth accumulated through the proceeds of slavery. It was never restored after fire destroyed it a century ago, reduced to rubble more than a decade later. 

Orbiston House - Colin Currie
Orbiston House, Lanarkshire. Very view photographs of the mansion survive. This one was taken by Thomas Annan in 1870. COLIN CURRIE.

One hundred years ago, fire had broken out at Orbiston House in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, occupied by Mr James Steel. The south wing of the mansion was practically destroyed, as had parts of the roof in the main house. The Bellshill and Larkhall divisions of the County Fire Brigade had rushed to the scene, but were hampered by the lack of water pressure, the supply having to be pumped from South Calder Water, some distance away.

It was thought that the fire had started in a defective chimney and spread at an alarming rate along the roof. Several rooms, along with their contents, were destroyed before the fire reached the main building. The damage was estimated to be several thousand pounds.

The fire was the end of Orbiston House, eventually reduced to rubble more than a decade later. It was a sad end to a fine house, one of the most prosperous of them all, built on the profits of slavery.

Gilbert Douglas (1749-1807) had acquired much wealth from being the owner of the Mount Pleasant sugar plantation and the Fairfield cotton estate in St. Vincent. In 1794, he married Cecilia Douglas (1772-1862), the only surviving daughter of John Douglas, a Glasgow linen merchant. Gilbert purchased land at Douglas Park in 1800, and a year later, a further 225-acres, known as Bogs, on the banks of South Calder Water, from General John Hamilton.

Gilbert immediately commissioned Robert Burn, father of architect William Burn, to build a ‘modern’ mansion on the site of Old Orbiston House. This was called Douglas Park and was to be the centrepiece for his Douglas Park and Bogs estate. (There are papers available suggesting that the design had been conceived as early as 1795).

Gilbert Douglas died in 1807, leaving his widow one-third of his estate and life tenancy at Douglas Park and Bogs. Unfortunately, he also left debts of £7,700, eventually cleared by Cecilia Douglas from her own personal fortune. The Scottish estate and the West Indian plantations were put in trust, his widow the principal trustee.

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The memorial at St Bride’s Collegiate Church, Bothwell, Lanarkshire. “To the memory of Gilbert Douglas of Douglas Park. Born 28th May 1749. Died 10th March 1807. And also of Cecilia Douglas of Orbiston, his wife. Born 28th February 1772. Died 25th July 1862. SPANGLEFISH.

Cecilia Douglas turned out to be a formidable businesswoman.

She had watched with irritating fascination a frivolous scheme that had taken place nearby. In 1825, Archibald James Hamilton, the son of General John Hamilton, had gone into partnership with Abram Combe to form an experimental socialist co-operative movement. Combe had bought land off General Hamilton for £20,000, and between them, spent another £40,000 to create a self-sufficient community. Under the banner “Liberty, Security and Knowledge” they established this ‘New Babylon” with accommodation built around a school, theatre, foundry, forge, printing press and a small factory. It ended in failure. Combe died in 1827, the project burdened with debt, local antagonism (no doubt from Cecilia) and the inability to be self-sufficient at all.

In 1830, Cecilia Douglas paid £15,000 to the creditors of the co-operative and added the remaining 291 acres of the Orbiston estate to her own, the enlarged estate now known as the Orbiston estate.

She died in 1862, a wealthy woman of 90-years-old, her estate valued at £40,365. Cecilia’s income had derived from tenant farmers and the slave economy in St. Vincent. Even the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 had increased her fortune, obtaining compensation of £3,013 (about £3 million today) for the 231 slaves on the Mount Pleasant estate. In addition, she held stocks and bonds in banking, railway, navigation, gas and insurance companies – all contributing a handsome dividend. In 1861 she became the sole survivor of the subscribers to the Glasgow Tontine, and inherited the Tontine buildings on Trongate. This had been established in 1781 to build “a public coffee-house with suitable accommodation for brokers, and rooms for tobacco and sugar samples.” The building was sold by her trustees in 1864 for £17,000.

In her will, her collection of paintings, sculptures and artefacts collected during an extended stay in Italy in 1822-23, was to be left to “some public institution in Scotland.” This valuable assemblage containing Gabnelli’s “View of the Roman Forum” and Camuccini’s “The Death of Caesar” was bequeathed to Glasgow Corporation, known as “The Douglas Collection”, and now forming part of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum’s collected works. In 2012, it was questioned whether it was appropriate to display works of art acquired through wealth accumulated through the proceeds of slavery.

