The Big Houses Of The Heatons: Parrs House – Part Six: Henry Kirk

If we don’t what caused the son of a metal merchant, Thomas Gore to move to Parr’s House in Heaton Norris, our next inhabitant, it must be said was the son of a metal merchant, and he moved to Heaton Norris to take up a totally different profession from his father.

In Henry Kirk’s case it is a little clearer, his second wife was born in Stockport, and he took up the trade of a Wine Merchant, wishing to live the life of a town gentleman, rather than solely reside at his Country Estate of Eaves in Chapel En Le Frith in the family business.

That said he did maintain his residence in Chapel, he just alternated between the two locations.

Henry Kirk of Parr’s House was born on 9 October 1797 to Mary Vernon and Captain Henry Kirk (of the North High Peak Corps of the Derbyshire Volunteers¹)

Captain Kirk was born circa 1752 in Derbyshire, and around 1770 he and his brother founded Henry and Thomas Kirk, Iron Founders, at Town End in Chapel En Le Frith.

The iron works were in a strategic place, being a coaching stop on the turnpike to London, and therefore an ideal place for the production of horseshoes. The Kirk family’s involvement in iron goes back as early as 1650, when Thomas Kirk is recorded as repairing the clapper to the bell on the parish church. With the advent of the railways the Kirks the horse trade declined, but was replaced by the far more lucrative trade in iron for the railways the other needs of the industrial revolution. Nasmyth’s first steam hammer was made at Town End around 1844.

Townend Works, Chapel En Le Frith © P Whitehead

Captain Henry married Edward Vernon’s daughter Mary, giving him an inheritance of more land. Henry and Mary lived at the Eaves near Chapel En Le Frith.

The 1898 Ordnance Survey Map showing the location of the Eaves, near Chapel En Le Frith, the family home of Henry Kirk

Henry and Mary had around six children, Maria, Sarah (1786-1844), Hannah (1791-1848), Henry, and Elizabeth both of whom we will meet later, and Ann (1816-1837)

Elizabeth Kirk was born in 1803 at the Eaves, and on 19 September 1838 she married Elkanah Armitage.

Higher and Lower Eaves, Chapel En Le Frith

Elkanah Armitage was born in 1794 in Failsworth, Lancashire, and at the age of eight joined George Nadin and Nephews, cotton spinners. Because of his diligence and intelligence he quickly rose through the ranks to manager.

In 1816 he married Mary Louisa Bowers , with whom he had eight children, then after her death he married Elizabeth in 1838, and they had one further child, Vernon. Elizabeth and he first lived at Gore Hill, then in 1853 they bought Hope Hall in Pendleton. He employed Sir Alfred Waterhouse to design an extension²

18th Century View of Hope Hall, British School

Elkanah and his first wife had set up a drapery business at 18 Chapel Street in Salford in the early 1810s and by 1829 he had 29 workers, eventually expanding to build a factory in Pendleton, Salford, employing 200, manufacturing sackcloth and ginghams. By 1848 he had over 600 workers and and in 1867 they took control of the Nassau Mills in Eccles.

Sir Elkanah Armitage

Politically, Elkanah was liberal, and in 1806 he petitioned for the abolition of the slave trade. He entered local politics and rose to become Mayor of Manchester between 1846-1848, and in 1849 was knighted by Queen Victoria for services during the chartist unrest of 1848.

Elizabeth died on 27 July 1868 at Hope Hall, and Sir Elkanah on 26 November 1876.

Captain Henry Kirk died on 18 February 1834, leaving his only son Henry to inherit the Eaves estate.

Henry Junior married first to Jane, and had at least three children, Jane, Ann and Henry, only one of whom, Jane (1832-1909) appears to have survived past adolescence.

After his first wife’s death Henry appears to have taken stock of his life. The 1829 Pigot’s guide shows him living with his first wife in Chapel, but in 1830 we can see he has taken up residence in Stockport as the Chester Chronicle announces he has been appointed a constable of Stockport. His first wife died soon after this and on 9 October 1833 he married Jane Reddish, nee Heaword (1809-1867), the widow of James Reddish, the previous occupant of Parr’s House and moved in with her.

Between 1834 and 1839 he operated alongside Charles Higginbotham as a Wine and Spirit Merchant on Lower Hillgate in Stockport, dissolving that partnership in 1839, but carrying on in his own account after that, as the 1841 places him at Parr’s House, still describing himself as a Wine Merchant.

However, he still maintained his links to Chapel, and around the same time is listed as an Iron Merchant in the town. He used both his houses as bases for his professional career.

He was a man to take an interest in current events, and in 1835 he subscribed to Braithwaites Supplement to Sir J Ross’ Narrative of a second voyage in the Victory. and was a shareholder in the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, as well as a director of the Bank Of Stockport, although given that John Stanway Jackson was in charge around that time, he may have thought twice about the appointment.

His attention to civic duty was not as diligent, in May 1837 the Manchester Courier reported that he was fined £5 (£560 in 2020) for non attendance for jury duty, however he did sit on a committee that same year to raise funds for St Thomas’ School in Stockport, and politically he was a supporter of Major Marsland.

