Gorse Hall

Gorse Hall was the name given to two large houses in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, England, on a hill bordering Dukinfield (now in Tameside, but until March 1974 in Cheshire), with 35 acres of woodland, and views of the Cheshire Plain and the Pennine Hills.[7] Gorse Hall is a location in Anthony Trollope's Marion Fay (1882).[8]

Entrance to Gorse Hall,
High St, Stalybridge
Bowling Green, Gorse Hall Estate
Summer House site,
Gorse Hall Estate
Approach to Gorse Hall Mansion
Old Gorse Hall site,
Gorse Hall Estate
Stables site,
Gorse Hall Estate
Former Age UK Site, "Gorse Hall", Stalybridge, October 2013,
now a private day nursery
[1][2][3][4][5][6]

History

Tradition has, it was named for the abundance of common gorse (Ulex europaeus) which formerly grew in the area.[9][10][11]

The history of the place is not well known. Friends of Gorse Hall is trying to research the historical importance of the site.

Old Gorse Hall

The first house, Old Gorse Hall, can be traced back to the 17th century and it probably dates from even earlier. Its ruins can still be seen. The Hall was once part of the manor of Dockenfeld held by Lieutenant–Colonel Robert Duckenfield, a Parliamentarian soldier in the English Civil War.

Upon the death of Lady Dukinfield Daniel in 1762, Gorse Hall passed on to her husband, artist John Astley (1720?–1787). From him it passed to his relative Francis Dukinfield Astley, a great sportsman; a hunter's tower was built in 1807.

New Gorse Hall

John Leech, who was one of the many wealthy cotton manufacturers of the district, bought some of the land attached to the Hall from John Astley to build his mills, the ruins of which can still be seen.

New Gorse Hall was built by John Leech in 1836. Today, both houses are ruined. Their grounds cover approximately 35 acres (140,000 m2) of meadow and woodland and are now maintained by a local community group called the Friends of Gorse Hall, established in 1999, which has leased the site from the local authority, Tameside.[12] The aim of the Friends of Gorse Hall is to promote the site for leisure, and educational uses.[13]

Leech's son John, bought the remainder of the estate and with stones from the local quarries built the mansion called the New Gorse Hall in 1836. John had eight children, one of whom, Helen Leech, born at Gorse Hall, was the mother of Beatrix Potter, the famous children’s author. In reference to this, there is a statue in the grounds of a small Rabbit.

"Beatrix Potter would often write and draw while visiting her family at Gorse Hall"[14][15][16]

Murder

On 1 November 1909, Gorse Hall[17] was the site of a murder[18] when local mill owner[19] George Harry Storrs was stabbed to death. Two "identical"[20] ex-soldiers, Cornelius Howard, a relative, and Mark Wilde, were tried, with the same defense attorney, but neither resulted in a conviction. A year after the murder, In the summer of 1910, his widow, Mrs. Maggie Storrs had Gorse Hall torn down, with the stone reused elsewhere,[21] she moved away, to Morecambe Bay,[13] never to return.[22]

The case is examined in The Stabbing of George Harry Storrs by Jonathan Goodman.[23] and featured in an episode of the television series In Suspicious Circumstances, in 1995, and Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder, in 2005.

Present day

All that remains at this site is an old fireplace, standing alone in a concrete clearing, and floor foundations, painted a mixture of green, blue and red to show the outline of the home and where the disaster happened. Friends of Gorse Hall manage the grounds.[24]

Disambiguation
  • Gorse Hall Primary School, Forester Drive, Stalybridge[25] (across from former Age UK Site).
  • Gorse Hall, on the old Chorley to Blackburn road, Whittle-le-Woods[26][27][28]
  • Gorse Hall Rock, Lancashire geological feature[29]

Further reading
  • Sully, Clifford (1925). Mistaken Identity. Longmans, Green, and Company. Gorse Hall
  • Brend, WA (1913). "The futility of the coroner's inquest" (PDF). The Lancet. 181 (4681): 1404–1408. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(00)52106-0. Retrieved 7 August 2022. via scholar.archive.org
  • Dabundo, Laura; Hitchcock, James (1995). "Murder as One of the Liberal Arts [with replies]". The American Scholar. 64 (1): 156. ISSN 0003-0937. JSTOR 41212305.
  • Hitchcock, James (1994). "CRIME: Murder as One of the Liberal Arts". The American Scholar. 63 (2): 277–285. ISSN 0003-0937. JSTOR 41212245. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  • Hardwicke, Glyn (1974) The Gorse Hall Mystery - a New Look at an Old Case, 42 Medico-Legal J. 14 HeinOnline doi:10.1177/002581727404200103
  • Luckombe, Philip (1791). The Beauties of England ... The Fifth Edition, Enlarged. W. Richardson. Gorse Hall
  • Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society. The Society. 1897. There are also four more halls, as Clattercotes Hall, Overton Hall, Gorse Hall, and Stubbing Edge Hall. Pearsons lived at Gorse Hall.
  • Tilley, Joseph (1899). The Old Halls, Manors and Families of Derbyshire: The Scarsdale Hundred. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent. Gorse Hall....Joseph Tilley (of Derby Eng.)</ref>