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Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The purpose-built museum opened in 1901. It now contains ‘The Douglas Collection’, once displayed at Orbiston House. ART UK.
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Still-life. “Herring, Cherries and Glassware” by William van Aelst, 1680. Gifted by Cecilia Douglas to Glasgow Corporation. SPANGLEFISH.

Orbiston was inherited by Robert Douglas, a grand-nephew of Gilbert Douglas. He died in 1866 and left half of the Orbiston estate to a relative, John Culcairn Munro, and the other half to his son, Robert Lushington Douglas, who died unmarried in 1888.

The house was leased from 1865 onwards and proved attractive to the Victorian iron and coal magnates in the area.

William Neilson (1810-1882) lived here from 1875. He had founded the Mossend Ironworks in 1840 which grew into the Mossend Iron and Steel Company, one of the largest iron producers in Scotland, and was owner of several coal works on the estates at Carnbroe and Orbiston.

Neilson died in 1882 and the tenancy was taken over by James Addie, a partner in Robert Addie and Sons of the Langloan Ironworks in Coatbridge and the Viewpark Colliery. He left Orbiston in 1896.

It was assumed by William Neilson’s son, Colonel James Neilson (1838-1903), managing director of the Summerlee and Mossend Iron and Steel Company, as well as a director of various railway companies. He died at Orbiston House in 1903.

It lay empty for a long period before being occupied by James Steel about 1914. It was during his tenancy that Orbiston House suffered the disastrous fire of February 1919, which left the left wing of the house destroyed.

The house was owned by the trustees of Lushington Douglas who chose not to restore the house, instead leaving it in the care of Mr and Mrs Drydale, before eventually being demolished in early 1931.

In the 1920s, several acres of land were sold to Bellshill Golf Club, adding to their existing nine-holes.

The site of Orbiston House now sits within Strathclyde Country Park.

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The site of Orbiston House or Douglas Park, as it was once called. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND.
Orbiston House - Site - National Library of Scotland
A modern day aerial view of the Orbiston estate. The site of the house is now parkland. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND.

Note:
Gilbert Douglas was not the only Glaswegian profiting from Caribbean slave colonies in the early 1800s. Scotland itself benefited disproportionately from slavery compensation – Scots made up 10% of the British population, but 15% of the slave owners who got payments, with Glasgow getting much of the cash. The early 1800s have been called Glasgow’s “Golden Age of Sugar.”

HERTFORDSHIRE

HUNTON PARK

By the 1970s, Hazelwood House was empty and ready for demolition, perfect for film-makers wanting a miserable location. All these years later, and a change of name, this is a thriving country house hotel.  

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Hunton Park, at Abbots Langley, in south west Hertfordshire. It was originally called Hazelwood House when first built in the 19th century. The house we see today replaced a mansion destroyed by fire. HITCHED.

The 1970s were a bleak time for the English country house. Take, for example, Hazelwood House at Abbots Langley, in Hertfordshire. In 1970, the rambling mansion was empty, typical of many similar properties, but it caught the attention of film director Bryan Forbes who chose it as the principal location for ‘The Raging Moon’.

The British film starred Malcolm McDowell and Nanette Newman (Forbes’s wife) and based on a book by Peter Marshall. One critic described it as ‘romance in wheelchairs’, considered unusual because of the sexual nature of the relationship between its two lead characters in a church-run home for the disabled.

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“The Raging Moon” is a 1971 British film starring Malcolm McDowell and Nanette Newman. Adapted and directed by Bryan Forbes. It was filmed almost entirely at Hazelwood House. DAILY EXPRESS.

Hazelwood House was used as the care home. The photography was miserable. The snowy winter scenes complement the austere atmosphere within the house, but it was a true reflection of society back then. ‘The Raging Moon’ had a depressing ending, but it reflected the darkness and gloom permeating from the Edwardian mansion. Take out the actors and this would have been a big, cold and draughty house, with broken windows and leaky roof.

Sad times, but Hazelwood House’s depressing appearance had already made it functional as a film location for Sam Wanamaker’s ‘The Executioner’ (1970) and several Hammer House of Horror productions. Much later, it would feature in a different and much happier kind of creation, ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ (2004).