Infact in 1841 Henry Kirk had everything going for him, a new young wife, several children by his new marriage, a successful business in Stockport, as well as in Chapel En Le Frith, two substantial houses between which he shared his time.

On 23 November 1841 he was at the Eaves, hunting for game, when he passed through a hedge, whilst his servants and footmen were beating the ground in front of him, a shot was heard, and one of his servants , John Dain, heard him give out two heavy sighs, and fall to the ground. They ran to him, but he was bleeding profusely, and died on the spot.

Whilst that is unfortunate, at the inquest it was discovered that the same gun had exploded in his face whilst he was out grouse shooting on the 12 August the same year, fortunately it missed him, but the explosion destroyed the hat he was wearing. He clearly did not learn from that narrow escape. The inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.

We are fortunate enough to have a description of him from the contemporary press, he was a fine looking man, in the bloom of life, standing more than six feet high, and proportionally stout, the Sheffield Independent reported.

His widow, Jane endowed a white marble tablet to be placed in the church at Chapel, recording, Belloc like, the cautionary tale of his lamentable demise, decorated with the family arms the following year*.

The tablet reads:

This monument is erected
by his bereaved and affectionate widow
to the memory of
HENRY KIRK
late of EAVES within this parish, gentleman
whose premature death in the vigour of manhood
by the accidental discharge of his fowling piece
cast an unprecedented gloom over the whole of the locality
and called forth the sincere lamentation & regret
of all who knew him.

Henry Kirk’s Memorial and Grave in the Church of Thomas A Beckett, Chapel En Le Frith

Jane first moved to Everton, where she appears on the 1851 census living with Mary Elizabeth (b 1835) and later moved moved to the Eaves with her two surviving children by William, Mary Elizabeth and Henry. Five of her children had died in infancy, their last child, Henry, was born in June 1842, seven months after his father’s untimely, if avoidable, death.

In 1841, Edward, Jane’s son by James Reddish, was staying at King Street in Prestbury, with Samuel Higginbotham, a solicitor.

Edward sailed on 14 November 1847 to Calcutta on the Flora MacDonald, in order to gain a knowledge of mercantile transactions. After a calm journey of 126 days, the ship moored at Garden Reach, seven miles from Calcutta, a few days later, he accompanied Captain Sutherland to Calcutta, but on returning to the main ship his dinghy was overturned and he drowned on 1 April 1848.

Jane stayed at the Eaves until the 1860s when the family moved to London, Jane and her daughter lived in Thornton Heath, Croydon, and Henry on Inverness Road in Hyde Park. Jane died on 29 March 1867 and was buried in Chapel a week later.

Jane Kirk’s grave, and the Church of Thomas A Beckett, 1225, Chapel En Le Frith.

His erstwhile coachman Joseph Brown, put to good use the experience he had in ferrying his master between Parr’s House and Eaves, and saw the commercial opportunities offered by the new station at Stockport, the viaduct having been opened the previous year, and set up a coaching firm to convey travellers from the train to their final destination.

Before we leave the Kirk family, we will have a look at what happened to Captain Henry Kirk’s brother, Thomas with whom you will remember he started the Iron Foundry. His grandson Peter Kirk carried on in the iron trade, working first at Chapel, then setting up at the Star Ironworks on New Bridge Lane in Brinnington, Stockport and subsequently moved to Workington where they set up in the New Yard Works as well as acquiring the Ellen Rolling Mills in Maryport, and the Marsh Side Mills in Workington. His son Peter (1840-1916) followed his father and then emigrated from Workington to Washington State in the USA, where he founded the city of Kirkland in King County Washington.

Peter Kirk (1840-1916)

Henry Kirk 1830-1914

Kirkland was a steelworkers town, and Peter wanted it to become the Pittsburgh of the West, with his Great Western Iron & Steel Company. Perhaps not as famous as Juan Illingworth, he is remembered in many buildings in the town, including the imaginatively named Peter Kirk Building and Peter Kirk School. Nowadays Kirkland is a suburb of Seattle with a population of around 90,000.

Peter’s brother Henry also served his time at the Town End Ironworks, before moving with his father to Stockport and on to Workington. He was regarded as an expert in the production of puddling iron, which allowed the production of large quantities of high grade iron to feed the needs of industrial England. He died on Petteril Street in Carlisle on 8 July 1914.

*Returning to Henry and his memorial at Chapel en le Frith. Being a fan of Hillaire Belloc please indulge me on my take on how he would have composed Henry’s tablet.

The Cautionary Tale of Henry Kirk, of Parr’s House, who having narrowly escaped death with a faulty rifle was fool enough once more to venture out onto the moors with a defective firearm leaving his wife twice widowed and unborn heir orphaned.

