08-Oct-2002, 01:02 PM
My turn to ask my betters about things I know less about.
I've always wondered about Leyland's "Big Houses". Not Worden, of course. There's enough history on that to sink a ship - though I do wonder what is happening to Old Worden Hall, for many years buried inside the ROF, now that the factory is being redeveloped.
It was some of the others, probably mainly built by wealthy industrialists in Victorian times or even later.
For instance, I know Beechfield in Church Road was the home of the Pilkington family who owned Earnshaw Bridge Mill. But what of Wellington House? I remember it as where Leyland Motors' "Premiums" lodged under the watchful eye of one Mr Glassbrook, whose son John now has a vet's practice in King Street, I believe. But who built it? And was the house on the corner of the next road with its rounded end and pointed roof the lodge for it?
At the other end of town (well over the border when I was little) we always referred to the woodland fronting Stanifield Lane as Bashall's Wood. Does that make the house behind it that was for many years the BTR Social Club the home of Mr Bashall, one of the founders of Farington Mill? If so, was the rather grander Farington Lodge further towards Leyland his partner, Mr Boardman's?
I vaguely recall seeing a photo of Broadfield House, home of the Stannings, in its prime. How come it fell to rack and ruin? And were the Stannings perhaps childless AND devout Catholics who left the land to the church and that's how come St Mary's stands on the site now?
Other things intrigue me about the history of Leyland, its houses and the people who built them. I always understood that the Baldwins (vicars of Leyland for generations) built Baldwin Croft on the corner of Church Road and Beech Avenue as a retirement home, having first built the "new" vicarage (now the centre piece of the sheltered flats off Worden Lane) and paid for the old one to be turned into parish rooms and eventually have the church hall tacked on. Whence came their wealth? Third sons of the aristocracy?
And where does the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres fit into the picture? He's on a photo as the squire's guest at a May Festival before the war. But it surely can't be an accident that there's a road and an avenue in Leyland named after him. Did he own land in Leyland?
I'd be interested if anyone has any ideas.
Colin Damp
PLYMOUTH
I've always wondered about Leyland's "Big Houses". Not Worden, of course. There's enough history on that to sink a ship - though I do wonder what is happening to Old Worden Hall, for many years buried inside the ROF, now that the factory is being redeveloped.
It was some of the others, probably mainly built by wealthy industrialists in Victorian times or even later.
For instance, I know Beechfield in Church Road was the home of the Pilkington family who owned Earnshaw Bridge Mill. But what of Wellington House? I remember it as where Leyland Motors' "Premiums" lodged under the watchful eye of one Mr Glassbrook, whose son John now has a vet's practice in King Street, I believe. But who built it? And was the house on the corner of the next road with its rounded end and pointed roof the lodge for it?
At the other end of town (well over the border when I was little) we always referred to the woodland fronting Stanifield Lane as Bashall's Wood. Does that make the house behind it that was for many years the BTR Social Club the home of Mr Bashall, one of the founders of Farington Mill? If so, was the rather grander Farington Lodge further towards Leyland his partner, Mr Boardman's?
I vaguely recall seeing a photo of Broadfield House, home of the Stannings, in its prime. How come it fell to rack and ruin? And were the Stannings perhaps childless AND devout Catholics who left the land to the church and that's how come St Mary's stands on the site now?
Other things intrigue me about the history of Leyland, its houses and the people who built them. I always understood that the Baldwins (vicars of Leyland for generations) built Baldwin Croft on the corner of Church Road and Beech Avenue as a retirement home, having first built the "new" vicarage (now the centre piece of the sheltered flats off Worden Lane) and paid for the old one to be turned into parish rooms and eventually have the church hall tacked on. Whence came their wealth? Third sons of the aristocracy?
And where does the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres fit into the picture? He's on a photo as the squire's guest at a May Festival before the war. But it surely can't be an accident that there's a road and an avenue in Leyland named after him. Did he own land in Leyland?
I'd be interested if anyone has any ideas.
Colin Damp
PLYMOUTH