It wasn’t an old house in the 1970s, built in 1908 on the site of an older property, but its history had been intriguing.

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The original Hazelwood House built in the early 18th century. It was built by Henry Botham who, between 1810 and 1826, acquired surrounding land to form its parkland. HERTFORDSHIRE GENEALOGY.

In 1810, Henry Botham (1749-1825), a wealthy Londoner, had bought 42-acres of land in the Hertfordshire countryside, subsequently acquiring a further 30-acres from the Earl of Essex, to create surrounding parkland in which to establish his country residence. Hazelwood House was most likely completed by 1812. Following his death in 1825, aged 76, it remained home to his widow, Lydia Payne, until her own demise in 1838.

The estate was bought by Sir Henry Robinson-Montagu (1798-1883), 6th Lord Rokeby, the second son of 4th Baron Rokeby. He had been commissioned into the 3rd Foot Guards in 1814 and fought at Battle of Quatre Bras and Battle of Waterloo as a 16-year-old Ensign in June 1815. At the outbreak of the Crimean War he was made a Major-General and commanded the 1st Division. He was married in 1826 to Magdalen Crofts, the young widow of Frederick Crofts and daughter of Lt-Col Thomas Huxley, and later took the title of 6th Baron Rokeby of Armagh on the death of his elder brother in April 1847. He also owned agricultural estates at Eryholme (North Yorkshire) and Denton (Northumberland), Cambridge and Kent.

Henry Robinson-Montagu in 1858 (NPG)
Sir Henry Robinson-Montagu, 6th Lord Rokeby. This portrait dates from 1858. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY.

Henry died at the age of 85 on 25th May 1883 at Stratford Place, London, and was buried in Clewer churchyard. The peerage became extinct on his death.

Hazelwood House was bought by Admiral Ralph (Peter) Cator (1829-1903), the son of Peter Cator of Beckenham, Kent, and nephew of Major-General William Cator, CB, former Director-General of Artillery and of Vice-Admiral B.C. Cator.

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From the Herts Advertiser in May 1884. The estate was for sale following the death of Sir Henry Robinson-Montagu. THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE.

Ralph Cator had entered the Navy in 1843 and was present in the Rodney in the attack of the forts of Sebastopol, in October 1854, and for some time commanded her tender, the Danube steamer. In the latter vessel he served in the early part of June 1855, with the flotilla in the Sea of Azoff, where he assisted in destroying a vast accumulation of stores belonging to the Russian Government, and displayed merit which he was mentioned with praise in the dispatches of the senior officer. On the nights of 16 and 17 of June 1855, prior to the unsuccessful attack made by allied troops upon the Malakoff and Redan, the Danube was engaged in pouring a shower of rockets on the town and sea defences of Sebastopol.

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This portrait from an unknown artist shows Rear Admiral Sir Ralph Cator. ART UK.

As Senior of the Furious, Cator was attached to the Naval Brigade, at the storming of the city of Canton in December 1857, on which occasion he assisted in burning the houses in the vicinity of the North Gate, a service executed under a sharp fire and with considerable difficulty, the houses containing little inflammable matter. His conduct during the operations against Canton was brought to the notice of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Michael Seymour, by whom he was again mentioned for his services on shore while belonging to the Calcutta, at the destruction of the Chinese fortifications at the entrance of the Peiho River, in May 1858.

Cator received the Crimean medal and Azoff and Sebastopol clasps, the Turkish medal and the Medjidie. He was promoted Naval ADC to the Queen from 1879 to 1882, from which he was appointed Rear Admiral, and was the inventor of an ‘alarm buoy’, which was approved by the Admiralty and supplied to the fleet.

He left Hazelwood House in the 1890s and died at Chelsea Court, London, in 1903.

In 1896, Hazelwood House was acquired by Reverend Henry Steuart Gladstone (1856-1929),  ‘a tall, spare distinguished-looking man of serious aspect, though his disposition and manners were pleasant enough’.