Henry Kirk, of high renown
Lived in Chapel and Stockport Town
A home at Eaves for smelting iron
And one at Parrs for selling wine.
One glorious 12th he left his house
Determined for to bag some grouse
His gun recoiled, a grave mishap
Yet fortune struck, it was his cap
That was destroyed. He lived to sire
A son and heir, but alas, this squire
Would never see his fine young son
For one more time he took his gun

Off to the hills some game to hunt
Yet, Henry’s mind was clearly blunt
And did not replace nor try repair
The gun. For safety first he did not care.
He tripped, a bang and great distress
He fell, he died. I must impress
To you, should you perchance
To hunt, of proper maintenance.
And do not be like Henry Kirk
And corners cut nor mending shirk.
Dear reader please I hope you care
To keep your gun in good repair

¹ The Derbyshire Volunteers were formed in 1803 as a Home Guard to counter the threat from France. The North High Peak Corps were based in Chapel En Le Frith and numbered 120 men. The great and the good formed the usual suspects of the officer class, and they wore a uniform of scarlet coats with blue collars and cuffs. They weren’t a particularly significant force, in 1827 they received government funding of £81 out of a total of £145,006 1s 3d paid to Yeomanry Cavalry in the UK. The North Derbyshire force received £1,045 16s 10d by comparison (Parliamentary Papers: 1780-1849, Volume 17).

² Accountancy fans amongst you will be thrilled to know that Alfred Waterhouse’s younger brother was Edwin Waterhouse, the founder of Accounting firm Price Waterhouse. (Now Price Waterhouse Cooper).

Many thanks to Tom Parker at St Thomas A Beckett in Chapel En Le Frith who helped me locate the graves and was very welcoming at the historic church. It is well worth a visit and tour of the graveyard, and other Heatonians are remembered there, plaques to the Healds of Parrs Wood Hall, Brinnington and Chapel can be seen on the walls.

Copyright 2020-2024 Allan Russell

The Big Houses Of The Heatons: Parrs Houses – Part One: The Parrs

I doubt if few people in Heaton Mersey know that there was a Parr’s House, we lost it almost a century ago.

As a child, growing up in Ladybarn in Manchester, I knew of Parr’s Wood, because we lived near Parr’s Wood Road, Miss Jackson at Ladybarn Primary school taught us that Kingsway was named for King George V and Parr’s Wood was so named because Mr Parr once owned a wood there. Moving to Heaton Mersey in 1968 I was surprised to see that not only was there a Parrs Wood, but there was also Parr’s Mount Mews. This Parr chap was certainly once famous.

When we have a look at the 1848 tithe map, we see that not only did he have a Mount and a Wood, he had a House (infact we will soon learn he had a Fold).

Parrs Mount 1848 Tithe Map

The house stood on the turnpike between Didsbury and Stockport (now Didsbury Road) opposite the Crown Inn.

Parrs Mount still stands today next to Didsbury Road primary school. A Georgian house, connected by an arched passage to an annexe which allowed servants to cross into the main house from their quarters. Behind it was a yard and what may have been a workshop, now transformed into Mews cottages. The Yard was known in 1851 as Williamson’s Yard, named it seems after its occupier, James Williamson, a Gentleman. The houses at the back were inhabited by this time.

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Parrs Mount Mews (bottom picture © Google)

The land next to Parrs House was owned in 1848 by John Thorniley.

John Thorniley was a descendant of Isaac Thorniley of Grundy Hill in Heaton Mersey. The Thornileys owned the brickworks on Harwood Road there, and in 1831 they built the Griffin Hotel on Didsbury Road, in the 1700s they were a wealthy yeoman family living in Heaton Mersey. We will come back to the Thornileys, the brickworks and the Griffin another time.

Isaac Thorniley (c 1690-1722) married Martha Chorlton in 1712. The children we know about were Isaac (c 1718-1804) who married Hannah Torkinton, Martha (c 1715-1790) who wed Jonathan Higginbotham and Sarah (c 1725-1787), who became the wife of Isaac Cheetham. Martha was the daughter of George Chorlton, and her brother Thomas presumably died without issue, as his will of 1728 bequeaths all his land at Grundy Hill (one of the Hamlets that grew into Heaton Mersey) Martha Thorniley (nee Chorlton)’s son Isaac.

These three Thorniley children each married into a prominent Stockport or Manchester family, the Higginbothams, Cheethams and Torkintons were all wealthy.

The terms of the will were to pass the property at Grundy Hill to Isaac on condition that he pay a yearly sum of £5 to Thomas Chorlton’s charity of which £4 was to go to the chapelwardens of Didsbury to be laid out in the purchase of bread for the most poor and indigent people belonging to the townships of Heaton Norris, Didsbury and Burnage such as should come frequently to hear divine service. The remaining £1 was to be paid to the schoolmaster of the school at Barlow Moor.

In 1844 John Thorniley owned a substantial share of the land in Heaton Norris, measured here in acres, rods and perches.

From A History of The Ancient Chapels of Didsbury and Chorlton in Manchester, Reverend John Booker 1857

The Chorltons owned Grundy Hill before the Thornileys, Thomas Chorlton who lived there between 1678 and 1728 had a son Thomas, himself at the time a widower married the widow Elizabeth Parr.

There are other Parrs in the area. George Parr, born 1792 in Burnage, the son of James Parr and Mary Thorniley, and founder of Parr, Curtis and Madeley, manufacturers of looms and other machine equipment at Phoenix works in Manchester. Their main product was a self acting loom.