References
  1. "FOI 7830 - Disposals" (PDF). WhatDoTheyKnow. Retrieved 6 August 2022. Gorse Hall Day Centre, High Street, Stalybridge. Community Building. 04-Jul-16 Disposal Freehold/Sale 1. £150,000.00.
  2. "Council Tax and Business Rates in SK15 1SE". CouncilTaxRates.info. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  3. Mason, Peter (1 November 2003). "Tameside council backs down over day centre closure". Socialist Party. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  4. Mason, Peter (21 June 2003). "Tameside Day Centre Users Protest Against Cuts". Socialist Party. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  5. "Parties clash over Gorse Hall future". Manchester Evening News. 7 May 2005. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  6. "Sunflower Stalybridge". Ofsted. gov.uk. 5 July 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2022. URN: EY555153 Address: Gorse Hall Day Centre, High Street, Stalybridge, Cheshire, SK15 1SE
  7. Yarwood, Sam (29 July 2019). "The reasons to love Tameside - as told by the people who know it best". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  8. Trollope, Anthony (1882). Marion Fay. Bernhard Tauchnitz.
  9. Hill, Samuel (1907). Bygone Stalybridge, Traditional, Historical, Biographical. Samuel Hill. p. 31.
  10. Hill, Samuel (1980). Caffrey, Helen Claire (ed.). Samuel Hill, 1864-1909: Dialect Poet, Prose Writer and Historian of Stalybridge. Tameside Libraries & Arts.
  11. Hill, Samuel (1902). "Foirewood," Or Splinters An' Shavin's Fro' a Carpenter's Bench: A Collection of Rhymes, Chiefly in the Dialect of South-east Lancashire. "Herald" Printing and Publishing Company, Limited.
  12. "Friends of Gorse Hall". Tameside History Forum.
  13. FRIENDS OF GORSE HALL (27 May 2010). "leaflet" (PDF). tamesidehistoryforum.org.uk. Friends of Gorse Hall, was established in 1999 in cooperation with Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and Groundwork Tameside.
  14. Barlow, Nigel (20 January 2022). "Stalybridge wins Town of Culture status". About Manchester. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  15. Brett, Davey (8 February 2022). "What's on the cards for Stalybridge as Town of Culture 2022?". Confidentials. Mark Garner. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  16. Sergeant, Emily (20 January 2022). "Stalybridge has been awarded a prestigious 'Town of Culture' status for 2022". The Manc. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  17. Cheshire, 1902. Kelly's Directory. Retrieved 7 August 2022. Gorse hall, G. Harry Storrs esq. ....Storrs George Harry, Gorse hall; Storrs James, The Hollies, Mustyn st; Storrs William, 219 Mottram road; Storrs Wm. Hy. Fern bank,Mottram rd;
  18. "The Murder". The Friends of Gorse Hall. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  19. Hill, Samuel (1907). Bygone Stalybridge, Traditional, Historical, Biographical. Samuel Hill. p. 291.
  20. Mitchell, Charles Ainsworth (1923). The Expert Witness: And the Applications of Science and of Art to Human Identification, Criminal Investigation, Civil Actions & History. W. Heffer & sons Limited. Gorse
  21. "The Friends of Gorse Hall". gorse-hall.co.uk. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  22. "Friends of Gorse Hall". Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  23. Jonathan Goodman, Steve Fielding and Edith Brocklehurst. "Murder at Gorse Hall". stereograffiti.com. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  24. "Tameside Rotary dig deep to support The Queen's Green Canopy". Quest Media Network. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  25. "Home". Gorse Hall Primary School. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  26. "Townships: Whittle-le-Woods". British History Online. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  27. "Whittle le Woods, Lancashire Family History Guide". Parishmouse. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  28. "Whittle Springs, The History by J. Jackson". boydharris.co.uk. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  29. Bolton, Herbert (1898). The Nomenclature of the Seams of the Lancashire Lower Coal Measures. J.E. Cornish. Gorse Hall Rock

53°28′34″N 2°03′25″W

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