Gladstone had been the Curate of Fawley and was the Vicar of Great Barton, Suffolk, between 1886 and 1897, and the Vicar of Honingham, near Norwich. He was the husband of Mary Cecil Elizabeth Wilhelmina Gage, daughter of Lt-General Hon. Edward Thomas Gage, Governor of Woolwich,  whom he married in December 1882. Most notably, he was the cousin of William Ewart Gladstone, the Prime Minister.

He first leased the house to various London gentlemen, amongst those being Lord Roberts, its proximity to Ascot being an attraction. However, in 1907, he decided to live in the house himself, spending over £1,000 on renovations only to see the house gutted by a large fire which occurred on the 8 March 1908.

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A postcard of the fire that destroyed Hazelwood House on March 15th 1908. HERTFORDSHIRE GENEALOGY.

The family pictures were saved but little remained of the house.  Assisted by an insurance compensation of £10,500, Gladstone rebuilt Hazelwood House, using the architects Hubbard and Moore, similar in appearance to the first, but sited at a different angle to the ornamental grounds. The mansion that we eventually saw in ‘The Raging Moon’ was built in Queen Anne-style, in brown-red brick with lighter red brick, stone and white painted wood dressings, with a hipped tiled roof.

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The aftermath of the fire in 1908. A large portion of the house was destroyed. As a result Hazelwood House was rebuilt close to the original footprint. HERTFORDSHIRE GENEALOGY.

Henry Steuart Gladstone died in 1929 leaving unsettled property valued at £121,155 gross, with net personalty of £106,704.

Hazelwood House was sold to Andrew Barclay Walker, the son of Sir Andrew Barclay Walker, 1st Baronet, of Osmaston Manor in Derbyshire. However, his occupation of the house was cut short by his death in June 1930.

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The death of Andrew Barclay Walker meant that Hazelwood House had to be sold – “a modern country residence.” THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE.

The house was almost immediately sold to Francis Edwin Fisher, a substantial landowner, farmer, meat wholesaler and businessman who frequently travelled the world with his wife, the explorer and journalist, Violet Cressy-Marcks.

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This cutting from the Dundee Evening Telegraph from 1933 shows that Violet Cressy-Marcks was quite a remarkable woman. THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE.

During their absences the house was left empty or rented out, most notably to the Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (1892-1975), an exile from his country after the invasion by Italy in 1936.

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This photograph from The Tatler in July 1935 showed a reception at Hazelwood House for H.R.H. The Emir Saud, Crown Prince of Arabia. It also shows Francis Fisher and his adventurous wife. THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE.

Back in England, Francis Fisher and his wife spent most time at their townhouse, in Princes Gate, South Kensington, London. The outbreak of World War Two provided a unique opportunity for Hazelwood House when it became the wartime offices for Illustrated News Ltd and Odhams Press. Bruce Ingram, the editor of The Illustrated London News (from 1905) and The Sketch, had run his company for years and realised that wartime bombing  posed a threat to their offices at Inveresk House in Aldwych, London. Throughout the war years readers were instead encouraged to write to the Illustrated News’ temporary offices at Hazelwood House. His publications were regarded as the ‘Great Eight’ publications and also included The Sphere, The Tatler, The Graphic, The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, The Bystander and Eve.

Part of the estate was taken over by the Ministry of Defence for production of Mosquito and Halifax aircraft.

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“Strictly our own affair.” This piece appeared in The Sphere in November 1939, shortly after the staff of Illustrated Newspapers had relocated to Hazelwood House. THE BRITISH NEWPAPER ARCHIVE.

Francis Fisher retained ownership of the estate until the late 1950s. Hazelwood House went through various uses, but stood empty for long periods, except for brief appearances on the big screen, until 1971.

Later, Paul Edwin Hember, the owner of several small businesses, bought the house and changed its name to Hunton Park, a name still associated with it today. The mansion’s fortunes changed for the better, eventually becoming the Hunton Park Hotel, part of the De Vere chain, until bought in 2017 by Ravi Ruparelia, a London-based hotel and catering businessman.

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Hazelwood House was renamed in the 1970s and for generations has been known as Hunton Park.
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Hunton Park Hotel has built up a reputation as a popular wedding and events venue.
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A view of the gardens from the terrace at Hunton Park. A similar snow-covered shot was filmed on this terrace for “The Raging Moon.”