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  Lathe Parr Curtis & Madeley

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  Phoenix Works Manchester, Grace’s Guide

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  Loom Parr Curtis & Madeley, Norsk Tekniskmuseum

Incidentally, Matthew Curtis, was the father of Richard Curtis who married Margaret Nelson, the daughter of William Nelson.

George Parr lived on Burnage Lane near to Burnage Hall, and had five children, his daughter Ada Georgina Parr married Samuel Watts of Cringle Villa and Burnage Hall, the nephew of Sir James Watts.

These Parrs may have been descendants of Hugh Parr of Kearsley and his son John. Hugh settled lands in Kearsley and a house in Manchester in 1654 ¹. Joe Eaton in his history of Heaton Mersey suggests that some of the land was in Heaton Norris.

Then we have Parrs Fold.

An article in the Stockport Advertiser from 13 December 1935 tells us that the executor of Samuel Goolden’s will was a Parr of Salford. The Gooldens were extensive local landowners and had bought land from the Moseleys in the 17th century.

Parrs Fold (now the top of Vale Road) c 1930. Parrs House partially visible in the background, on the other side of the road. © Stockport Advertiser V Higham

Samuel Goolden (or Goulden, the spellings vary) occupied the white house at the top of the road, it is still here today, and Samuel Oldknow of the Heaton Mersey Bleachworks took a house (possibly Parr’s House or Parr’s Fold) here in 1792 – James Goolden being the landlord and charging £40 for 6 months rent on a house, stables, gardens and field (around £6,000 in 2019). By 1841 John Goolden was the third largest landowner in Heaton Norris – as you can see in the table above.

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Parr’s House itself was built around the end of the eighteenth century, in the only images we have of it it appears to have Georgian features. By 1804 it is owned by Samuel and James Goolden, but let to Robert Parker, a Calico Printer.

Parrs House to let – to a respectable, genteel family – Manchester Mercury 24 July 1804

Of the Goolden family, we know even less. John Goolden gave the land for a church, graveyard and the surrounding roads to build St John in Heaton Mersey. John Marsland laid the foundation stone. Samuel Goolden, was in 1747 overseer of the poor in Heaton Norris.

Finally we come to Parr’s Wood.

The Reverend John Booker, in his History of the Ancient Chapels of Didsbury and Chorlton (1857) says that the name of Parr’s Wood dates back to 1587 (although he does not explain how he knows this). Parr’s Wood was at the southern end of Heaton Wood. I have already covered some of the history of Heaton Wood. A survey of 1320 (reported in Remains Historical and Literary Connected with the Palatine Counties Lancaster and Chester – The Cheetham Society 1861) of Heaton Norris found that the wood, of oak, was fast diminishing and would soon be gone. The few trees are left today at Heaton Mersey Common.

Pevsner is a mite scathing about Parrs Wood House, he calls it a poorer mans Heaton Hall². It was possibly built by somebody connected to the Georgian architect, James Wyatt (1746-1813), famous amongst other works for The Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford, Liverpool Town Hall, the Royal Military Academy and Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, and of course Heaton Hall in Heaton Park, Manchester, which he built in 1772 so may date the building.

Parrs Wood Hall, Johnson 1819

The tithe maps of 1848 give no clues as to ownership, Samuel Cheetham owns a few fields in the area, and the park at Parrs Wood is owned by James Knott, interestingly just to the north of Parrs Wood there is another wood, Bolton Wood, which stood next to where the Metrolink station now stands. Perhaps an echo of Bolton where the Parrs came from?

Miss Jackson was right, a man called Parr had a wood. After that it is unclear. There is some connection with Hugh Parr of Kearsley, and his relatives do own or give land to people in Heaton Norris. I will leave it to someone else to find connections, Hugh may have been a descendant of the Parrs of Kendal who begat Henry VIIIs wife Katherine Parr, or a relative of the Parrs of Warrington, Sugar Merchants who founded Parrs Bank (which is now subsumed into the Royal Bank of Scotland Group via NatWest). Whatever the case the fact that houses were built in the mid 18th century bearing the Parr name suggests they were still local.

The houses are a little intermingled. In the late 18th century it is not possible to distinguish who is living in which house. However, there are some interesting people to meet. Over the next few weeks I will concentrate on Parrs House and Parrs Mount, but sometimes all we know is that the person lived in a Parrs house.

Parrs Wood Hall, I will leave for another time, and I will gloss over the Cossack invasion.

William Le Queux The Great War In England In 1897.

I promise you it is a lot less vague, and next time leads us to some very surprising places, including an exhumation after over 150 years and a burial with full military honours.

And the first man to fly……

1 A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5, ed. William Farrer and J Brownbill (London, 1911), pp. 39-41.

² The Buildings of Lancashire, Manchester and the South East, Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde and Niklaus Pevsner Yale University Press 2004 P446.

Sad footnote:

In my edition of Pevsner (1969), of the five buildings he lists of interest in Heaton Mersey, three are now demolished.

Copyright 2020 Allan Russell.

The Big Houses Of The Heatons: Mile End Hall – Part Five: Daniel Clifton

I think its about time we saw Mile End Hall. As the first pictures we have date from the period of the Clifton family, here is the hall around 1920, in the days it was still a private residence.

