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lukalily  
#1 Posted : 26 June 2011 20:46:09(UTC)
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I am doing family research for my partner. His Uncle Wilfred Bontoft worked as a groom and chauffeur for Mrs Woolley at Ollerenshaw Hall, which I believe is near Whaley Bridge. Could anyone tell if it is still there and where I could find a bit of history about the place? He died in 1942 in the middle east and is buried at El alemein.

Thank you.

New member Carol

parabuild  
#2 Posted : 26 June 2011 21:59:11(UTC)
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Welcom to the Forum Carol

Ollerenshaw Hall is on Eccles Road, Whaley Bridge and is marked on the Google Aerial View below.  Also below, are some Google Street View images of the Hall.  Ollerenshaw Hall was often "on the market" and I have a number of newspaper cuttings advertising it for sale or rent.  I shall post these later in the week.

I am sure that other members will be able to add much more information.

parabuild attached the following image(s):
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parabuild  
#3 Posted : 26 June 2011 22:16:00(UTC)
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In 1943 Ollerenshaw Hall was the office of the Electrical Trades Union.  They only appear to have been there for a few years.

parabuild attached the following image(s):
3.4.1943.JPG
G. Jackson  
#4 Posted : 26 June 2011 23:37:31(UTC)
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In the 1950's when it was derelict for a few years I went round the hall (without permission of course) and in one of the bedrooms was the biggest pile of empty beer,wine and spirit bottles. The pile was enormous and even though the years have passed I can still remember the pile. I did inspect and look for returnable bottles because in those days there was 3d on bottles. Unfortunately there were none.

lukalily  
#5 Posted : 27 June 2011 13:52:09(UTC)
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Thank you for information.

I have a newspaper clipping reporting on the death of Fus. Bontoft, it says he worked at the hall before he went into armed forces, so I am thinking he worked there leading up around 1939.

Carol

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CAUDWELL on 02/08/2014(UTC)
parabuild  
#6 Posted : 28 June 2011 06:56:53(UTC)
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Ollerenshaw Hall was advertised no less than 9 times between 1852 and 1883.

parabuild attached the following image(s):
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Born&Bred  
#7 Posted : 28 June 2011 17:16:42(UTC)
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I know my grandfather built the perimiter wall for this property,and those who know it will appreciate what a task that was.
parabuild  
#8 Posted : 29 June 2011 11:23:17(UTC)
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Ollerenshaw continued to be advertised during the 20th Century.  These ads are from 1919 to 1936

parabuild attached the following image(s):
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parabuild  
#9 Posted : 29 June 2011 11:30:36(UTC)
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The ETU presumably moved on for the Hall was again frequently advertised for sale or to let.  These cuttings are from 1952 to 1962. The property was agin offered for sale in 1989, this time for a price of £225,000

Edited by user 29 June 2011 11:41:53(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

parabuild attached the following image(s):
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lukalily  
#10 Posted : 29 June 2011 16:07:37(UTC)
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Thank you all for the information.

Next time we are down there we must go and take a look at it.

Carol

parabuild  
#11 Posted : 29 June 2011 21:18:48(UTC)
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Former residents of Ollerenshaw Hall included :


Sept 1881    Mr Arthur Sykes

Mar   1903   Herbert. B.Bowen (at that time deceased)

Feb  1916    Emily Moon Kerr   (Founder of the Tipperary League who operated a number of "Tipperary Rooms", temperence clubs for women)

Mar   1920   Frederick Alfred Lord

Nov   1924   Mr and Mrs W.H.Flanagan and Benjamin William Ashley Flanagan.  In July 1927 Mr W.H.Flanagan was prospective Conservative candidate for Clayton whilst still resident at Ollerenshaw.

 

The dates refer to newspaper  references

parabuild  
#12 Posted : 30 June 2011 09:59:25(UTC)
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THE ECCENTRIC MR THORNHILL

Mr Thornhill had made his fortune as a carrier in Stockport. This was a family business which he carried on in partnership with his brother James. In 1822, Thornhill purchased Ollerenshaw Hall for £8000 together with 170 acres and retired from the business.  He and James continued their association with the business for nearly a year in order to help their nephews, the Messrs Hall,  take over the affairs. In retirement he resided on the estate.

Thornhill was described as a man of penurious and parsimonious habits whilst also rather ostentatious. This was a man with a kind disposition who employed large numbers of local people at Ollerenshaw, who would otherwise have been out of work. Parsimony however, was exhibited in the smallness of the wages he paid.


In July 1839 he visited London and stayed with his uncle Joseph Thornhill, a Bond Street cutler. Together they visited the Houses of Parliament, the Italian opera and saw the lions of the metropolis. A correspondence began between the two and this was to continue until Thornhill's death. It seemed that his desire was to establish his name as being a branch of two ancient Derbyshire families.