Before we leave Hunton Park, it is worth reminding ourselves of that piece of former parkland acquired by the Ministry of Defence during World War Two.  It became Leavesden Aerodrome and the former aircraft factories were used by Rolls- Royce to manufacture helicopter engines until 1993.  At its peak in 1990, the airfield handled some 60,000 aircraft movements and remained open until 1994.

In 1995, the site was purchased by Third Millennium Group and part of it used to create Leavesden Film Studios. The 80-hectare studio complex is better known now as Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, also home to the ‘Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter’.

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An aerial view of Warner Bros Studios, Leavesden. It was built on the site of Leavesden Aerodrome, an airfield created in 1940 by the de Havilland Aircraft Company and the Air Ministry. The land once formed part of the Hazelwood House estate.
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Scenes for “The Raging Moon” were shot from this same angle. However, back in the 1970s the house looked remarkably different. Grim, miserable and institutionalised.
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Hunton Park Hotel, Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire.
LANCASHIRE

BRAMLEY MEADE

Bramley Meade was built on the proceeds of the textile industry. One hundred years ago it was up for sale. It gained prominence as a maternity home but, a century later, history is repeating itself .

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Bramley Meade, Whalley, Lancashire. ATHERTONS PROPERTY & LAND.

One hundred years ago, in February 1919, the sale of country estates gained momentum, with the latest property added to the auction catalogues being Bramley Meade at Whalley in Lancashire.

The mansion of “modern architectural design” contained five entertaining rooms, a noble staircase and eight principal bedrooms. In addition to the house, the auction scheduled for April 1919, would also include the entire contents, including furniture “made from the best selected timbers by Harrison of Burnley.” There was also a 30 H.P. Daimler Landaulette up for grabs as well.

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The preliminary sale notice for Bramley Meade taken from February 1919. THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE.
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Bramley Meade, Whalley, Lancashire. ATHERTONS PROPERTY & LAND.

Bramley Meade was built in 1882, in the style of Italian Renaissance, for textile manufacturer Richard Thompson, proprietor of Britannia and Alma Mills in Padham, and was one of a number of prestigious residences built north of Whalley in the late 19th century.

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Richard Thompson, JP (1831-1913). “A man of iron will and strong determination, gifted with foresight and an extraordinary capacity for business, one of the first of Lancashire’s captains of industry.” From the Burnley Express in February 1913. THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE.

Richard Thompson died in 1913 and the mansion eventually passed, in 1919, to Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Alfred Dixon, Royal Field Artillery, who died in 1925.

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Bramley Meade, Whalley, Lancashire. ATHERTONS PROPERTY & LAND.
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Bramley Meade, Whalley, Lancashire. ATHERTONS PROPERTY & LAND.

Passing to Thomas Allan Collinge, a Burnley manufacturer, Bramley Meade was bought by Lancashire County Council to become a maternity home for the Clitheroe borough and rural districts in 1946. However, it stood empty for several years before finally opening in 1951 and operated until 1992. After that time, the property was converted back into a family residence.

A century after that sale notice appeared, Bramley Meade Hall is back on the market, now with the addition of an indoor heated swimming pool. Although the asking price has been kept a secret, it is understood from Athertons that it will be in the millions of pounds.

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Bramley Meade, Whalley, Lancashire. ATHERTONS PROPERTY & LAND.
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Bramley Meade, Whalley, Lancashire. ATHERTONS PROPERTY & LAND.
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Bramley Meade, Whalley, Lancashire. ATHERTONS PROPERTY & LAND.
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Bramley Meade, Whalley, Lancashire. ATHERTONS PROPERTY & LAND.
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Bramley Meade, Whalley, Lancashire. ATHERTONS PROPERTY & LAND.
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Bramley Meade, Whalley, Lancashire. ATHERTONS PROPERTY & LAND.
YORKSHIRE

FEARNVILLE HOUSE

“To all outward appearances the mansion had the appearance of being unoccupied, and the spacious garden was in the same neglected condition as it had been for many years.” One hundred years later, nothing has changed.

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Fearnville House, Roundhay, Leeds. Photographed in 2016. URBAN DIVISION.

This week, one hundred years ago, the discovery of an illicit whisky still in an old mansion gave considerable food for gossip in a Leeds suburb.

The scene of the discovery was the century-old mansion known as Fernville House at Roundhay, which stood in rural splendour until it became overshadowed by what was known as the Fernville ‘Garden City’, a small colony of ‘modern’ residences.