Mile End Hall, Mile End, Stockport

By 1885 the owners of Mile End Hall were getting a little desperate to dispose of the property they had obtained on the purchase of the Bramhall estate. The house was offered at a greatly reduced rent in the Manchester Courier that year, possibly attracting our next resident, Daniel Clifton.

The description of ten acres of land suggests that the present footprint of the school occupies the grounds of the hall. However, it is certainly a des res, being situated near Davenport Station, and certainly adequate for a family, with seven bedrooms and four entertaining rooms. The water supply was indeed the town’s, it came from Henry Marsland’s Stockport Waterworks Company who pumped water from a 45 metre deep artesian well in the centre of town (where Sainsbury’s now stands) to a reservoir in Woodbank Park for onward supply. It was a few years before Stockport Corporation was to take over, and water supplies were taken from the purpose built reservoirs at Goyt and Kinder.

Daniel’s father, Ralph Clifton was born around 1806 in Stockport. He married Rachael and they became owners of the Pack Horse Inn on the Market Place. In 1841 they were running the Royal Oak on Higher Hillgate in Stockport. Ralph died on March 23 1851, and Rachael on 7 January the following year.

Royal Oak , Market Place, now the Cocked Hat

The Pack Horse Higher Hillgate, now an Indian Restaurant, © Google

Ralph and Rachael had around six children, Daniel, Edward, George Frederick, Ralph, John Henry and Frances. Of these it was Daniel who took over the pub after his father died.

Daniel was born in 1835 and in 1855 he married Sarah Hannah Hamer, the daughter of John Hamer a fellow publican from Shaw Heath in Stockport. Sarah and Daniel had two children, Florence (b 1856) and Ralph (b 1857), however Sarah died young at the age of 31 in 1864.

Daniel then married Clara Louisa Saunby the following July. Clara was the daughter of Henry Saunby (1820-1890) a Lincolnshire tailor who had a business on Little Underbank in Stockport.

Daniel’s trade expanded and in 1870 he built the Royal Oak Brewery between his pub and Wellington Road South. At the time, brewing was still very local. Innkeeping was starting to be dominated by local brewery chains. There were a number of breweries in Stockport, Robinson’s (who still survive), Bell & Company (owned by Henry Bell, the father of Alfred who lived at Bramhall Lodge, which is now part of the grounds of Stockport Grammar school) Showell’s Brewery, Richard Clarke & Co of Reddish, and the Windsor Castle Brewery.

It was not a smooth path to riches, in 1874 he purchased a horse from the local fair for £30, the horse was immediately set on by a number of people, and beaten, by the time it had reached the brewery, it could not move, and Daniel was forced to sell it back for £17. The Horse Trick was a common ruse, and this time the miscreants were apprehended at Bury Horse fair.

In October 1885 a fire raged through the brewery, causing extensive damage. The newspapers are also replete with reports on tenant landlords embezzling funds.

In 1895 he took advantage of Companies’ legislation and incorporated Daniel Clifton & Company as a limited liability company, to take over the business of Daniel Clifton, common brewer, wine and spirit merchant and manufacturer of mineral and aerated waters.

Daniel had seven management shares, his wife and sons had one each (giving him 70% control as permanent governing director). His daughters had one ordinary share each. The total capital was £125,000, but the power rested in the management shares. The object of this was to move behind the corporate veil and avoid the unlimited liability which a partnership had (a principle that was confirmed in law in 1897 by the case of Salomon and Salomon).

The Royal Oak Brewery Stockport

The Hollywood Hotel © Google

By 1900 he owned 76 inns, many of which were designed to the same style, and some of which thrive to this day, and some not. The Ash in Heaton Norris was a pleasure gardens in Victorian times, and even appears on Johnson’s 1819 map in an earlier incarnation, it was converted to tea rooms in recent years, but now stands forlorn in the estate agent’s window earmarked for housing. The Jolly Sailor in Davenport on the other hand survived the danger of closure and has arisen from the threatened ashes to become a respected gastropub. Charlie Hulme has a detailed coverage of the history of this hostelry.

Daniel bought land to build the Hollywood Hotel in Stockport to cater to the newly developed Hollywood Park in 1894 for £1,250. His problem here was that whilst the new park was going to benefit all of the town’s residents (the council had spent £10,000 (£1.2m in 2020) developing it the previous year) the proposed site for the area was populated by a significant proportion of teetotallers.

Eventually in August 1893 an open air meeting settled the debate in favour of an inn, not without both sides claiming that rival supporters had been brought in to sway the vote. At the end of the evening the Manchester Evening News remarked somewhat cynically that the leading orators eventually recruited their exhausted energies in the public houses which are to be found within five minute’s walk of the proposed hotel.

The licensing hearing was heard the following August, and it was eventually granted on the condition that he abandon the license on the New Bridge Inn in Portwood, and transfer the license of the nearby Millstone to the Hollywood Hotel.

Apart from Disley, Macclesfield and Hayfield, Daniel was a local brewer as can be seen with the list of his pubs in the attachment below (Wikipedia). The Macclesfield pubs were only bought in December 1898.

