An Illustrated History of Old Sutton in St.Helens, Lancashire
Part 5 (of 41) - Sutton's Halls and Houses
This page is devoted to some notable halls, houses and homes in the Sutton district
- also see the Sherdley estate page for details of Sherdley Hall, Sutton Hall etc.
a) Bold Hall
On May 6th, 1893, Henry Young the agent for Mrs. Harriet Wyatt, owner of the historic but dilapidated Bold Hall, sent out employment termination notices to dozens of estate employees. By that time, the Bold Hall estate was a shadow of its former self. Its connection with the Bold family had long been severed and in earlier years of the nineteenth century it had been owned by Polish royalty, by a cockfighting fanatic and by an eccentric Wigan cotton spinner who equated books with manure!In 1848 the estate had consisted of an area of almost 7000 acres with many tenant farmers, but in the year of its demise it was down to 13 farms on 1500 acres of land that the Liverpool Mercury said was “famous for its fertility and richness” (Liv. Merc. 8/5/1893). It had also become known for the minerals beneath its surface which had attracted the interest of a syndicate led by industrialist David Gamble and colliery proprietors. The sale of the land and subsequent demolition of the hall as part of the Bold Colliery development, was the end of an historic era that stretched back a remarkable 500 years.
An illustration of the opulent Bold Hall and estate - Contributed by Sutton Historic Society
An indication of the opulence of Bold Hall at that time was the cost of the damage done by the terrible thunderstorm of April 25th, 1821. So much glass was smashed by hail which drove like nails into its windows, that it cost £800 to replace. In today's money that equates to around £30,000.
On December 21st, 1822 Mary married Polish nobleman Prince Sapicha in Florence and the royal couple took up residence at Bold Hall at the beginning of August, 1823. However, Mary only enjoyed life as a princess for two years, dying in Rome in December 1824. It eventually became the property of the Bold-Hoghtons, as they styled themselves, who were especially noted for their cockfighting. They possessed 500 fighting cocks and a 'setter' was paid the remarkable salary of £600 per year to look after them Liverpool Mercury 8/5/1893. A dedicated room was created with an iron cradle that moved on a rail. There were several wooden bowls into which gambling stakes were thrown and many thousands of pounds were said to have been won and lost in the cock-fighting room.
Henry Bold-Hoghton made numerous unsuccessful attempts to sell off the estate during the 1850s, eventually selling it piecemeal. Bold Hall and various farms on the estate were sold in 1860 to Wigan cotton merchant William Whitacre Tipping for £120,000. He was said to be somewhat eccentric and allowed the mansion to get into a dilapidated state. This was with the exception of one room which hosted two full length Van Dyck portraits of Charles I and his Queen which was a Royal gift to one of the Bolds, plus two Claudes and a 'Holy Family' painting by Rubens.
Squire Tipping, as he was locally known, died on March 10th, 1889 leaving, what the Manchester Times said, was a "fortune of nearly half a million". It was claimed that he kept large quantities of gold sovereigns in milldewed sacks inside the hall. His only will had been made in 1843 and he had bequeathed all his estates to his mother, now deceased. His cousin Mrs. Harriet Wyatt of Hawley Parsonage and wife of a Hampshire clergyman, was Tipping's next of kin and so she inherited the estate. Mrs. Wyatt never lived at the hall during her four years of ownership, probably because of its poor condition. Upon its sale, it was reported that the fine dining room with granite columns and four gilt cornices was in ruins with unglazed windows and rotting floor. The front door had been nailed up and the offices and stables had been dismantled and lacked windows and doors.
When Tipping purchased the estate he was invited to buy what remained of the extensive library, after some of the books had been separately sold. Tipping was reported to have said:
I know nothing about books but I know something about muck and I will give muck (manure) price for them - (The Manchester Times 30/3/1889) 
There were actually two Bold Halls. When Peter Bold developed his estate in the early 18th century, he commissioned Venetian Architect, Giacomo (aka James) Leoni (1686 –1746) to design a new mansion. This was built in 1732 and the old hall - which the Liverpool Mercury of 1893 described as “a curious edifice of very ancient date” - was then used as a farmhouse to the mansion. It was said to have been rebuilt in 1616 and was only demolished in 1936, surviving the new hall by some thirty years.