The mansion house (also known as Fearneville) had been built about 1820 by a Leeds merchant, and Thomas Louis Oxley, a surgeon dentist, later lived here, letting about 100 acres of land as a farm.  In the 1870s, the mansion with about 49-acres of pleasure grounds, had been occupied by William Middleton JP, and then Samuel Sykes, after which the estate was sold for development on garden city lines. The last tenant had been Alderman Alfred John Knowles (1836-1918), a well-known Leeds provisions merchant, and for the last ten years or so had been unoccupied.

Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - 22 June 1867 - BNA
From The Yorkshire Post. June 1867. THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE.
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A letter from Thomas Louis Oxley in the Leeds Mercury, February 1872. He was now living in London. THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE.

In November 1918, negotiations had taken place which resulted in Fernville House being sold for £2,000 to a Jewish businessman, who, it was understood would turn the former country house into a business place. Those who had negotiated the sale had asked what the place was going to be used for, presuming that it would become a clothing factory. The reply had been a definite ‘no’.

The new owner had not been long in taking possession, and it had been understood by some people in the neighbourhood that the house was being used as a laundry. On Saturday 1 February 1919, two officers from the Leeds special police force had seen a large cask being driven away from the house on a cart. They weren’t satisfied with the explanation given as to the contents of the cask, and at midnight a raiding party of special and regular police had taken possession of the house.

The officers came across ample evidence that spirit distilling operations had been conducted here. An attempt had been made to wreck some of the plant, which was unmistakeably a whisky still, and several barrels were removed from the premises.

Neighbours at Fernville House told the Yorkshire Evening Post that no serious attempt had been made to put the mansion into a state fit for habitation. Joiners had been seen doing odd repairs, and to fix a new wooden gate to the entrance which led to outbuildings of the house. To all outward appearances the mansion had the appearance of being unoccupied, and the spacious garden was in the same neglected condition as it had been for many years.

In June 1919, writs were issued by the Commissioners of the Customs and Excise upon Joseph Levi, a wines and spirits merchant, in connection with the illicit whisky still. The total penalties imposed on Levi, his wife, Sarah, and two others amounted to £1,960. (Sarah Levi was again convicted for similar offences in 1930).

Entrance-min
Fearnville House, Roundhay, Leeds. Photographed in 2016. URBAN DIVISION.

The events preceded what would turn out to be  a torturous century ahead. One hundred years later, the condition of Fearnville House (as it is now known) is even more precarious than it was then.

During the early part of the twentieth century the Ralphes lived here. The land was sold in the 1950s and the house was converted into flats while still retaining the pillared porch and a fine staircase inside.

Front Door-min
Fearnville House, Roundhay, Leeds. Photographed in 2016. URBAN DIVISION.

By the 1970s, the house was again derelict and seemingly abandoned entirely in 1993. The council had evicted its residents, boarded up the building and it has been left ever since. In 2008, it was sold on the instruction of Leeds City Council for £228,000. The following year it was sold again, reputedly to become a nursing home. The last planning application in 2012 was abandoned the following year after various objections, including opposition that the premises would need a long period of observation for bats, along with doubts from the coal board who stated previous mine workings might undermine the property. There was also a further rejection from the council’s Highways Department who said a nearby road would have to be made one-way and restrictions, due to the entrance width, meant the number of dwellings was unsustainable.

Fearnville House is now in perilous condition, its interiors collapsing, and the grounds open to vandals and fly-tippers. Now marooned within housing estates, it has been the subject of frequent visits from urban explorers, who, if nothing else, have at least highlighted the sad state that the once-grand house is now in.

Fearnville House - Bing Maps
‘Swallowed by surburbia.’ Fearnville House, Leeds. Marooned by housing developments. BING MAPS.
Frontal Shot-min
Fearnville House, Roundhay, Leeds. Photographed in 2016. URBAN DIVISION.
Roof Beams-min
Fearnville House, Roundhay, Leeds. Photographed in 2016. URBAN DIVISION.
Semi Circle-min
Fearnville House, Roundhay, Leeds. Photographed in 2016. URBAN DIVISION.
Upstairs Beam-min
Fearnville House, Roundhay, Leeds. Photographed in 2016. URBAN DIVISION.