1818-daniel-clifton-pubsDownload

Johnsons Map of 1819 showing the Ash, The Ash in its Wilsons days, and The Jolly Sailor at the turn of the century – Jolly Sailor © Davenport Station. org

In 1881 he had moved with his family from The Royal Oak to a home in newly fashionable Davenport and in 1890 he took up residence in Mile End Hall, where he lived with Clara until he died on 31 October 1900, leaving £23,382 in his will (£2.8m in 2020). Clara lived a further ten years, dying in June 1911 at Mile End Hall.

Clara and Daniel had three children, Clifford Daniel Clifton (1866-1932), Jessie Clifton (b 1868) and Frank Clifton (1870-1928).

Clifford and Frank followed their father in the brewing business. Clifford was born in 1866 at the Royal Oak, and by 1891 he is styling himself as a brewer and living at Mile End Hall. Like all the good burghers of Stockport, he volunteered in the 4th Batallion of the Cheshire Regiment.

Major Clifford Clifton © Stockport Image Archive. From “Cheshire at the opening of the 20th Century.”

In 1896 he married Georgina Maud Kay, a Bradford girl, and they went to live on the newly built and exclusive Davenport Park Estate opposite Mile End Hall in a house they called Broomfield on the 1901 census (although Stockport Image archive claims it was Bramhall Grange). He now styles himself as a Brewer and Mineral Water Manufacturer, no doubt wishing to appease the temperance movement who had tried to block the erection of the Hollywood Hotel.

Clifton Mineral Water Bottle

After his father’s death he moved into Mile End Hall and in 1911 he is no longer a simple brewer, but a Company Director. The following year the owner of Manchester United John Henry Davies (who we met last time purchasing Bramall Hall) took over the Clifton Brewing Company. This gave Daniel the freedom to pursue other interests, and in 1913 he succeeded Charles Henry Scott as Chairman of the Prince Shipping Line.

He is certainly a wealthy man by this time, an advertisement in the Manchester Evening News in June 1915 asks for a chauffeur, preferably one who is accustomed to a Rolls Royce, and in 1929 his yacht, Gracie III is reported moored at Dartmouth.

Clifford and Georgina lived at Mile End Hall until around 1926, however they had started downsizing in 1924, and an advertisement in the Yorkshire Post in April that year will ring a bitter note with generations of Stockport School pupils who were regularly mugged to pay for the Organ in the Assembly Hall.

Capes Dunn will sell by Auction… A complete 2 manual and pedal pipe organ, by Richardson Manchester. Swell organ oboe 8 foot, gemshorn 4 foot, ……Great organ Cremona 8 foot ….approximate size 13 feet high , 8 feet 6 inches by 4 feet. Hand and hydraulic blowing, the whole occupying a space of 8 feet by 4 feet.

That is one large organ, there was also a pianoforte and Steinway grand up for sale. He was also disposing of his billiard table. Twenty lines of the announcement are devoted to a detailed description of the organ whilst a brief aside at the end indicates the sale of the household furniture and general effects.

A Richardson Pipe Organ © Worthpoint.com

They left Mile End Hall to go to the newly built Abbey Lodge, Regent’s Park, London and took flat number 35.

Abbey Lodge was constructed in 1927 in neo Georgian style and has views over Regent’s Park. Neighbours today include the Sultan of Brunei and the current asking price is around £3-4m for an appartment.

Abbey Lodge Regent’s Park, © Cascade News

Mile End House ©Google

Clifford died there in early 1932, he left £118,547 (£8.2m). Georgina moved to Harrogate, and died on 4 May 1946 at the rather sweetly named Mile End House there. They do not appear to have had any children.

Jessie Clifton married Frederick Seymour Rogers, a Norfolk gentleman residing at Coltishall Hall, a grade II country house built around 1700. They lived comfortably together at Ingham New Hall in Suffolk until Frederick’s death in 1940. He left £46,586 in his will (£2.6m) and again there appears to have been no issue.

Coltishall Hall, Norfolk

Frank Clifton enjoyed even more leisure. In 1893 he travelled with his father on a cruise aboard the SS Garonne leaving London on 22 December sailing to Madeira with the intention to sail on to Tenerife, but an outbreak of cholera put paid to that. Instead Captain Livett decided to cross the Atlantic to Barbados and Jamaica, stopping for a few hours in Montego Bay. They then proceeded to Grenada, St Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, St Kitts , Santa Cruz, Kingston Jamaica, Havana, Nassau and returned via Lisbon to London.

Perhaps not being as environmentally conscious as today, the ship’s party revelled in the capture and dissection of a whale en route in the hope that they may find swallowed treasure inside. In this endeavour they were unsuccesful, as was one passenger’s attempt to photograph the hapless creature, which was eventually cut up for its blubber the asssembled spectators having lost interest at the lack of spoils.

The Garonne docked in Seattle during the Gold Rush c 1903 © Puget Sound Historical Society

Deck Scene on The Garonne, Passengers waving farewell to a departing steamer. William Lionel Wyllie © National Maritime Museum

Frank was also a keen breeder of Irish Terriers, winning prizes at dog shows all over the country during the turn of the twentieth century, however his visit to Crufts in 1902 does not appear to bring home any awards.

