Having read some interesting and sometimes bizarre! stories about Shallcross Hall or Shallcross Manor as it was called locally, I asked my mother to recall her memories of when she lived there. She kindly sent me the following reply:
I lived at Shallcross from 1950 to 1954 where my two children, Laetitia and Andrew, were born. My husband H.A.de L.Berry (John) had a Merchant Converting business in Manchester called “John Berry & Co.” Prior to our marriage he had bought the Hall from Georges Kopp and used it for offices for his business leaving the warehouse still in Manchester.. At that time he owned a Great Dane called Betty. Betty unfortunately had a penchant for live chickens and eventually Mrs. Lomas on the farm next to us ran out of patience and I found a good home for Betty in Yorkshire with no chickens in sight. Apart from her chicken hang-up she was a very gentle dog if a bit short of brainpower and I doubt would be able to put her mind to a decent haunt.
The offices were moved back to Manchester and I had at that time a resident maid and Mrs. Stafford and Mrs. Clark as daily employees in the house. They lived on the estate below the entrance to the drive. Some time later Mrs. Clark’s daughter married and she and her husband were looking for work, so when my maid left I offered them the West attached wing of the house and she was to work in the house and he in the garden. This arrangement did not last for very long. I have no recollection of a motor bike being at the Hall and I bought all my meat from the butcher in Whaley Bridge.
We put in central heating throughout the house from a huge boiler in the basement under the kitchen, and also washbasins in the bedrooms of the first floor and during this work we found a George 2nd. two-penny piece which I still have. This work was much more difficult than anticipated as the between floor beams were massive. The windows on the East side were all blocked in because of the window tax.
The cellars were extensive and the fireplaces in all the ground floor rooms had chutes under their grates going directly into stone troughs built in the cellars to receive the ashes.
Connecting the dining room to the butler’s pantry was a 1.5m. (roughly) passage with a door at either end. As the butler’s pantry was the start of the East wing the length of the passage must have been the width of the original outside wall of the house.
The beautiful, sleek black drophead car was my Railton. It had a straight 8 Hudson engine and was designed by Railton who had designed the Blue Bird for Sir Malcolm Campbell. John Berry had a hobby of resuscitating vintage cars and had a RR Silver Ghost: a RR Phantom 2, and latterly a RR Phantom3 which he used on business.
After Betty left us I bought a magnificent St. Bernard puppy called Brutus, who taught my eldest daughter to walk and was a most affectionate dog. She came with me when I left in 1954.
In Taxal Church was a tomb for the Shallcross family and several on the female side were named Laetitia (Latin for joy) which we christened our daughter. There was a story that the “Roundheads” had captured a troop of the “Cavaliers” and imprisoned them in the Church and when it was eventually opened they were all dead. There was, it is believed, a sword of this time found in the garden at Shallcross.
We were led to understand that the land was originally given to (William?) Shallcross for his service to the King in the Battle of Crecy (1323). Presumably that would have comprised a considerable area. When we owned it there remained only 17 acres which we rented to Mr. Lomas on the home farm. The house was separated from the pastures by a ha-ha.
Mrs. Lomas had a vast knowledge of the area and was prominent in the movement which was hoping to resuscitate the extensive canal system for what we would now call the “tourist trade”. She had two sons who worked the farm with their father and a younger daughter.
I have a small book entitled “Shallcross and Yeardsley Halls” which was reprinted from the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society’s Journal of 1905, and is written by Ernest Gunson. This contains some detail and architectural plans which I would be happy to photostat for you should you be interested.
Pamela Bentley
Queensland
Australia
Edited by user 02 June 2011 08:18:58(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