Thornhill was said to have peculiar religious notions involving communion with the spirits of the departed. He was a Methodist of "The New Connection".

In November 1839, at the age of 47, Thornhill married Miss Barlow (40) who was heiress to a sum of about £10,000. His wife had a "temper and disposition not calculated to make him at all happy". They were said to have a shocking terrible life from violent wrangling and quarelling. From his wife or her mother "he never got a sixpence", but an old bad note for £300 from the old lady who thought that he, if anybody, could get it settled and he did get about £170 of it, the remainder being lost.

In May 1841 a legacy of £250 was left to his wife and the together went to the solicitors to receive it. The sum was produce with a receipt which she duly signed. He refused to sign unless he got the money. Relenting, she said that he might have half but he still refused. A dreadful row ensued in which shocking language was used by both sides. Ultimately she dashed the pen through her name and the inheritance was never received by either party.

In their quarrels, both Thornhill and his wife frequently talked of divorce and in 1842 she left him. He contemplated a suit against his mother in law to recover a portion of his wife's £10000 inheritance. A bill was subsequently prepared by solicitors but in June she took it into her head to return to the hall. Thornhill decided to drop the proceedings on account of her violence. In December she left home again, not to return until shortly before his death in 1845.

The house was described as being 42 yards in length, presenting a grand and imposing appearance to the road. The stables and other outbuildings were in the centre of the building, all under the same roof. The house appeared as two wings projecting from the stables.

Thornhill was curious in his way of dealing with his labourers. He would make them work in a line and call them to work or rest by sounding a horn.  In the house, he would rise in the morning, light the fires and make breakfast for his servants. If a fire needed blowing, he would have all the fires in the house blown at the same time. When the beds had been warmed, he would check the heat of the pans. If they were too warm, he would send the servant up to repeat her work as he would not have coals wasted.

On one occasion, he had his wife sit with him all night long in the coal cellar. At one time he mistook a log of wood for a devil and would have shot at it. At another time he was beset by twelve devils, went out and fired a pistol twelve times after which he was pacified saying he had "killed all the devils".

In his will, Thornhill left between £30000 and £40000 to his brother Jonathan to whom he was dotingly attached. His wife was to receive just £5. The inheritance had also been promised to cousin Walter Thornhill on condition that he live on the estate.

The will was challenged by Walter on grounds of insanity and the jury found in his favour.

T

 

G. Jackson  
#13 Posted : 30 June 2011 10:23:20(UTC)
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As soon as the name Thornhill was mentioned it reminded me of the egg producing firm ( I think it was called Thornhill's) that was next door to the hall in the 60's and 70's., It was a very large building alive with the sound if chickens and producing eggs by the thousand. I have no idea why the firm folded but someone on the forum may know more about the firm than I do. 

lukalily  
#14 Posted : 30 June 2011 11:24:33(UTC)
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It seems ollerenshaw hall has quite a history, it is very interesting to read about it, and its occupants.

Thank You.

Carol

dickb1  
#15 Posted : 23 April 2012 13:00:06(UTC)
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Parabuild

I am in awe of your evident scholarship on the subject of Ollerenshaw Hall, and wonder whether you might be able to shed light on this:

 

THE BEST MEDICINE IN THE WORLD for INFANTS

AND YOUNG CHILDREN IS ATKINSON AND BARKER'S ROYAL INFANTS' PRESERVATIVE

Under the Patronage of the Queen.

The high and universal celebrity which this medicine continues to maintain for the prevention and cure of those disorders incident to infants; affording instant relief in convulsions, flatulency, affections of the bowels, difficult teething, the thrush, rickets, measles, hooping-cough, cow-pox, or vaccine inoculation, and may be given with safety immediately after birth. It is no misnomer cordial; no stupefactive, deadly narcotic!; but a veritable preserver of infants! Mothers would do well in always keeping it in the nursery. Many thousands of children are annually saved by this much-esteemed medicine, which is an immediate remedy, and the infants rather like it than otherwise.

Prepared only by ROBERT BARKER, Ollerenshaw Hall, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, late of Manchester, (Chemist to Her most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria), in bottles at 1s. 1½d., 2s. 9d., 4s. 6d., and 11s. each.

 

 

I found the reference here

http://bankingletters.co.uk/page44.html 

but it is undated.  I have found further references to Mr Barker and the company of Atkinson & Barker and their premises at Bowden.  Have you come across this gentleman?