Unlike his sister he did not name any of his future houses after his beloved Mile End Hall, and sadly apart from Clifford Clifton, the only other pictures I can find of any of the Clifton brood, canine or human are of his terriers, this one named of course Mile End Muddler

Mile End Muddler © The Irish Terrier a Complete Anthology Vintage Dog Books 2010

In 1899 Frank married Sarah Elizabeth Nicholas, in London. Sarah was born in Montgomeryshire.

He is also that year the proud owner, like his brother of the Yacht Io, awarding prizes at Yarmouth Regatta in July.

Sarah and Frank moved to Oakfield, on Station Road in Cheadle Hulme after their marriage and subsequently to Boyne House on West Cliff Road in Bournemouth where Frank died in 1928, leaving a fortune of £32,821. They had twin children, Frank and Doris Jo, born in 1902. He kept his yacht ownership up to the end of his life, buying a steam yacht, Sea Fay in March 1928.

As we saw earlier, John Henry Davies took over Cliftons Brewery, in 1928 he was Chairman of the Manchester Brewery Company, a subsidiary of Walker Homfrays took over the operations of Cliftons brewery. We met James Ogg, the company secretary of Walker Homfray when we were looking at the last days of Highfield in Heaton Mersey.

Walker Homfrays became Wilsons, which ceased brewing in 1987.

Next time we will look at the last days of Mile End Hall.

Copyright 2020-2025 Allan Russell

The Big Houses Of The Heatons: Mile End Hall – Part Four: Charles Henry Nevill

Our next resident did not stay long at Mile End Hall, infact, like William Davenport before him, he used it as a stepping stone to move to Bramall Hall, where he is known for the sympathetic restoration work he carried out there, and created the Bramall hall we know today, infact the name Bramall Hall as opposed to Bramhall was adopted by him, from a desire to reflect the old English spelling of the name, and has been followed by subsequent owners.

Charles Nevill, Charles Henry’s grandfather was a Birmingham born Calico Printer who came to Manchester around 1804 and married Sarah Hewson that same year. By 1815 he was established in his trade and living in Barton Upon Irwell. He died in September 1852, aged around 73 having formed the Moss House Bleachworks in Crumpsall in partnership with Samuel Smith.

Charles’ son, Thomas Henry Nevill, married Martha Elizabeth Smith, Samuel’s daughter, on 11 October 1843. At that time Thomas was working in partnership with her brother, William Henry Smith at the Moss Lane Bleachworks where in 1851 he is a Calico printer employing 84 men and living at Bottomly side in Crumpsall.

He then appears on the 1861 census in North Meols as a cotton merchant, with Martha and his children, however in 1864 we see him at the Strines Calico Printing Works near Marple in Cheshire.

The calico works were run by Thomas alongside Joseph Sidebotham. The company were noted for their philanthrophic attitude to employees, although workers still railed against new technology when roller printing was introduced in 1830 causing a block printers strike.

The partners built a works library and school, but the Strines Journal is a unique example of how creativity was encouraged at the printworks. Joel Wainwright is another example of history’s forgotten accountants, between 1852 and 1860 he produced in conjuction with J M Gregory a handwritten journal which reported on local items of interest, factory news and educational articles. Five volumes were produced and I encourage you to visit the Strines community website to see examples of the high standard of work that was produced.

The Strines Printworks, The Metric System,The Art Treasures Exhibtion of 1857, The Strines Band at Disley and a Works Outing To Castleton and the Peak Cavern. All from the Strines Journal , © Strines Community Website

Thomas was rich enough by 1871 to be living in leafy Didsbury at Didsbury House.

Didsbury House, now the Didsbury House Hotel.

Victoria Mansions , Marine Drive, Brighton

However, the true extent of his wealth can be seen in 1882 when he bought Bramall Hall and Estate for his son, Charles Henry Nevill. Soon after that he retired to Hove, where he lived until 13 August 1893, at number 3 Victoria Mansions, retaining the property in Didsbury and the modestly named Cottage in Strines. He left a relatively palty £26,349 8s-6d in his will, no doubt having parted with a substantial sum buying Bramall Hall.

Thomas and Martha had five children, three girls and two boys. Charles Henry Nevill was the eldest. The girls were Maria Elizabeth, Florence and Blanche. The second son, Arthur died aged 18 in 1869. Charles was the only child mentioned in Thomas’s will.

Charles was born on 23 July 1848, and baptised on 6 November that year at St Peter in Blackley. He lived with his father until 4 June 1878 when he married Mary Jane Booth (1851-1901). The marriage was celebrated at Strines Mill, and the workers presented them with a gift of a silver fruit service containing a large platter, Queen Ann pattern fruit platter with four cut glass side dishes to hold fruit. The side dishes were engraved with the family arms. The Hyde and Glossop reporter tells us that the cost of this service was £57 (£6,800 in 2020).

In recognition of this gift, Thomas Nevill had chartered a train from New Mills to Belle Vue Pleasure Gardens, around 700 workers, family and friends were conveyed to the new station at Belle Vue, the train being adorned with Union Jacks. Belle Vue station at the time was designed for the holiday traffic as we are told that the platforms were capable of holding several thousand people.