The farms on the estate included Bold Hall Demesne Farm which measured 318 acres and in 1849 an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury said it was "fine Land, thoroughly drained, newly fenced, and replete with recently erected Farm Buildings, of the most approved construction, with 6-horse power Steam Engine, Thrashing and Dressing Machines, Steaming Apparatus, &c.". There was also a Moat House Farm of 186 acres.
Here are a couple of 19th century descriptions of Bold Hall, the first from 1860:
The hall stands on a gentle elevation commanding extensive scenery to the south, extending over a fine expanse of park to the distant hills of Cheshire; to the north and east it overlooks the pleasure grounds and the finely timbered north park with its groves of unrivalled oaks. It is a handsome, uniform, and very substantial edifice, adorned with fine stone columns and corresponding decorative dressings, designed and erected about 1732 under the superintendence of the eminent Italian architect Leoni. 
The hall stands in the midst of a cluster of massive oak trees said to be the growth of centuries and the finest in the county, and is reached by a winding road across a broad expanse of open land. It stands about two miles from St.Helens Junction Station, on the Liverpool and Manchester main line of the London and North-western Railway Company, and is a three-storeyed building, of fine proportions, adorned with massive columns. 
b) St.Michael's House and Cromwell's Oak
Until Sutton Manor Colliery arrived early in the twentieth century, the locale was agricultural with hardly any buildings apart from farmhouses. An exception was the imposing St.Michael's House, located at the junction of Walkers Lane, Chapel Lane and Lea Green Road in Micklehead, which was built in Elizabethan times and had its its own moat. It was also believed to have secret passageways that provided an escape route for priests given refuge from religious persecution.
St.Michaels House with Cromwell's Oak surrounded by a white picket fence - Contributed by Frank Jones
In front of St.Michael's House enclosed in a white picket fence was the so-called Cromwell's Oak with a number of theories suggested as to its legendary significance. The tree is said to have been a tombstone above the grave of Oliver Cromwell, that Cromwell's horse was buried there or that his horse was simply tethered to the tree when the New Model Army commander was in the district.
A somewhat less romantic suggestion was that the tree was simply planted to commemorate the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837. Another folklore theory was that the oak was planted in commemoration of one of the house's previous squires, whose favourite hunting dog was fatally run over by a stage-coach there. A bottle of whisky was also said to have been placed amongst its roots when the oak was originally planted along with a manuscript detailing its history.
St.Michael's House was owned by the Atherton family for many years but predictably became affected by subsidence. It was sold to the National Coal Board in 1960 who as a condition of purchase undertook to repair and maintain the building. However, the historic house was demolished in early 1961.
c) Brook House
...extensive Outbuildings, comprising coach-house, shippon, stable, greenhouse, piggeries, gardener's cottage and other conveniences, together with large garden tastefully laid out in lawn and shrubbery, and orchard well stocked with fruit trees in full bearing; also six statute acres of land... (Liverpool Mercury June 7th, 1862) 
Ad in the 'To Be Let Business Premises' section - Liverpool Mercury March 28th, 1856
d) Green End House
Green End House was located on Marshalls Cross Road just north of Robins Lane and near to modern-day St.Helens Hospital. For many years it was a Sutton landmark, represented on all old ordnance survey maps and on William Yates' 1786 map of Lancashire.
Green End House with Sherdley Colliery in the background - Contributed by Frank Jones
In 1849, a Mrs. Musgrove advertised her school at Green End in the Liverpool Mercury, describing it as being in a "pleasant and salubrious situation". Before long the noise and smoke of the new glassworks and colliery would make it a rather less salubrious attraction for her gentile young boarders.
After manager John Bell left the glass company in 1828, Pilkington was forced to take over the reins and soon made it clear to Bromilow that he wasn't impressed with his bookkeeping. This led to his exit in January 1829 and within 12 months the Pilkingtons owned all the shares in the company and were on their way to riches. Not so for James Bromilow, however, as he then ran another glass factory with William West that went bankrupt.
