Already a member?
Sign in
Welcome! Wikis are websites that everyone can build together. It's easy!
Old Cottingley Hall Farm
Memories of Cottingley Hall Farm - to 1914
Mr Roland Ellis of Whitkirk remembers how his grandfather, Simeon Ellis owned it as a farmhouse, "my father, Charles Percey (b. 1879) and his brother Harry and three sisters, Kate, Emma and Alethea all born there, now deceased. After Simeon's death, the family moved away and married. Harry still ran the milk round business from Pudsey, as did his nephew, Ernest after him".
Memories of Cottingley Hall Farm 1914 - 1923
"It brings back many happy memories", wrote Mrs Irene Nichols of Bramley, "I was brought up in the village of Millshaw for twenty odd years until I left to be married in 1933. It was lovely looking across two becks and fields to Cottingley Hall beyond. A Mr Entwhistle owned the farm and his pastures were always full of cows".
Mrs May Entwhistle of Manchester wrote, "my husband's brother and sister farmed same ... Mr Ellis had the farm before them. It was Miss Entwhistle (Edith) and Mr William Entwhistle - bachelor who farmed it. Mr Entwhistle's father died when my husband was eight and he wrote a book on poultry, the things they specialised in - showbirds. Miss Edith Entwhistle published it when he died of pneumonia when he was fifty four. He was originally a Devon man. Miss Entwhistle died at the farm but she was not the tenant. They were the two eldest of the family. Yes, it would be 1914-1923 for we were married in 1920. In 1923, the Entwhistle family moved to South Hindley and had a milk round, then returned to Knottingley near their other sister.Cottingley Hall had tapwater in a sink, hot and cold water with a large kitchen range with fuel fires. there was large dairy, morning room, long narrow passage, large drawing room, bathroom too, two stairs, don't know how many bedrooms. Yes, it had electric light, milking by hand, the large greenhouse in the garden, full of passion flowers."
Mrs Thompson's mother well remembered the Entwhistles and George Tuppling, the farm foreman, "the Entwhistles, two brothers and one sister were very religious and rigid, they did not work on Sundays. They would not sell milk to the local residents, it all went to Holbeck Workhouse. When I was born (my mother) she tells me I had to have special milk form a cow that had just calved (on doctor's orders). Entwhistle was most reluctant to do this but a letter from the doctor brought results. He stipulated she must be at the farm before 7.30am and if she was late she could not have any until 3.30pm. Mother was 21 after I was born and it was quite a trek up the lane to the farm. Entwhistles had a brother, a gentleman farmer. Everything was scruplously clean, white wood tables , chairs, shelves, all scrubbed to perfection, the stone floor was spotless too".
Memories of Cottingley Hall Farm 1923-1933
Mrs D. Westcott of Cottingley told me, "in the year 1933 was when I first rented one of the two farm cottages owned by Illingworth's Farm nearby. We used to buy milk, etc at the farm and I well remember Mrs Illingworth who loved children"."I was friends with Lily Illingworth", says Mrs Florence Jones of Cottingley, "her parents ran the farm. I don't remember the farm layout clearly but recall being asked to the farmhouse for a drink of milk straight from a cow. We sat in a room with no furniture, only stone slab seats around the walls".
Mrs Lily Atkinson of Barwick-in-Elmete gave an accurate picture of old Cottingley Hall, "We, the Illingworth family came from Bradford. Father (William Illingworth) had married and originally obtained a license in Bradford to clean roads with a horse-drawn vehicle. Soon he saved up a sum of money and wanted to buy a farm but he only had enough for the farm or the cows. So he bought his farm and was loaned half of each cow. His dairy farm was a success and he also operated a charar (a motor-coach used for sight-seeing tours) or a three horse-drawn waggonette in Bradford. It was called Silver Bird and was pulled by a special 'grey' team of horses, the wagonette had an upstairs and planks could be placed between seats down the centre aisle to make extra seating. We don't remember it coming to Cottingley.
We bought Cottingley Hall Farm in 1923 and mother brought us, Ida (15), May (12), Percey, Tom, me aged 5 and Fred (1) with our belongings in a pony-trap whilst father drove our dairy herd on foot from Bradford.
We thought it was a lovely house, above the front door, over the porch was carved the date 1616. Either side of the front door there were sitting rooms, with a staircase and a passage leading to the back of the farmhouse. This turned right bringing you to the back door which faced another staircase, alongside there was another passage to the large kitchen on the front corner of the house, one window facing on to Beeston. Beneath these windows there was a carved 'settle' or pew-like seat, such as seen in old pubs. This had cushions and the windows (east) gave a fine view of Beeston. A large stone slab table stood on bricks in the centre of the kitchen, it was smooth and rounded, scrubbed spotless and ideal for baking, always cool.
The garden was surrounded by a high wall which lowered around a little yard at the back door. At the back of the house there was a toilet block, two mens and three ladies, back-to-back within the walled garden. We had a greenhouse full of passion
flowers".
Memories of Cottingley Hall Farm 1933-1947
Mrs Lily Atkinson told me, "beyond the garden wall at the back of the farmhouse, there was a cobbled farmyard with a muck heap in the middle. This was bricked round with a low wall with two gaps for access with a wheelbarrow. At the end of our house, there was a dairy, then a kennel, boilerhouse with a chimney and a grainery over the stables. Opposite the back of the house, across the yard, were mistrals for cattle (milking sheds) and behind this, at the top of the Drysalters track, there was the rick-yard for hay. The Houseman family took the farm after us, they were dairy farmers. Cottingley Hall was demolished by 1947, the old Elizabethan oak beams were saved and carved by Samuel Firth into a church cross and candle-sticks,as a gesture of continuity from the Hall to the Pre-fab church." "Mr Houseman lived in for a while, then he moved out, his partner ran the farm", recalled Mr Alf Inman of Churwell.
"There were still cows in the fields", Mr Raine of Cottingley told me.
Mrs Thompson wrote, "I remember Cottingley Hall, which in my opinion should not have been demolished. Houseman and his partner did live in the farmhouse. They used to let us children help, if you could call it that, with haymaking, the Crowthers ran the farm last, they lived out, they were a farming family from Rothwell".
Latest page update: made by Anonymous, Aug 21 2007, 3:35 PM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Steve01
- anonymous
1 word added
1 word deleted
view changes
- complete history)
Steve01
- anonymous
1 word added
1 word deleted
view changes
- complete history)
Keyword tags: None
More Info: links to this page
| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steve01 | Cottingley memories | 0 | Aug 3 2007, 7:22 PM EDT by Steve01 | |
 |
Thread started: Aug 3 2007, 7:22 PM EDT
Watch
Please ask any older people for their memories of Cottingley and add their comments to this page. thank you. Steve Morrell - author.
|
|||