On arrival (unfortunately in heavy rain) they were taken to the Chinese Tea rooms and served dinner, then furnished with refreshment vouchers for the afternoon ahead.

They were served soup, fish, veal, mutton, lamb, beef, vegetables, plum pudding, pastry and cheese with ample pale ale and stout to wash it down. After the meal there were several speeches toasting the bride and groom (who by now had left, Thomas Nevill wryly remarking that Charles was much better employed that day, to much laughter from the ladies present).

Joel Wainwright then made a speech, congratulating the happy couple, and ending by toasting Thomas Nevill, at which Thomas replied I am happy for good trade, an honest harworking staff .. and an industrious body of workpeople capable of bringing prosperity , our goods are known in India, Japan and Persia.. The Strines Printing Company, Long May It Be Successful!

The parties then dispersed to the Pleasure Gardens where some went to the lake with its steamer and small island, walked around the banks, or visited the monkey house and aviaries. The rain meant that some decided to frequent the skating rink or music hall, or tried elsewhere to rest and find shelter from the continuing downpours.

Before they returned to the train, there was a firework display mingled with the presentation of a spectacle depicting the siege of Plevna (a major battle the previous year between Russia and Turkey) with fine detail reproducing snow capped mountains, rocky gorges and houses as well as canon and artillery. They were shown miniature wooden soldiers and cavalry in the battle re-enactment. The noise of the rockets and flashes of the fireworks imitated the roar of canon and charging of artillery.

After returning from their honeymoon (which alas history does not share with us) Charles and Mary moved to Mile End Hall where they lived until 1882 when his father bought him Bramall Hall.

Charles and Mary Nevill, 1890 © Stockport MBC

At the time of purchase, it must be said, Bramall was not an enticing prospect. William Davenport had died without legitimate issue in 1829. The estate passed to his illegitimate daughter, Maria, whom he had adopted. She married Captain Salusbury Pryce Humphreys RN, who subsequently became Rear Admiral Sir Salsbury Pryce Humphreys Bart and in 1838 assumed the Davenport name by Royal license in 1838. He died in 1845, the estate passed through to his son and then grandson, John William Handley Davenport, who on achieving majority in 1877 sold it to developers for housing.

The developers, whilst keeping the Hall, had unsuccesfully tried to let it out to tenants, but it had fallen into neglect with extensive water damage and parts of the building were close to collapse. Charles and Mary took charge and sympathetically restored the building, whilst making it a house fit for modern habitation. They appointed a local architect, Faulkner Armitage (1849-1937) to carry out the work. Neither party wanted to destroy the fabric of the building, and where new fittings were installed, these were placed over the original surface, even the fireplace was designed so it could be removed if desired.

He also remembered his father’s business colleagues, and built Hall Cottage to house the Sidebottom family.

They uncovered many old features, such as the medieval etchings in the Solar Room. The park was redesigned with rhododendrons to give it a Himalyan air, and he diverted the river Ladybrook to improve the landscape.

The Nevill room and Mary Nevill’s boudoir © Stockport MBC

In 1891 Charles became a councillor for Cheshire County Council, he campaigned against Gladstone’s Home Rule for Ireland Bill (along with Charles Fielding Johnson).

In 1899 increasing competition in the industry forced the amalgamation of the Calico Printers Association, which joined together 46 calico printers and 13 textile merchants under one roof. The Association was founded with a share capital of £8.2m and eventually had a head office at St James’s Buildings on Oxford Street in Manchester. Charles took the role of Vice Chair of this new company. The company eventually became Tootals – which was the company founded by the brothers in law of Alfred Orrell.

The Calico Printers Association

His business interests extended also to the St Helen’s Smelting Company by 1913.

Charles was a keen traveller and fisherman, and saved Bramall Hall for Stockport, giving us the place we know today. He died on 13 August 1916 in Manchester, leaving £147,733 in his will, equivalent to £16.9m today. Mary was well spoken and witty and respected in the local community. She founded the Bramhall branch of the Primrose League, which was one of the earliest women’s political mass movements in the UK. She was also president of the Bramhall Gentlewoman’s Employment association, an organisation which funded further education and training for young women. She died on March 18 1901. She also left some grafitti in Bramall Hall

Mary Nevill Bramall Hall 1891 – © The Lazy Archaeologist

Charles and Mary had no children. After his death Bramall Hall was inherited by Thomas Nevill Carleton Stiff (1869-1936), his nephew, who had changed his name in anticipation of the inheritance. He also left his name carved on the windows of the Hall.

Thomas was unable to maintain the Hall, and so sold it for £15,000 in 1925 to John Henry Davies, a Manchester Businessman and at the time owner of Manchester United.

Davies only managed three years in the house, as he died in 1938, leaving his widow to live there alone until 1936, when she sold the Hall and Estate to Hazel Grove and Bramhall UDC for £14,360. In 1974 local government reorganisation meant that Stockport MBC took possession.

Charles is remembered today on Nevill Road off Bramhall Lane, parallel to Bramhall Park Road.

Next time we meet a Stockport Brewer at Mile End Hall.

Copyright 2020-2024 Allan Russell