RockBanker  
#16 Posted : 23 April 2012 13:29:06(UTC)
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dickb1  
#17 Posted : 23 April 2012 15:11:10(UTC)
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Further to my previous message, a similar but much more wordy advertisement giving "Ollerenshaw Hall" as Robert Barker's address appears in The Manchester Times of  Wednesday, October 13th 1852.  The "Bowden" is a red herring, caused by my faulty eyesight, and should be "Bowdon", Altrincham.  That address appears in an advertisement for the "Infant Preservative" of September 2nd 1853 in the "Hull Packet & East Riding Times".

 

It seems that "Atkinson & Barker" were peddling this stuff until the 1940s, albeit without the laudanum in latter years!

CAUDWELL  
#18 Posted : 25 April 2014 17:05:39(UTC)
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Re Ollerenshaw Hall - I was evacuated to the Hall in 1939 when it was  owned by Mr. Steven Woolley and his wife Joan.  They also had a daughter Janet.  I knew the Bontoft family very well.  Wilfred was the groom/chauffeur - a lovely man as was his wife Elsie.  They had two children, John and Beryl.  There were other evacuees at the Hall and we were all children of employees of Woolley's Manufacturing Chemists, a company well-known in the Manchester area.  We had great times playing in the lovely grounds and we all went to the village school in Horwich End.  As is the case in wartime both Mr. Woolley and Wilfred Bontoft were called up to the Armed Forces, a great pity as Wilfred was killed.  Mr. Woolley went into the Royal Navy and, unfortunately for his wife, he met and fell in love with someone else whilst on leave in London and so subsequently they divorced meaning Mrs. Woolley and all of us had to leave Ollerenshaw.  We moved to an awful place in Litton, Tideswell but because we were unhappy there we were all moved.  I went to New Mills and I think the others went home to Manchester.  Mrs. Bontoft and her children moved to a terraced house which I think was on Macclesfield Road.  My mother used to visit her occasionally until she remarried a locsl farmer whose name escapes me.  If anyone would like any further news about Ollerenshaw Hall I will gladly oblige as wewere there nearly 3 years.
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Whaley Laner on 30/04/2014(UTC)
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#19 Posted : 30 April 2014 09:15:46(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: CAUDWELL Go to Quoted Post
Re Ollerenshaw Hall - I was evacuated to the Hall in 1939 when it was  owned by Mr. Steven Woolley and his wife Joan.  They also had a daughter Janet.  I knew the Bontoft family very well.  Wilfred was the groom/chauffeur - a lovely man as was his wife Elsie.  They had two children, John and Beryl.  There were other evacuees at the Hall and we were all children of employees of Woolley's Manufacturing Chemists, a company well-known in the Manchester area.  We had great times playing in the lovely grounds and we all went to the village school in Horwich End.  As is the case in wartime both Mr. Woolley and Wilfred Bontoft were called up to the Armed Forces, a great pity as Wilfred was killed.  Mr. Woolley went into the Royal Navy and, unfortunately for his wife, he met and fell in love with someone else whilst on leave in London and so subsequently they divorced meaning Mrs. Woolley and all of us had to leave Ollerenshaw.  We moved to an awful place in Litton, Tideswell but because we were unhappy there we were all moved.  I went to New Mills and I think the others went home to Manchester.  Mrs. Bontoft and her children moved to a terraced house which I think was on Macclesfield Road.  My mother used to visit her occasionally until she remarried a locsl farmer whose name escapes me.  If anyone would like any further news about Ollerenshaw Hall I will gladly oblige as wewere there nearly 3 years.


Please do post anything you know about Ollerenshaw Hall as it's all very interesting.

CAUDWELL  
#20 Posted : 02 May 2014 20:46:26(UTC)
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Still finding my way around the Forum procedure. When I first went to Ollerenshaw I was accompanied by my mother and two older, teenage sisters but after about a month, being "townies" and having to travel on foot to and from the railway station in order to get to work in Manchester, my sisters returned home, soon to be followed by my mother who left me to be looked after by the Draper family of evacuees consisting of Mrs. Draper, her sister Margaret and three children, Jean Audrey and Harry. The Woolleys employed a general maid/housekeeper plus a cook Caroline who was Austrian and who just before Christmas was sent to an internment camp on the Isle of Man. The other housekeeper also left for the Armed Forces so the gardener's wife, Mrs. Daybell agreed to help out on a daily basis. The evacuee families had their own quarters and looked after themselves. Rationing was soon introduced but there was always fresh fruit and vegetables for us from the garden and orchard, plus eggs and chickens which were kept on the premises. Mr. Daybell lived in a terraced house in Horwich End near to a grocer's shop which I think was called Bonsall's.
Bunk beds and other necessities had been constructed in the cellar but the only time I can remember ever having had to use them was the night of the Manchester blitz. I remember it was dank and smelled musty and we were all glad to get back to our beds!
I will send more info later.

CAUDWELL
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Whaley Laner on 09/05/2014(UTC)
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