This article will be updated with further information on the history of Green End House when available.
e) Middlehurst House Farm
The historic buildings of the Sutton district have been erased from the landscape through the insidious effects of subsidence and a lack of attention to preservation by many twentieth century local authority administrations. Frank Bamber in 'Clog Clatters in Old Sutton' referred to it as "the borough council’s vandalism - there is no other name for it". However, some properties were demolished in the name of progress for the community's overall benefit and one such was Middlehurst House Farm.
The house had ten rooms, however, each were only seven feet high with thick old beams in their roofs. There was a large cellar and under it ran natural springs, which were used to keep the dairy cool when it was a working farm. Farming ceased early in the twentieth century because of chemicals in the soil and the farm was taken over by the Sutton Oak Brick Company for brick making. The Hayes family were the last to farm the land and Thomas Hayes returned as tenant in 1912 to live in the house. During WWII he was forbidden from repainting the cottage, as its distinctive black and white panelling showed up too clearly from the air.
The Hughes family were the owners of the house and land and in the early 1950s, Michael Hughes-Young sold it to St. Helens Hospital nearby. They demolished the cottage in 1954 to pave the way for a hospital expansion that included two new wards, an operating theatre, physiotherapy department and an out-patients clinic. Half a century later the old hospital has gone to make way for a new £100 million state-of-the-art complex, which was given the royal seal of approval in June 2010 when the Duke of York made a visit and unveiled a plaque. Progress, like time, marches on.
(Courtesy St.Helens Local History & Archives Library)
Sherdley Estate Photo-Album | Slideshow | Research Sources
Sutton Beauty & Heritage's History Pages:
01) Township of Sutton & St.Helens | 02) Lords & Masters
03) Michael Hughes of Sherdley | 04) The Sherdley Estate
05) Sutton's Halls & Houses | 06) Dr. Henry Baker Bates
07) Religion in Sutton | 08) Rev. Henry Vallancey
09) Education in Sutton | 10) Mineworking in Sutton
11) Sutton Manor Colliery #1 | 12) Sutton Manor Colliery #2
13) Clock Face Colliery | 14) Bold Colliery
15) Industry in Sutton Township | 16) Sutton Transport
17) Sutton Transport Timeline | 18) Health & Sanitary Conditions
19) Old Sutton Pubs | 20) Sport in Sutton
21) Sutton Boxers & Wrestlers | 22) Rapid Rise of Sutton Harriers
23) Leisure & Entertainment | 24) Sutton Celebrations
25) Sutton Streetnames | 26) Pudding Bag
27) Notorious & Curious Crime | 28) Sutton Tragedy #1
29) Sutton Tragedy #2 | 30) What's Wrong With Sutton?
31) How Sutton Has Changed | 32) Memories of Sutton Part 1
33) Memories of Sutton Part 2 | 34) Memories of Sutton Part 3
35) Memories of Sutton Part 4 | 36) Memories of Sutton Part 5
37) Memories of Sutton Part 6 | 38) Memories of Sutton Part 7
39) Sutton Trivia & True Facts | 40) Clog Clatters in Old Sutton
41) Research Sources, References & Bibliography
Transport; Sport, Leisure & Entertainment; Sutton Streets;
Sutton Manor Colliery #1; #2; #3; #4; Clock Face Colliery;
Bold Colliery; Sutton Industry;
Sutton Beauty & Heritage strives for factual accuracy at all times. Please do also get in touch if you believe that there are any errors, with details of any corrections contained within the site's update history page, which also details the regular updates. Many individuals from all over the world have kindly contributed Sutton information or photographs. If you would like to participate in this project, I would be delighted to hear from you and this website always credits any assistance given. Do also consider contributing any recollections of old Sutton that you might have for the Sutton Memories pages, which are proving very popular. I respond quickly to all emails and if you haven't received a response within 12 hours, please check your junk mail folder or send your message again. Thank you! SRW
